Awareness and utilization of assistive technology among students with visual impairment in Ethiopian higher education

The main purpose of this study is to examine the awareness and utilization of different assistive technologies among students with visual impairment in Ethiopian higher education. A quantitative approach particularly cross-sectional survey research design was used to assess their awareness and usage of assistive technology (AT) at a single point in time. Using simple random sampling techniques 134 students were selected from three higher education institutions in Ethiopia. Adapted questionnaire with three subscales was used to measure the background information, awareness, and utilization of AT devices among students with visual impairment and the challenges to access and utilize the devices. To analyse the data frequency, percentage, and chi-square were used. Particularly, chi-square goodness of test was used to determine if there is significant difference between the observed and expected frequencies in the dataset. The results indicated that students with visual impairment have low awareness on different ATs except Braille slate and style, Braille typewriter, screen reader software’s, walking long canes, and talking watch. However, their regular utilization of all the listed ATs is minimal. As to their perception, underutilization of ATs is because high cost of devices, inaccessibility of AT tools, lack of culture of maintaining the existing device, lack of skills on how to use and limited Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructures. Thus, to ensure quality and inclusive education for students with visual impairment in higher education different intervention such as training, provision of assistive technologies, policy frameworks and further research works need to be conducted.