Accessibility of e-learning platforms for lecturers and students with visual impairments in Tanzania’s university systems

The rapid expansion of e-learning in higher education has increased opportunities for flexible teaching and learning; however, lecturers and students with visual impairments (SVIs) continue to experience significant barriers to accessing digital learning environments in Tanzania. Despite national commitments to inclusive education, little is known about how barriers to e-learning accessibility operate across different ecological contexts. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory, this study explored the accessibility of e-learning platforms for lecturers and students with visual impairments at the Open University of Tanzania. A qualitative single-case study design was employed, involving 12 undergraduate students and 4 academic staff members with visual impairments, purposively selected across 4 faculties. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed using Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis, supported by MAXQDA software. Five interconnected themes emerged corresponding to Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems. Inaccessible teaching practices and learning resources within the microsystem; fragmented collaboration in Disability and ICT support within the mesosystem; inflexible institutional assessment policies and governance within the exosystem; disability stigma and limited disclosure within the macrosystem; and cumulative educational disadvantage resulting from delayed access to accessible learning resources within the chronosystem. The findings demonstrate that e-learning exclusion is a systemic rather than an individual problem, produced through interactions across multiple ecological levels. The study concludes that improving digital inclusion requires coordinated institutional reforms that integrate Universal Design for Learning principles, strengthen cross-unit collaboration, promote inclusive institutional cultures and embed accessibility within digital infrastructure, teaching practices and assessment policies to ensure equitable participation for students with visual impairments.