Impact of Mobile Application-Based Intervention on Communication Skills of Visually Impaired Students in Ondo State, Nigeria

Students with visual impairment frequently encounter barriers when classroom communication depends on printed text, visual interfaces, and inaccessible digital resources. This study examined the use of mobile application-based intervention to support the communication skills of students with visual impairment in classroom learning in Ondo State, Nigeria. A descriptive research design was adopted, involving 50 students with visual impairment who used smartphones and mobile applications. Participants were selected through simple random sampling, and data were collected with an expert-reviewed questionnaire and analysed using frequencies, percentages, and descriptive statistics. The findings showed that screen-reader applications were the most frequently used application type (40%), followed by voice assistants (30%), navigation applications (16%), and communication applications (14%). Text-to-speech was the most frequently reported accessibility feature (36%), followed by speech-to-text (24%), voice commands (20%), and audio feedback (20%). The principal communication benefits were reading messages (32%), accessing information (28%), sending messages (24%), and social interaction (16%). The most frequently reported barriers were lack of training and inaccessible application design, each at 28%, followed by the high cost of smartphones (24%) and poor internet connectivity (20%). These results show that mobile accessibility depends not only on device ownership but also on usable accessibility features, user competence, and supportive digital infrastructure. The study concludes that accessible mobile applications can strengthen communication and participation in learning, although their educational value depends on training, affordability, connectivity, and inclusive application design.