Support services for students with visual impairment at the University of Education, Winneba

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the support services for students with visual impairment at the University of Education, Winneba. The study, which was qualitative in nature, utilized the case study design with interview as an instrument for data collection. A sample of 11 participants were used comprising 8 students with visual impairment and 3 resource persons from a population of 60 students with visual impairment who were conveniently sampled. A semi-structured interview was used. Data from the study was thematically analyzed based on the emerging themes. Findings from the study revealed among others that, orientation and mobility services help students with visual impairment to locate relevant places such as resource room, canteen, offices and places of convenience. It was also found that the mobility techniques that were employed at the University of Education, Winneba were the white cane and sighted guides. It was found out that students with visual impairment receive transcription services from the resource center in the form of braille embossment and audio recordings of academic materials. However, there are some challenges affecting the work of resource persons at UEW. Some of the challenges were but not limited to inadequate resource personnel, few resource materials, lack of resource center for students with special needs. The researcher recommended that orientation and mobility specialist, braille transcribers and resource persons must be provided by the authorities of University of Education, Winneba to help improve the provision of service to students with visual impairment in order to make their stay on campus a success.