LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 13:6 June 2013
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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The Role of Assistive Technologies in Effective Inclusive English Language Teaching for Visually Challenged Students

Dr. A. S. Mohanagiri M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.

Problems faced by Visually Challenged Students

Visually challenged students face many problems in receiving effective education in a general educational setup. Accessibility to the course material is one of the major impediments they face under the setup. However, there is a solution for the problem: Visually Challenged students with difficulties in accessing information in print format can use certain technologies to access the same information in the digital format. Such technologies are called assistive technologies.

Assistive Technologies

People with vision problems use technologies such as screen reading applications, text-to-speech applications, magnifiers, Braille viewers etc, to access information. Using assistive technologies, visually challenged persons can access most of the information in the computer and on the internet. In these times, when “the use (ICT) in special needs education (SNE) is very high on the political agendas of countries” (Telecentre), it is important to highlight the potential of using assistive and accessibility technologies in inclusive education, besides creating awareness among the teaching fraternity.

Government Plan

Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Education (2005) in its ‘Action Plan for Inclusive Education of Children and Youth with Disabilities' has mentioned its goal as Recognizing Education for All children as a fundamental right, to ensure the inclusion of children and youth with disabilities in all available mainstream educational settings, by providing them with a learning environment that is available, accessible, affordable and appropriate to help develop their learning and abilities.

Focus of This Paper

This paper presents an overview of the available assistive and accessibility technologies to aid differently-abled (visually challenged) students in receiving effective inclusive education in general and in learning English as Second Language in particular. It analyzes the common problems faced by visually challenged students in learning English at the tertiary level (college/university), and presents solutions that are available.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr. A. S. Mohanagiri M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
PG & Research Department of English
Government Arts College (Autonomous)
Coimbatore 641018
Tamilnadu
India
a.s.mohanagiri@gmail.com
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