Visual Impairment

Incidence:

According to the DWP (2018)[i] 12% of all adults and 9% of adults of working age have some degree of sight loss. According to the RNIB’s ‘Sight Loss Data Tool’ (2020) the primary causes of sight loss are uncorrected refracted error (39%), age-related macular degeneration (23%), cataract (19%), glaucoma (7%) and diabetic eye disease (5%). Other causes of limited sight or sight-loss include as congenital blindness or near-blindness, degenerative eye diseases and Albinism-related retinitis pigmentosa.

 

Data from HESA shows that 3,010 UK domiciled students are blind or have a serious visual impairment this represents 0.16% of the student body.

Reed and Curtis (2012) estimated that visually impaired students had approximately the same completion rates as their fully sighted peers but that they take an extra 1.5 academic years to complete their undergraduate studies as compared to non-impaired students.

 

Characteristics:

The way that sight-loss manifests varies by condition and can range from being blind from birth, total sight loss and partial vision (including the loss of central or peripheral vision, a lack of night vision, extreme short sightedness, photophobia, astigmatism and colour-blindness. Some people will have blurred vision, loss of contrast or light). Very few people have no sight, however individuals who are visually impaired are likely to have very little sight and as a result have significant impairments.

 

Not all people with a visual impairment will be Braille users. With the advent of screen readers Braille is used less and it unlikely to be used at all by people who were not blind from birth.

 

Impact on teaching and learning:

While sight loss is prevalent in a comparatively small proportion of UK domiciled undergraduates its impact on teaching and learning can be profound. However, there are a wide array of assistive technologies that can help to reduce barriers to learning. Many forms of assistive technology are however dependent upon teaching staff providing learning materials in a form that the assistive technology can access. The most part standard applications such as Microsoft word, PowerPoint and PDF’s can be accessed either by separate screen readers or using inbuilt accessibility tools. Care needs to be taken with other more specialised applications to ensure that these are also accessible, so before building a module or assessment around the use of particular software or databases staff should check that these are accessible.

According to Reed and Curtis (2012) in their study in Canada visually impaired students reported using the following University services:

 

Accommodation Students used %  (N)
Adaptive technologist 51.4 (36)
Adaptive technology 85.7 (60)
Braille text options 24.3 (17)
Campus orientation 44.3 (31)
Computer notetaking 45.7 (32)
Disability counselor 71.4 (50)
Educational or personal assistant 24.3 (17)
Exam accommodations 85.7 (60)
Note sharer 52.9 (37)
Orientation and mobility 45.7 (32)
Private tutor 27.1 (19)
Reader 35.7 (25)
Special librarian assistance 37.1 (26)
Special seating support 21.4 (15)
Taping lectures 55.7 (39)
Source: Reed and Curtis (2012)

 

Because the effects of limited vision are so varied, it would be best practice to ask the individual student about what suits them best. It might be that the student does require all teaching material to be available electronically so that screen readers can be used, or so that it can be converted into Braille, but equally a student might prefer hard copies in a larger font. Also, do not assume that black text on a yellow background suitable for all visually impaired students some students will find that this is less helpful than simply having black text on a white background.

Reed and Curtis (2012) report that visually impaired students take much longer to read written material and often left with eyestrain and headaches. It would be helpful for visually impaired students if staff could distinguish between essential reading and additional or optional readings.

Visually impaired students who have some sight are likely to want to sit at the front of any classroom lecture theatre; they will need to have an obstacle-free route to this seating.

According to the WESC foundation current research has found that people with visual impairments are likely to have better hearing than non-sight impaired individuals. However, there are some conditions where low vision and reduced hearing occur together. Whichever is the case, it will hinder comprehension if there is excessive ambient noise in either classroom or in audio-based teaching material. If you are producing or using audio-based material such as videos or podcasts try to avoid adding unnecessary background music and audio special effects. This will also help students who have poor hearing or who are not native speakers.

Seminars and tutorials is important to remember that people with low or no vision will not pick up on non-verbal clues, so is important to explicitly state when you are addressing a visually impaired student and when other people are going to speak.

Visually impaired students may use a guide dog. It is important to treat the dog as a working dog and not a pet. Do not touch or interact with the dog without asking permission first. If possible, provide drinking water for the dog. If the student uses other equipment such as a cane do not touch or move the equipment without the permission of the student, if such equipment is damaged or placed away from the student, they are in effect stranded.

In some teaching environments visually impaired students may use an assistant. This is likely to be the case where there are practical exercises to do, such in laboratories where it might be too dangerous for a visually impaired student to carry out particular activities. If a student uses an assistant, that assistant will need to be provided with the same personal safety equipment and laboratory induction as all other students.

 

Impact on assessment

Students with visual impairments will need exam and test papers in an accessible format. If they use screen readers students will need to take the assessment in a location where the screen reader will not disturb other students. Audio descriptions of visual images will also need to be provided. Audio description is specialised skill and for exam papers you may wish to employ a professional. The RNIB can provide this service for fee. The RNIB is also one of several organisations which can provide Braille copies of documents, should they be needed.

 

Resource requirements/ accommodations

If you are able, try to ensure that signs, labels and maps are available to visually impaired student in a form that they can access, this is especially important in complex and potential hazardous environments such as laboratories.

It would be best practice to provide visually impaired students with an orientation session before teaching starts so that they can familiarise themselves with routes to and from teaching locations and around corridors and within rooms. Students might benefit from having more than one orientation session.

Information normally presented visually such as safety notices, information on noticeboards and directions to fire exits will need to be given verbally or electronically via email.

Teaching material contains visual images will need to be described in class and described by ALT text in electronic material (instructions on how to do this can be found in section Writing accessible teaching material). Most Microsoft software will have an inbuilt accessibility checker that will highlight areas in material that you produce which might not be accessible to visually impaired students. This is especially important to do in PowerPoint because PowerPoint has a particularly idiosyncratic way of interacting with screen readers.

For those students who do use Braille it would be very helpful to provide any teaching material at least 48 hours in advance as using a Braille printer can be time consuming.

 Strengths:

According to the WESC foundation people with limited or no sight, through practice, tend to have extremely good memories, good hearing and can absorb audio information very quickly.

 

 

References

[i] DWP (2018) Family Resources Survey 2016/17

 

 

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