INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOR OF BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED STUDENTS: THE CASE OF HARAMAYA AND DIRE DAWA UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

Information sources are growing both in size and format. People are acting being seekers to access it, provider to serve others and processor to increase accessibility of information. However, blind and visually impaired student are not partaking in this process as normal student do. In Ethiopia few researches has been done on this study area and some of the ambiguous. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating blind and visually impaired students’ information seeking behavior to fill this research gap. The study was conducted in two universities namely, Haramaya University and Dire Dawa University. The area of the study thought to represent first and second generation Universities in Ethiopia. Totally, 67 visually impaired and blind students were taken using total sampling technique and four special need service officers using purposive sampling technique. Visually impaired and blind students’ data was collected using structured interview to identify the perceptions, needs, challenges and behavior of students while seeking information. The special need service officers data was collected using semi-structured interview to enhance the result from students’ data. The collected data was analyzed using mixed method of quantitative and qualitative approach. Descriptive data is presented using frequency and percentage, whereas qualitative data is presented in words. Descriptive statistical analysis results revealed that 88.1% of students claim that universities’ libraries are not satisfying their information provision service due to lack of information bearing material with appropriate format. As a result, 95.5% respondent indicated that the information they acquired is less than required one to handle the tasks at hand. Due to this gap majority 56.7% of them are feeling disappointed and 23.9% anxious. It is also found that there was no information policy for visually impaired and blind students in both campuses. Sociability is found to have a greater role in their information seeking behavior. It is also found that majority (61.2%) of the students preferred audio format information from human source. But this information source is thought to form information distortion and of less quality. To overcome these problems it is recommended to provide enough information materials supporting with assistive technology, drafting information policy for visually impaired and blind students and encourage their interpersonal relationship.