Digital inclusion: Lived experiences of students with visual impairment accessibility to web-based information in higher education institutions of Ethiopia

Abstract

This study sought to explore the web-based information accessibility experiences of students with visual impairment (SVIs) enrolled in two senior universities in Ethiopia. To achieve this, the study used a descriptive phenomenological design. A total of 11 undergraduate fourth-year SVIs, 5 from Haramaya University and 6 from Addis Ababa University, were purposively chosen for the study. Using semi-structured interviews and Colaizzi’s method of data analysis, four overarching themes were generated inductively: web capability experience, social connection, venue of academic achievement, and disabling web environment. Accordingly, the study came with variations in the capability to access web-based information among SVIs observed due to differences in foreknowledge on basic computers and exposure to web interfaces. Routine use of social media, technical, and material support, and follow-up improves the SVIs’ website browsing ability, resulting in a sense of academic agency, social competence, and persistent ingenuity to academic success. However, complex web designs, incompatible assistive technologies (ATs), inaccessible document formats, poor infrastructure, and undifferentiated information flux on the website create a disabling web environment for SVIs, promoting inequality in web-based information access and hence academic achievement. Thus, findings from this inquiry necessitate universities to work to make web designs accessible and compatible with ATs, provide technical and material support to SVIs based on the severity of their impairment, improve infrastructure, and encourage them to regularly practice website use for academic purposes.