INTERVENTION OF ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY ON PERFORMANCE OF VISUALLY IMPAIRED STUDENTS IN KISWAHILI LANGUAGE IN PUBLIC PRIMARY TEACHERS’ COLLEGES IN KENYA

Abstract

Education is a universal right to all including those with disabilities. Students with visual impairments can struggle with a wide variety of challenges in a mainstreamed classroom setting. Assistive Technology intervention by use of assistive devices in teaching, use of assistive teaching methods, taking care of visually impaired severity and boosting positively the student-teacher related factors improve their performance. The purpose of this study was to examine the intervention of Assistive Technology on performance of Visually Impaired students in Kiswahili in Public Primary Teachers’ Colleges in Kenya. The paper adopts a quasi-experimental design by use of a pre-test and post-test. It has been appropriate to analyze the treatment effect of using AT in teaching VI students in one group while applying the natural teaching methods on the control group. The target population was three teachers’ colleges in Kenya (Asumbi, Machakos and Mosoriot). A standardized examination was given to the two groups. Another examination was given to the two groups after giving one group a treatment of use of discussion groups, peer consultation and use of teacher assistive teams. The AT devices were critical in teaching VI students in order to improve their performance in languages and therefore their adequacy in college determined the rate of students’ performance. The researcher found out that the attitude of the teachers in teaching VI students was positive but the challenges in ensuring quality teaching of Languages included the students having a negative attitude towards languages, teachers have a negative attitude towards their career and lack of adequate teaching and learning materials. The researcher found out that the most significant methods that the teachers used to teach Languages to students with VI were: lectures, assignments and group discussions. The findings inferred that the partially blind students were better suited for the natural teaching methods than the totally blind students as they performed higher when taught using natural teaching methods. The paper recommends that the management of tertiary institutions should invest on interventions like the assistive technology in enhancing their academic performance. The researchers further recommends that other strategies for teaching VI students like use of peer consultations between the VI students with sighted students, use of quieter rooms, teacher assistance teams; extended exam time for VI students and shorter assignments to the VI students should also be employed to enhance Language to students with visual impairment. The significance of the study is that AT device intervention such as use of digital recorder in teaching can improve students’ academic performance.