Role of Accessible Digital Technologies in Enhancing the Thinking Skills of Vision-Impaired Learners Enrolled for Higher Education in India
摘要
This chapter makes a close analysis of how accessible digital technologies play a vital role in enhancing the thinking skills of vision-impaired students enrolled for higher education courses in India. It explores various digital assistive technologies used by vision-impaired students of higher education, including screen readers, specialized software programs and applications for reading books, digitizing print documents, describing scenes, etc. on the computer and smartphone. Accessible websites, entertainment /OTT platforms, refreshable braille displays, stand-alone reading devices and AI tools are also considered part of accessible digital technologies for the vision impaired. A total of twenty participants from five universities across South India were interviewed using the random sampling and snowball sampling methods. The inferences are analyzed in the light of theories pertaining to access, assistive technology, vision impairment, intersectionality and thinking skills. The seminal argument of this study is to find out how these technological solutions have advanced the thinking skills of vision-impaired students pursuing higher education, with special reference to three thinking skills—problem solving, decision making and creative thinking. The study also looks into the concern of digital divide attributed to gender, locality and other social markers in accessing these digital technologies, and impediments in using them to the advantage of enhancing their thinking skills.