Abstract:
This study was conducted to find out the use of information sources by the visually impaired
undergraduates and the issues faced by them in accessing information. The target population was
43 undergraduates with visual impairment. Out of them, 42 (98%) were interviewed. The
interview schedule covered demographic details, main sources of information and issues
encountered in general and in the Internet context. The majority of the respondents are males
(52%) and are in the age bracket of 21-24 (76%). Out of the 42 respondents, 23 can read only
braille whereas 19 can read printed text but with difficulty. In searching of information, 34
students (81%) use the Main Library of University of Colombo and 32 students (76%) use
electronic information resources. The Center for Disabled Students of the university, purchases
made by them and libraries of other institutions are alternative sources of information for them.
The respondents mentioned 18 different issues in using information in general, where lack of
audio books (71%) and the need to depend on others to search for information (48%) were the
main issues. Lack of braille books (12%) and lack of audio books of award winning Sinhala
novels (12%) were the other two issues mentioned. More than half of the respondents use the
Internet daily (57%), 24% use it a few times a week and only a few stated (10%) that they rarely
use the Internet. Six issues related to the use of the Internet were identified, in which less userfriendly
to be read through screen readers (71%) and difficult to find information because of the
given format (67%) were the two major issues. Enhancing the audio book collection both in
Sinhala and Tamil, establishing a special assistance mechanism for visually impaired users and
training both users and the library staff in searching information in the Internet are recommended.
