Barriers to Assistive Technology Adoption Among Visually Impaired Students in Pakistani Higher Education

Abstract

Assistive technology (AT) promises significant opportunities for enhancing educational access and opportunities for visually impaired (VI) students, but this has yet to be experienced in Pakistani higher education. Nationally, it is estimated that 9 million people have some visual impairment (Junaidi, 2022), with only 10% of those who require assistive devices worldwide having access to them (WHO, 2022). This deficit is exacerbated in Pakistan given the rigid curriculum structure in higher education institutions which is based on print and lectures, lack of AT resources, including braille and audio materials, and the absence of a national policy that requires AT integration into the higher education curriculum. This paper reviews existing literature on AT accessibility, use and barriers for VI students of colleges and universities in Pakistan in light of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Based on research examining factors that limit VI students' perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the available AT tools, this review considers the intersection of financial constraints, technological obsolescence, linguistic incompatibility, preparedness of educators, policy gaps, and social stigma. This review is different from the previous works which had studied these barriers individually in Pakistan. This review combines all these barriers in a unified TAM framework to understand how structural, cultural and psychological factors collectively inhibit AT adoption. With the basis of this synthesis, the paper suggests strategies at the government, institutional and community level for increasing the access to AT and building inclusive higher education for VI students in Pakistan.