Provision and Use of Library Resources and Services by Physically Challenged Students in Adeyemi College of Education Ondo

Abstract

The paper focused on provision and use of library resources and services by physically challenged students in Adeyemi College of Education Ondo. Physically challenged students in this paper were restricted to the blind (visually impaired). The library is expected to provide inclusive resources and services to all and sundry. Visually impaired persons have the same information needs as sighted people. Just as sighted people might read a newspaper, listen to a CD or download electronic information from the Internet. It was observed that the College graciously admitted qualified visually impaired undergraduates into departments and they are expected to make use of the resources and services of the library for their academic advancement and recreation. The provision of relevant resources and services for the visually impaired students in the College will enable them to utilize the library resources; and compete with their sighted colleagues in the same department academically. Survey research design was used for the study. All the four visually impaired students, administrative officer in-charge of the visually impaired in Counselling and Human Development Centre and 11 librarians in the College were the population and sample of the study. Interview and questionnaire were the instruments used for the students/administrative officer and librarians respectively for the study. Five research questions were answered. Tables and simple percentage were used to present collected data The study found among others that: braille textbooks, braille journals, braille printer, tactile or raised surface, past question papers, braille scanner and laptop/desktop were not available for the use of the visually impaired students in the library and loan of braille textbooks/talking books, magazines and newspapers on braille, library friendly environment services for the visually impaired students were not available for them. The study concluded that library resources and services to the visually impaired students in Adeyemi College of Education was hindered due to non-availability of information resources in braille and no formal training for librarians on services to visually impaired.