Abstract

AQUINO ZUNIGA, Silvia Patricia; IZQUIERDO SANDOVAL, Jesús; GARCIA MARTINEZ, Verónica  and  VALDES CUERVO, Ángel Alberto. Visually impaired university students' perceptions of their digital skills: Evidence from a public higher education institution in southeaster Mexico. Apert. (Guadalaj., Jal.) [online]. 2016, vol.8, n.1, 00001. ISSN 2007-1094.

This study documented the perception of ten visually impaired university students about the development of their digital skills. All participants answered a 20-item questionnaire; the items were grouped in four dimensions that covered the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for: (a) social and collaborative learning, (b) information search and processing, (c) interpersonal communication within the university context and (d) virtual and social interaction through the university's distance learning enviornment. Our results showed that students perceive themselves competent to use ICTs to establish interpersonal relationships using non educational ICTs only. The results of a repeated measure Anova revealed that students' perception of the use of technologies for interpersonal relationships significantly exceeded the other potential uses of ICTs. It is concluded that visually impaired learners do not perceive a sound development of their digital skills, in regard to the potential benefits of ICTs to establish and mantain educational collaboration and learning.

Keywords : Inclusive education; visual impairement; digital competencies; attention to diversity; university.

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