ACADEMIC SUCCESS OF PERSONS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT AND BLINDNESS IN THE TERTIARY SECTOR: EXPLANATORY MODEL

Authors

  • Theekshana Suraweera SLIIT Business School, New Kandy Road, Malabe, 10115, Sri Lanka
  • Samanthi Bandara SLIIT Business School, New Kandy Road, Malabe, 10115, Sri Lanka
  • Colinie Wickramarachchi SLIIT Business School, New Kandy Road, Malabe, 10115, Sri Lanka
  • Navodya Dewage SLIIT Business School, New Kandy Road, Malabe, 10115, Sri Lanka
  • Tharushi Gunawardana SLIIT Business School, New Kandy Road, Malabe, 10115, Sri Lanka
  • Nilupuli Nanayakkara SLIIT Business School, New Kandy Road, Malabe, 10115, Sri Lanka
  • Erandi Yapa SLIIT Business School, New Kandy Road, Malabe, 10115, Sri Lanka
  • Samantha Thelijjagoda SLIIT Business School, New Kandy Road, Malabe, 10115, Sri Lanka
  • Ruwan Jayathilaka SLIIT Business School, New Kandy Road, Malabe, 10115, Sri Lanka

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46827/ejse.v8i1.4118

Keywords:

education, academic, persons with visual impairment and blindness

Abstract

Ensuring universal access to education is an effective and sustainable means of empowering people with visual impairment and blindness. Literature confirms that blindness of a person is not a barrier for learning, yet past research brings about a range of diverse obstacles for productive engagement in education due to universities being designed for the sighted persons. Given that the persons with impairment are looked after comparatively better in the western world than in the developing nations for realising their challenging academic goals. Purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a comprehensive study on the academic work of persons with visual impairment and blindness in the tertiary sector. This population included recent undergraduates and those who have completed a university degree. The two distinct outcomes presented are; (first phase) the critical factors influencing the academic performance of persons with visually impairment and blindness and, (second phase) an explanatory model that characterizes the construct ‘the academic performance’. Using a semi-structured questionnaire, purposely selected eleven key informant interviews were utilized for the first phase for the qualitative investigation. Thematic analysis was used as the main method of data analysis. The Second phase employed a sample survey. Fifty respondents who had studied in universities during the 5-year period from 2015-2020 were selected through snow-ball sampling. Exploratory factor analysis was used as the main data analysis technique. The key findings of phase one revealed that external support, physical environment, motivation to learn, instructional strategies, ICT and English literacy are major contributory factors to academic performance. The second phase of the quantitative analysis derived five composite factors. Of these, the factor labeled “Motivating influences” appears to be mostly contributing to the academic performance of persons with visual impairment and blindness. While education is a lifelong endeavor of a person, these findings can contribute to make a substantial change in the quality of life of this community in the long run.

 

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Author Biographies

  • Theekshana Suraweera, SLIIT Business School, New Kandy Road, Malabe, 10115, Sri Lanka

    Professor Theekshana Suraweera, the founder Dean of SLIIT- Business School, is currently a Consultant Professor of the same institution. He is the Team Leader of World Bank sponsored AHEAD (Accelerating Higher Education Expansion and Development) Research Project on ‘Socio-economic aspects of persons with Visual Impairment and Blindness in Sri Lanka’ of SLIIT Business School. Previously, he served at University of Canterbury, New Zealand. His publication record exceeds 35 research papers in high quality local and international conferences and journals, including ‘Journal of Small Business Management’ and ‘Disability and Society’ with over 250 citations. His wide research interests include Disability Studies, Education and Social Development, Small Business and Information Systems Management.
    Web: https://www.sliit.lk/faculty-of-business/staff/theekshana.s/
    orcid.org/0000-0002-1756-7447

  • Samanthi Bandara, SLIIT Business School, New Kandy Road, Malabe, 10115, Sri Lanka

    Samanthi Bandara is currently the Specialized Research/Project Manager in Social Research Discipline for AHEAD project on ‘Socio-economic aspects of persons with Visual Impairment and Blindness in Sri Lanka’ of SLIIT Business School. She is a visiting lecturer at International Institute of Health Sciences. Previously, she served as a Consultant to the Presidential Secretariat. She also worked as a Health Economist to ADB and JETRO-Sri Lanka. Previously, she engaged as a research expert in managing public, private, regional, and internationally funded research projects while serving a researcher at Sri Lanka Institute of Policy Studies (IPS). Her publication history records for research papers in high quality local and international conferences and journals. She holds the Honorary Secretary position of Population Association of Sri Lanka (PASL). Her research interests are in population studies with special focus on disability studies.

  • Colinie Wickramarachchi, SLIIT Business School, New Kandy Road, Malabe, 10115, Sri Lanka

    Colinie Wickramarachchi is currently a Research Assistant for AHEAD Research Project on ‘Socio-economic aspects of persons with Visual Impairment and Blindness in Sri Lanka’ of SLIIT Business School. She graduated with a first-class honors with an outstanding academic award for Business Management. Previously, she worked as a finance intern for Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Her publication history records for research papers in high quality local and international conferences. Her research interests are disability studies, social studies, employment, and education.
    Web: https://www.sliit.lk/faculty-of-business/staff/colinie.w/

  • Navodya Dewage, SLIIT Business School, New Kandy Road, Malabe, 10115, Sri Lanka
    Navodya Malshani, co-author of this research paper, is currently a final year undergraduate of BBA Special Honours degree at SLIIT Business School, Sri Lanka.
  • Tharushi Gunawardana, SLIIT Business School, New Kandy Road, Malabe, 10115, Sri Lanka
    Tharushi Gunawardana, co-author of this research paper, is currently a final year undergraduate of BBA Special Honours degree at SLIIT Business School, Sri Lanka.
  • Nilupuli Nanayakkara, SLIIT Business School, New Kandy Road, Malabe, 10115, Sri Lanka
    Nilupuli Nanayakkara, co-author of this research paper, is currently a final year undergraduate of BBA Special Honours degree at SLIIT Business School, Sri Lanka.
  • Erandi Yapa, SLIIT Business School, New Kandy Road, Malabe, 10115, Sri Lanka
    Erandi Yapa, co-author of this research paper, is currently a final year undergraduate of BBA Special Honours degree at SLIIT Business School, Sri Lanka.
  • Samantha Thelijjagoda, SLIIT Business School, New Kandy Road, Malabe, 10115, Sri Lanka

    Professor Samantha Thelijjagoda is the Dean of SLIIT Business School, Sri Lanka and is currently a team member of the World Bank sponsored AHEAD Research Project on ‘Socio-economic aspects of persons with Visual Impairment and Blindness in Sri Lanka’. He completed his postgraduate studies in Japan and was formally the Dean of Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research at SLIIT. He is a leading member of Computer Society of Sri Lanka, and holds professional memberships of IEEE, AIS and IET. His research interests range from IT applications and Social Studies, disability related studies, artificial intelligence, computational models of human language processing and human language technology. He has a strong publication record in peer reviewed local and international journals.
    Web: https://www.sliit.lk/faculty-of-business/staff/samantha.t/
    orcid.org/0000-0002-0548-1603

  • Ruwan Jayathilaka, SLIIT Business School, New Kandy Road, Malabe, 10115, Sri Lanka

    Professor Ruwan Jayathilaka is an Associate Professor at SLIIT Business School. He is currently serving as the Head, Department of Information Management, SLIIT Business School and the Coordinator of the SLIIT- MBA program. He is also a team member of the World Bank sponsored AHEAD Research Project of SLIIT Business School. He is the author of peer reviewed articles published in a number of international leading journals, including Applied Economics, Tourism Analysis, Tourism Review, PLOS ONE, BMC Public Health, Quality & Quantity, Disability and Society, South Asia Economic Journal, Journal of the Korean Economy. His research interests are disability studies, poverty and vulnerability, econometric modeling, economic demography and social studies.
    Web: https://www.sliit.lk/faculty-of-business/staff/ruwan.j/
    orcid.org/0000-0002-7679-4164

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Published

2022-01-14

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 1 (2022)

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