Information utilisation strategy for the visually impaired youth at the Centre for Youth Driven Development Initiative in Manyangwa Wakiso District

Abstract

Bhavani (2020) defines information as data that is processed, organized and structured. Information is considered essential to all human beings by different researchers and thus should be accessed by all persons. This accounts for those with disabilities as well; including the visually impaired at the Centre for Youth Driven Development Initiative in Manyangwa-Wakiso district. The library was setup in 2013 to cater for all needs of people who wished to access information through the library with a mission of empowering the young children, and women on matter concerning socio-economic development in order to reduce poverty. The study is aimed at proposing strategies that can be used to improve information utilization by the visually impaired youth at CFYDDI as its objectives states (i) To examine the status of Information resources available for the visually impaired, (ii) To find out the challenges affecting the utilization of Information by the visually impaired, and (iii) To formulate strategies to improve the utilization of Information resources by the visually impaired users at the CFYDDI. The study was carried out in Manyangwa - Wakiso District the home of the CFYDDI for a period of two months. The study employed a purposive sampling strategy, which was used alongside the Snowball sampling strategy. Questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data from library users and was analysed using SPSS while Interviews were used to collect qualitative data from library staff and were analysed using context analysis. Findings showed that females took up the largest part of the study making up a total of 45(64.3%) and males were 25(35.7%) of the total sample population. Regarding the nature of information resources available at the CFYDDI, respondents showed that information resources for the visually impaired are available at the library though they went ahead to show that they were not updated and limited by numbers. The biggest challenge to utilization of information resources by the visually impaired was low funding provided to the centre as this is essential for the daily operation of the centre, payment of salaries and bills and provision of equipment. This was in addition to challenges of undertrained staff and negative attitude from community. A number of strategies to ensure utilization of information resources for the visually impaired were raised and these included (i) Provision of funds and involvement in economic activities to enable the library run efficiently and provide the necessary requirements such as Braille x books, high contrast prints and any other resource required for by the staff and the visually impaired youth. (ii) Adaptation to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as a means of shifting from the legacy print and ensuring that variety information resources are utilized. (iii) Implement inclusive education policies for people with visual impairment as this will boost confidence amongst the visually impaired and ensure that they are literate and able to utilize the information resources for the visually impaired. (iii) Provision of information resources such as large format prints, Braille books and many more in order to ensure that the visually impaired youth can have a variety source of information. (iv) Empowering and adequately training human resource as this play a major role with aiding the visually impaired youth in using, accessing and fully utilising the information resources for the visually impaired. Lastly, Provision of the infrastructure resources was also suggested to ensure there are buildings, sitting infrastructure that cater for the needs of the visually impaired, but infrastructure also included software essential for utilization of information resources for the visually impaired.