Guidelines for serving Visually Impaired individuals at the National Library of Uganda.

Abstract

The study sought to investigate the services offered by the National library of Uganda to the Visually Impaired, the challenges encountered by the visually impaired individuals to access the available library services at the National Library of Uganda so as to design guidelines for serving visually impaired individuals at the National Library of Uganda. The study consisted of a total number of 20 respondents and out of these 5 were Library staff while 15 were visually impaired library users. The study used among others purposive sampling strategy, snow-ball sampling and used document review, observation and interview as the methods of data collection. The results revealed that the library offers a variety of library services among others included; Reference services, Orientation services, Circulation services. The results also revealed some of the challenges encountered by the visually impaired individuals at the National Library of Uganda and these among others included; Lack of braille text books, unfavorable physical environment, and absence of assistive technology. Therefore the study formulated guidelines for serving the visually impaired individuals at the National Library of Uganda to ensure easy access and utilization of available library services with ease and the suggested guidelines included among others included; Special media formats such as braille text books, audio-books, the physical design, training library users, establishing children’s department. Conclusively the study recommended; developing of guide lines for serving disabled individuals at the National of Uganda, an assistive techno-based system for serving visually impaired individuals, funding and training of visually impaired users.