Based on a study for a master’s dissertation, this article reports on an investigation of the information seeking behaviour of blind and visually impaired students. It investigated whether the services provided by the University of KwaZulu-Natal on its Pietermaritzburg campus (hereafter UKZN-PMB) accommodated the information seeking behaviour of blind students and those with visual impairments. The theoretical framework for the study was Wilson’s (1996) Model of Information Behaviour, Belkin’s (1982) Anomalous Stat of Knowledge approach and Oliver’s (1996) Social Model of Disability. Blind students and those with visual impairments, the subject librarians from the Main Library and the Disability Unit (DU) Co-ordinator were surveyed. The study revealed that the students exhibited information seeking behaviour that included the DU staff as an indispensable part of information access. Recommendations include developing a strategy to implement the UKZN disability policy and allocating a sufficient budget for the purchase of assistive devices or, preferably, incorporating principles of universal design in the information system.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.