Inclusive education services for the blind: Values, roles, and challenges of university EFL teachers

Abstract

Implementing inclusive education, the process of providing all learners with equal educational opportunities, is a major challenge for many educational systems worldwide, for it requires changes to values, system, and practices. In the teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL) in university, teachers are expected to be able to select, transform, or augment Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and Differentiated Instruction (DI) as a framework to guarantee accessibility of all learner types to the learning environment by employing specific educational design guidelines, to fit their leaners', notably for the blinds. Data on what has led EFL teachers to join the reform of the teaching instruction and how they tackle problems during implementation cannot be located. Thus, the aim of this qualitative study is to uncover reasons for EFL teachers to participate in and what they did to facilitate the instruction wide effort to practice inclusive education, as well as challenges encountered. Key findings included implementing university policy as prime reasons for practicing inclusive education, utilizing UDL and DI as the key to successful implementation for instructional teaching, and inadequate resources and teacher training as the main challenges. Recommendations consists of providing disability-specific pre- and in- service training programs for teachers and making arrangements of sufficient educational materials and assessment based on UDL and DI towards EFL instructions.

Impact of inclusive education on improving the quality of life of totally blind students

“…In the course of the study, the authors analyzed publications and didactic materials related to the methodology of teaching foreign languages to students with different educational needs. The problem of inclusion of blind and visually impaired people is widely covered in the literature on teaching foreign languages to people with disabilities [5][6][7], which deals with the possibility of using technical means of training [8] and the Internet [9], the peculiarities of the educational process adaptation [10], inclusion strategies and foreign language teaching technology to this category of students [11]. It should be particularly noted that some authors do not refuse to use tactile manuals written in Braille, especially for the study of vocabulary and grammar [12], and offer a methodological model of teaching foreign language for students with special educational needs [13].…”

Disability is Diversity: A Multiculturalism Perspectives on Disability Inclusion in Higher Education

“…Ensuring lecturers' positive attitudes and beliefs toward disability inclusion is significant as well as tailoring lecturers' competency and teaching skills in inclusive context to support students with disability in mainstream class [7]. Similar to the lecturer's cultural response toward disability inclusion, the students with disabilities also shows the lowest average among other respondents' category, instead, it is still in a good scale (4 of 5).…”

“…In the context of Indonesia higher education, access for students with disability remains exclusive although the government has guaranteed the equality of education under the law number 20 of 2003. Almost a decade after Indonesia ratified the UN CRPD through the law number 19 of 2011, the trends of including disability in higher education is increasing since the law make it more obligatory [7]. Employing the disability for inclusion framework [14] that specifically focused on cultural dimension, this article discusses the practices of disability inclusion in higher education settings in Indonesia and seeking the potential values of disability as part or cultural diversity through the lens of multiculturalism.…”

English Phonemic Awareness of Students with Visual Disabilities

“…A literature review on teaching English as a second language (ESL) for blind students (Lintangsari & Emaliana, 2020) reveals scarcity of material in the field of vision education and applied linguistics (Milian & Pearson, 2005). Blindness affects the development of children with visual disabilities from birth in different ways, language development being one area who are less affected by a lack of vision.…”

“…Taking into account learning preferences and learning styles also affects student academic achievement. Students with visual disabilities requires various opportunities to explore and study learning material through alternative senses other than visual input for example tactile and audio input (Lintangsari & Emaliana, 2020).…”