Difficulties faced by differently-abled students while using the University library – in association with the library of the University of Kelaniya

Abstract

University libraries have a special place in teaching, learning and research activities. The university library should provide maximum support to the users to fulfil their educational needs and special methods should be followed for differently-abled students to use the library. The research problem of this research is the lack of facilities of the university library required by differently-abled university students and its main objective is to explore the difficulties encountered in the use of the university library. Other objectives include studying the use of libraries by differently-abled students in the university, studying the specialised services and facilities and the further exploration of the hardware and software they require. Because of corona pandemic the research is based on the case study methodology and the data were collected from 40 male and female visually impaired, hearing impaired and orthopaedic students as the population of the differently-abled students of the University of Kelaniya. According to the findings of this research, the library's annual budget does not allocate a separate amount for these special needs students. It has been found that there is no hardware or software for differently-abled students. 67.6% have access to all the sections of the library and 32.4% doesn’t have access to any section of the library. Therefore, it is very important for the library to pay more attention to the students who find it difficult to travel every section of the library. 44.1% are using only printed sources. But found that, the library has no tools or information sources other than DVDs, CD ROM, computers, braille books. 18.8% stated that they don’t have the required information sources in their library. It has been revealed that audio book and e book are not available in the library to meet the needs of visually impaired students. It has been revealed that differently-abled students mostly use both printed and unprinted sources and it is 50% as a percentage. 1% say they are not at all satisfied with library access. The library should pay attention to it, even though it is a very small percentage. 46.9% are satisfied and 40.6% are slightly satisfied. According to this, it is confirmed that a group of differently-abled students have access problems to the Kelaniya university library. 61.8% of the respondents said that, it takes 1 to 5 hours to search for information sources and 38.2% stated that, it takes less than an hour. Accordingly, it has been revealed that they spend more time in the library due to the difficulty in finding the sources of information, the difficulty in understanding the classifications, the difficulty in searching the names of the computerized information sources and the lack of a qualified training officer to serve the differently-abled students. It is clear that differently-abled students do not have the necessary technical tools. Voice recorders have been found to be a priority. Second, the braille machine was found to be an essential tool. It was suggested that information needs should be met through special programs for differently-abled students and steps should be taken to provide the required information facilities efficiently using new technologies. Therefore, this research proposes that technology integrated sources such as braille books, audiobooks and voice recording software should be made more accessible for visually impaired readers by the library.