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University Grants Commission (UGC) gave the theme to National Science Day of 2017as “Science and Technology for Specially abled Persons”, which clearly indicates, there is wide acceptance that science and technology can play a very important role in making persons with disabilities more independent and dignified life. With the development of different technologies or in other words, assistive technologies such as screen reading software (JAWS, NVDAetc, Daisy Player, OCR and Scanner, Mobile with Text to Speech Application and Screen Magnifier, visually impaired persons have been able to pursue higher education quite smoothly today with less impediments. It has been observed that, in recent years, many visually challenged persons are pursuing higher education through distance education. The concept of Digital Learning has become very popular, need of the hour and effective these days, due to rapid development of information communication technologies (ICT).Similarly, after COVID 19 pandemic,digital learning has become more significant because it was the only way to impart education for all age of learner without any discrimination and learning can be done from anywhere and anytime. During these days almost all learning was largely depended on Digital learning (online learning). These technologies are effective and of great use in teaching-learning process due to their positive impact on large number of people in very short time as they are accessible to all segments of the society. It is generally a challenging task to prepare digital learning resources that can be accessible to all type of people with disability, as the design needs are different for different category of person with disabilities. Nevertheless, today, it is possible to provide equivalent learning resources in alternative formats to people with disabilities with the help of assistive technologies.

This paper has the following objectives:

1. To understand how digital learning provide inclusive education particularly for visually impaired learners in distance education,

2. To obtain knowledge about different ICT tools used by visually impaired persons for educational purpose,

3. Examine IGNOU’s initiatives and limitations for providing ICT support for visually impaired learners ,

4. To suggest some measures for creating congenial atmosphere for digital learning to visually impaired learners.

1. Accessibility guidelines and standards for higher education institutions and universities  https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/8572354_Final-Accessibility-Guidelines.pdf.

This government document provides detail guidelines for ensuring accessible atmosphere in higher educational institutions for independent learning for all categories of PWDS covered under  PWD Act 2016.

2. Arrigo, M. (2005). E-learning accessibility for blind students. Recent Research Developments in Learning Technologies, 8(2), 1-5.

http://medialt.no/pub/utin/Blind%20students.pdf This research article attempts to examine different E learning platform available in US and address the issues of accessibility faced by VI persons. It has pointed out some major issues related to accessibility existing in different E learning platform.

3. Bocconi, S., Dini, S., Ferlino, L., Martinoli, C., & Ott, M. (2007). ICT educational tools and visually impaired students: different answers to different accessibility needs. This paper tries explore solution for accessibility problems for different categories VI persons such as low vision people and people having high level of blindness in online learning. It also suggest some measures for making ICT tools accessible for people having different type  of blindness.

4. Hadley, J., Kulier, R., Zamora, J., Coppus, S. F., Weinbrenner, S., Meyerrose, B., ... & Khan, K. S. (2010). Effectiveness of an e-learning course in evidence-based medicine for foundation (internship) training. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 103(7), 288-294.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1258/jrsm.2010.100036 This article describes success stories of VI learners in distance education system from Hadley School for the Blind in US. This is a case study which tells about how blind people can use different ICT tools and pursue  Their study.   

Visually impaired persons need tools to enable them to use computer and Screen Reading Software like JAWS and Kerzewel which are used to translate text to audio form for those students who are totally blind, and Screen Magnifiers enlarge text and option on the screen display for those students who have a small amount of usable vision.

In an educational context, designing the content interaction is extremely important in order to reach a learning goal and   in online learning the methodology is equally crucial. For example a tool may meet technical accessibility requirements, but it may be unusable for the blind and visually impairedbecause it is designed with a visual interface in mind. (E-learning and the accessibility for Blind)Therefore, accessible E content and learning interface must be compatible with the screen reading software so that VI learner can easily pursue their study in any digital platform.

In the field of online learning for VI persons, Hadley Institute has taken lead in online learning.  According to Senior Vice President Dawn Turco Hadley Institutes in US has been able to stand as the no. 1 of provider of online and distance education to the VI persons and the only entity delivering its programme entirely through distance education. All the courses taught by Institute’s are free to the legally VI persons and their family members, with a curriculum that stands from high- school-level education to job training to independent life skills, cooking dining or socializing”. (https://wwwinsidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/03/29/hadley-institute-leads-digital-learning-blind)

E-learning has great potential to help students with vision impairment in their studies and also facilitate a more equitable representation of this group of people in higher education.

During pandemic period, most of the teaching learning were conducted through virtual platform such as Google Meet, Zoom, WebEx etc. IGNOU also conducted counseling classes, induction meeting, some practical sessions through these popular platforms. In this backdrop, few VI learners were also able to take advantage and carry out their studies smoothly due to proactive and positive action of some Regional Centres.

In recent years, some studies have attempted to address the issue of accessibility of Online Distance Education for visually impaired person. As reported by Waits and Lewis 33 percent of US Institutions that offered Distance Education courses in 2000 and 2001 did not know if their websites followed accessibility guidelines, 28 percent followed the guideline to a moderate extentand 18 percent followed the guidelines to minor extent.”. Furthermore, Schnetzke reveals, high percentage of inaccessible pages for the major US organization for the Distance learning”. These studies prove that, most online educational environment are still not accessible to students with disabilities. If the information and activities posted to internet sites are not appropriately accessible with technology, the VI person will not benefit from these online opportunities. e-learning for the vision impaired: a holistic perspective)

For example, visually impaired persons have to rely on screen readers, while the low vision persons have to rely on magnifier and other optical aids. With this assistive device, low vision person can access to wide variety of applications including those with graphic interface. However, learner having very less vision or no vision will be deprived from those information or knowledge.

Visually impaired person and low vision students encounter different types of problems while accessing online platform such as small characters, crowded pages, popup windows, iconic menu, complex forms to be filled in etc. (ICT Educational Tools and Visually Impaired Students: Different Answers to Different Accessibility Needs)

Dobransky and Hargattai(2006) has outlined some key issues related to accessibility in the field of online learning for the PWD and visually impaired persons in particular. These include the accessibility of websites and Learning Management system, the accessibility of audio-video content and alternative, inflexible time limits built into online exams, the accessibility of power point presentations and also course materials in inaccessible PDF formats and the lack of access to needed adaptive technologies. Van de Bunt –Kokhuis and Bolgers 2009 also highlighted problems with the inaccessibility of online chat rooms and particularly  the incompatibility of Screen Readers with these forums for students with vision impairments. Roverts, Crittenden and Crittenden (2011) also pointed out that many online courses are not designed with accessibility in mind. (disability and E-Learning: opportunities and Barriers)

Taking all these facts into consideration, all the online learning platform should be made accessible following the Web Accessibility Guideline WCAG)., This step  would not only motivate many VI Learner  to take advantage  of digital learning but also It may  provide great impetus in increasing gross enrollment ratio (GER).

Smart Phone:

Within the multiliteracies paradigm, mobile literacy is an emerging and quickly- growing area study for various reasons. One of them is the continuous and steady growth of citizens who own a mobile phone. Therefore, a great number of people are able to communicate and access toinformation. Another reason for owning mobile phone is that they can be used anywhere and at any time. (Visually-Impaired Brazilian Students Learning English ... - MDPI)

A comprehensive mobile learning guideline which came in 2013 also points out some more advantages to mobile learning. It expands the reach and equity of education to all segments of the society.  Many studies have revealed that mobile devices can help  instructorsto use class time more effectively because  They support situated learning, due to which,  Learning is no longer confined to the four  walls of a classrooms. Learning can be moved to settings that maximize understanding. (Visually-Impaired Brazilian Students Learning English ... - MDPI)

Another advantage of mobile learning is that they enhance seamless learning. As information is stored on remote servers, students can access various types of material from a wide variety of devices including smart phones, tablets, PCs and laptops. Mobile phone bridge formal and informal learning. Because of their blurring boundaries between informal and formal education, students can easily access to learning resources through various mobile learning applications which has left behind the compulsion of going to formal classrooms. Dueto various social networks like facebook, whatsapp, youtube channel and similar other networks which also can be access through mobile phone, the distance between teacher and the learners has reached to its minimum level  specially in distance education system in present time.Other virtual learning platforms such as Google Meet, Zoom, virtual Lab etc. are also accessible through mobile. Therefore, “Learning from any where and any time” has become reality today.

 VI Learner can also access to learning resources that are available, in mobile after installing some special Text to Speech mobile applications such as Insta Reader,

Kibo, NVision AI and many other similar type of applications. Recently IGNOU provided  mobile phones to VI learners along with other assistive devices for learner with disabilities in collaboration with NGO named LIMCO so that,they could use these mobile for the learning purpose. Such type of initiatives will also help in promoting digital learning among VI persons because most of the learners with disability come from very low economic background in India, they are not able to afford mobile or any E-learning tools which may be useful for them in educational pursuit.

Another significant challenge for VI learner in digital learning is that Most of the academic counsellors or tutors are not aware about how to guide these learners to attend classes using virtual platforms with the help of few short keys commands which enables them to use these platforms as their other sighted peer groups.   Due to this reason, they are not able to guide andmotivate VI learners in participating classes through any virtual platforms, they are also not aware of the special needs of VI learners while doing visual explanation of the content, because of this, these learners are deprived from most of the information or knowledge which their counsellors or tutors are giving.  

National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) has also acknowledged the role of technology for providing quality and inclusive education to thediverse category of person with disabilities. It clearly spells out the need of developing such technology that are accessible and affordable for all segment of the society including for those person having special needs. Accordingly University Grant Commission (UGC) drafted the Accessibility Guidelines and Standard for Higher Education Institutions.  for this, the committee was constituted by involving the members from all category of disability. The draft of the policy was also circulated to stakeholders for obtaining feedbacks and inputs so that comprehensive accessibility guideline could be drafted so that online educational technologies could be made more accessible and disable friendly specially in higher educational institutions. The guideline has also measures for ensuring   accessible atmosphere environment which includes accessible infra-structure at HEIs premise, accessible and disable friendly curriculum, flexible and quality evaluation process, and all the facilities required for pursuing higher education without any discrimination and impediments  for diverse category of person with disability that are identified in RPWD Act 2016. The final Guideline was issued in June 2022. Detail can be accessed through https://www.ugc.ac.in › pdf news › 8572354_Final...

This guideline also should be implemented at those  institution who are imparting education through distance learning mode in order to achieve its goal of reaching to the unreached.

Some of the provision for Facilitating Digital Learning in the Guide line described in different sub sections which involves   all teaching learning process, evaluation process, and providing library facility are listed below:

2.3 Special Needs: Admission and Promotional Activities

1.  Ensure that the content on the website, email and social media campaigns can be read by various assistive technologies; enlarged; meets color and contrast ratio requirements; includes alternatives for visual content; videos use closed captioning and description.

2.5 Specific Needs: Teaching and Learning

2. Digital accessibility

Some examples of support for Visual Disabilities (Blindness & Low-Vision)

3. Voice recorders, computers, digital slates, styluses for note-taking.

4. Permission to audio/video record lectures.

2.7 Specific Needs: Student Activities

1.  Access to online education

2. Accessible web/video conferencing platforms that support assistive technologies etc.

3 Accessible Information, Communication and Learning Resources

3.2.1 Standards to be followed for digital content

All education institutions shall ensure thatfollowing the universal design principles, all e-content (online or offline) adheres to the e-content accessibility guidelines issued by the Department of Education, Government of India[1] . For example, a scanned image of a document is not readable with screen reading software. Similarly, if an Indian language digital document is prepared using a font that does not comply with Unicode standards, then such document is also not accessible with Assistive Technologies. Therefore, it is essential that digital documents have editable text in fonts compliant to Unicode standards. For ease of reference, the table below provides a list of accessibility guidelines and their validation tools for different digital content formats: 40 Table 3.1 Accessibility Guidelines and their Validation Tools for Digital Content Content Type Standard Validator Microsoft Word Document Office Accessibility Guidelines Word accessibility checker PDF PDF-UA PDF Accessibility checker EPUB EPUB Accessibility Guidelines ACE (Accessibility Checker for EPUB) Websites, Videos and apps WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) or GIGW AXE, WAVE, Etc. Audio DAISY DAISY Validator Fonts for Indian languages in all above types Unicode ---

3.2.4. Sugamya Pustakalaya- Sugamya Pustakalaya is a shared online library of accessible format books created jointly by the Government of India and Non-government organizations. It can be accessed online through www.sugamyapustakalaya.in. The key objective of this online repository of accessible format books is to avoid duplication of conversion of books in an accessible format. Conversion of instructional materials in accessible format needs a lot of financial and human resources. Instructional materials required in one institution would be useful for many institutions all across the country. When there is a need for any book in an accessible format, institutions need to search for the book on SugamyaPustakalaya. If the book is not available there, then only the conversion of the book in accessible format should be done and then uploaded on SugamyaPustakalaya to add the same to the national collection. SugamyaPustakalaya has been created as a secure distribution system of accessible format materials produced under copyright exception for persons with print disabilities. It is part of the Accessible Book Consortium (ABC), Global Book Service hosted by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). Partner libraries across the globe contribute their collections of accessible digital books to the ABC catalogue under the framework set out in the Marrakesh Treaty to facilitate access to published works for persons who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print disabled. Thus, institutions are required to: · Subscribe to SugamyaPustakalaya · Upload instructional materials and books converted to accessible format on it · Provide membership of it to all students and faculty with print disabilities 43

6.3.2. Choices for instruction materials need to be broadened. Reasonable efforts should be made by the faculty and institutions to make resources available such as course text books/e-books, audio/visual multimedia materials, online course contents. Additional efforts need to be made to prepare class handouts, a list of required and recommended reading, assignment information, grading rubrics, test and examination-related materials.

6.9.1. Content developers must leverage Assistive Technology to design accessible courses. For example, videos should be available with captions for those who have hearing disabilities and there should be audio support for the students with visual disabilities. Students with visual disabilities should be able to access content using screen reader technology. If the PDF is simply a scanned image, the screen reader technology will not be able to read it. Then students with reading difficulties (Dyslexia) have limited abilities to read the printed word and need access to assistive technologies that allow them to view the word and also hear it at the same time.

6.9.2. While designing accessible courses, the teachers must consider (i) easy-toread fonts, (ii) colour contrast for the text, (iii) simple formatting, (iv) adding of audio/video files. Avoid unnecessary use of bold and italics. The audio contents should be prepared to have no background noise. It is important to include transcripts of audio and video lectures which students can access with assistive technologies.

7.3.6. Examining body should also provide reading materials in Braille or e-text or on a computer having suitable screen reading software for open book examination. Similarly, online examination should be in accessible format i.e., websites, question papers and all other study materials should be accessible as per the international standards laid down in this regard.

8.1.1 Integration of resources/services prior to the admission

The admission information must be displayed on the website with a full description of the process in audio/video mode with a separate column along with contact details of designated officials.

8.3.2 Library Services for the persons with visual disabilities To cater to the needs of persons with visual disabilities and person with print disabilities, libraries need to provide the service of magnifiers, digital accessible information system, digitized catalogue, web-braille system, screen readers and screen magnifiers support with appropriate software such as JAWs, NVDA, Super OVA, Kurzweil etc., large-print books, scanners, converting documents via OCR reader, alternate format services, talking notice boards, provision of tactile maps at conspicuous places, accessible websites and digital libraries

Technology plays key role in fostering and promoting distance education due to its reach to the larger population in a very short time. It has ability to communicate and disseminate information with great transparency and effectively, so that the end user of it can grasp the information in a greater speed and there is no space of ambiguity in any operational procedures even in teaching learning and evaluation process. The technology also can be cost effective and time saving in any major task accomplishment. In this context, Digital Learning has brought great revolution in the field of education. For PWDs also Digital learning has become blessing because of it’s quality of customization as per individual’s need. Hence small efforts in making Digital Learning disable friendly, would also can bring great change in their lives. Similarly, Digital learning will help to become VI learner more independent, competent and competitive as their other sighted peer groups. Few steps such as developing online portal such as Samarth Portal, Grievance Redressal portal and similar type of other portal which provides online student support services accessible following WCAG guideline, considering the need of VI learner. Making IGNOUmain website and Regional Centre’s website accessible as per standard suggested by UGC recent guideline can create great scope in Digital Learning for VI learner in any education system in general and distance education in particular. In this process feedbacks and inputs, obtained from the concerned group would bring better and positive result which can become exemplar for other education institutions as well. Similarly, time-to-time access audit would also help to update Digital Learning mechanisms as per individual’s need.

1. Accessibility guidelines and standards for higher education institutions and universities https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/8572354_Final-Accessibility-Guidelines.pdf(Accessed on 19.02.2023)
2. Arrigo, M. (2005). E-learning accessibility for blind students. Recent Research Developments in Learning Technologies, 8(2), 1-5. http://medialt.no/pub/utin/Blind%20students.pdf
3. Bocconi, S., Dini, S., Ferlino, L., Martinoli, C., & Ott, M. (2007). ICT educational tools and visually impaired students: different answers to different accessibility needs. In Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Applications and Services: 4th International Conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction, UAHCI 2007 Held as Part of HCI International 2007 Beijing, China, July 22-27, 2007 Proceedings, Part III 4 (pp. 491-500). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-73283-9_55
4. Hadley, J., Kulier, R., Zamora, J., Coppus, S. F., Weinbrenner, S., Meyerrose, B., ... & Khan, K. S. (2010). Effectiveness of an e-learning course in evidence-based medicine for foundation (internship) training. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 103(7), 288-294. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1258/jrsm.2010.100036
5. Kent, M. (2015). Disability and eLearning: Opportunities and barriers. Disability Studies Quarterly, 35(1). https://production.ojs.dsq-sds.org/index.php/dsq/article/view/3815
6. Permvattana, R., Armstrong, H., & Murray, I. (2013). E-learning for the vision impaired: A holistic perspective. International Journal of Cyber Society and Education, 6(1), 15-30. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/209195/
7. Retorta, M. S., &Cristovão, V. L. L. (2017). Visually-impaired Brazilian students learning English with smartphones: Overcoming limitations. Languages, 2(3), 12. https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/2/3/12