“nothing about us without us”: assistive technology and user studies of visually impaired people in university libraries

Abstract

The creation of international legislation in order to ensure the rights of people with disabilities had repercussions on the development of laws, ordinances, decrees and other legal instruments at the national level in several countries. Although there is a history of legislation in favor of people with disabilities, the social inclusion of this group was delayed in several countries, especially in the educational sphere. The issue of accessibility, in the planning of libraries, with emphasis on university students, is often not considered in this initial phase, being only thought of when a person with a disability seeks face-to-face service. In this direction, the functions of Assistive Technology resources are added as methodologies, instruments or equipment to mediate access to information for users with visual impairments and their contribution to making the university library truly an inclusive space. However, the existence of several determining factors, including the presence of architectural, attitudinal and informational barriers, widen the distance between libraries and people with visual impairments or establish a superficial bond, in which products and services are emphasized, while user needs are often not consulted and are rarely addressed. This study aimed to identify, in the literature of user studies, the perceptions of people with visual impairments about the Assistive Technology resources present in university libraries. As a theoretical framework, aspects related to the historical path of attempts to include people with disabilities in society, the importance of Assistive Technology resources, with emphasis on university libraries, for the accessibility and social inclusion of people with disabilities in higher education and the user studies as a way of evaluating the satisfaction of the visually impaired person in relation to the use of Assistive Technology resources in university libraries. As methodological procedures, a literature review was carried out in five databases: Reference Databases of Articles in Information Science, Scientifc Electronic Library Online, Brazilian Portal of Open Access Scientific Publications and Data, Scopus and Web of Science, in which articles and reference articles that addressed the researched topic were selected. As a result, it was found that studies of users of people with visual impairments in university libraries are still scarce and that the Assistive Technology resources present in these spaces do not always contemplate the informational needs of this public. It is considered the need to carry out more in-depth future studies with people with visual impairments, reinforcing and fulfilling the motto “Nothing about us without us” and making them protagonists so that they are, in fact, benefited and included in the information society.