Social Networking as a Learning Resource for Persons with Visual Impairment

Social networking sites are designed to foster social interaction in a virtual environment. Social networking facilitates communication and interaction among people by creating, sharing, and exchanging information and ideas posted in the profile. It allows users to choose friends and post public messages on one another's walls. People can make different academic groups to share professional information and knowledge. Persons with visual impairment are also using social networking but limited research is available about how persons with visual impairment interact on social networking sites. The main objectives of this study were to 1) identify types of social networks used by persons with visual impairment 2) describe how persons with visual impairment use social networking websites. Thirty five (35) persons with visual impairment (selected through snowball sampling technique) from different universities of the Punjab province participated in this study. A self-developed structured interview schedule with five open ended questions was used to elicit responses from subjects of the study. Data were analyzed by using codes and deriving themes from information gathered from persons with visual impairment. Conclusions were drawn and recommendations were made.