CHALLENGES FACED BY VISUALLY IMPAIRED STUDENTS APPEARING FOR BOARD EXAMINATION

The world is yet to be brighter for the visually impaired children. Visual impairment means being with low vision or no vision. The life and world of visually impaired children are totally different than those with vision. Braille language enables the visually impaired student to read and write in their schools. Talking library enables learning further. However, they face challenges in appearing for board examination. The researcher was interested in knowing the challenges faced by them and to find out strategies to overcome the challenges. The researcher adopted Explanatory Research design and Conative model of Mary Goodyear (2013) for Focused Group Discussion. The methodology adopted in conducting focused group discussion was based on Krueger and Casey's, (2000) model. The researcher selected samples from a particular school for the visually impaired in Madurai. By adopting census method, all the visually impaired students appearing for board examination were selected for the study. By using the focused group script, which is a tool for data collection, the challenged faced by the respondents were identified. They were exam fear, difficulty in recalling, particularly the steps and formula in Maths, no career guidance or lack of motivation, non – conducive family atmosphere, less number of revisions and exam preparation programs teaching mnemonics, and ill health of parents during examination. The researcher had suggested strategies to overcome challenges faced by the visually impaired students appearing for the board exam.