Attitudes of individuals with visual impairments towards distance education

The aims of this work were to examine the attitudes of individuals with visual impairments towards distance education (DE) and the relationships between attitudes and participants' personal characteristics. Forty-one adults with visual impairments, who ranged in age from 20 to 40, participated in this study. A self-constructed questionnaire measuring the attitudes towards DE was employed. The participants' answers revealed slightly positive emotions towards DE according to the affective component of attitudes, slightly positive attitudes when DE is compared with traditional education, and positive attitudes as far as the cognitive component of attitudes and participants' intention to participate in a DE programme were concerned. The elder participants seem to have more positive attitudes towards DE compared with younger participants. Furthermore, the greater the level of education, the more positive were the attitudes towards DE, and the greater the frequency of computer usage, the more positive were the attitudes towards DE. The analysis of the data collected revealed that the sample of individuals with visual impairments had slightly positive attitudes towards DE. Age, level of education, and frequency of computer usage were found to be significant predictors of the participants' attitudes.