ACCESSIBLE DISTANCE EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY OF BLIND AND DEAF STUDENTS IN UNIVERSITAS TERBUKA

Abstract

Universitas Terbuka (UT) currently has hundreds of disabled students who must be considered for their accessibility to the learning process. However, until now, the accessibility of disabled students is still limited because there are no special services that accommodate them. This study aims to analyze the needs and obstacles of UT’s disabled students, especially those with blind and deaf, in accessing open and distance learning (ODL). Data were obtained through in-depth interview with qualitative inductive analysis methods. The latest of this research lies in the object of the research, namely disabled students, especially those who study in universities with an ODL system. The results of this study show that UT’s disabled students still have obstacles in accessing various information about lectures, such as learning socialization, scholarships, and other supporting activities. In addition, blind students face obstacles in studying graphs, reading tables, and understanding calculations. This research suggests the need for special services for disabled students, both physical and non-physical, that support the learning process of disabled students, such as consultation services, training of educational personnel, disabled-friendly websites, sign language interpreter facilities, and specific service units as well as the formation of communities to facilitate communication and dissemination of information among fellow disabled students.