A study of EFL visually-impaired students in distance education in Ecuador

Abstract

Abstract:The aim of the study was to explore the educational inclusion of the English language in the modality of distance education for people diagnosed with visual impairment. To achieve the aim the resarcher reviewed peer-reviewed articles, the Ecuadorian law and individually interviewed twelve visually-impaired students from different regions of Ecuador who are studying English or have studied English in the university through distance education. The methodology employed was a phenomenology qualitative approach in which snowball sampling was utilized to recruit participants. The study explored from the perspective of EFL visually-impaired students. The data gathered suggests that the lack of training of EFL teachers in how to provide EFL instruction to visually-impaired students promote exclusion from the educational system to this population. The major research limitation of this study is the lack of data available about visually-impaired students in distance education in Ecuador. Keywords: Distance educaction, inclusion, visual impairment.