Perception of Special Needs Undergraduates on The Use of Assistive Technology for Academic Purposes

Abstract

There have been several efforts to ensure special needs students are not been left disadvantaged in their classroom activities. However, if students have a negative perception of the use of these technologies, they will be discouraged from using such technologies. This study, therefore, investigates the perception of special needs undergraduates on the use of assistive technology for academic purposes. Also, the influence of gender on their perception of the use of assistive technology for academic purposes was investigated. The research design adopted for this study is descriptive survey research. The target population for this study comprised of two hundred (200) special needs undergraduate students from special needs institutions in Nigeria. The study adopted a multi-stage sampling technique in selecting the sampled schools and the respondents. Data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, and t-test. The findings established that Undergraduate Students acquire a strong Perception towards the ease of use and usefulness of Assistive technology. And gender does not influence the Undergraduate Students Perception of the ease of use and usefulness of Assistive technology. It was however recommended that effort should be made to continue to encourage special needs students to utilize assistive technologies for their academic purposes.