ICT Resources for Education of Sensory Disabled Children in Inclusive Setup: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Education enhances the worth of every human being, and to deny education to someone is to disallow him from realising his full worth and potential. India is experiencing a major shift in educational set-up from segregation to humanity and right-based inclusive education where all children and adults, with their individual strengths and weaknesses, with their anticipations and potentials, have the Right to Education. It is considered that the school system of the country needs to make the required changes in existing processes and operations to meet the needs of all kinds of children under one roof. To meet this objective, information and communication technology (ICT) has been globally accepted and has come up as an instrument to bring change in the system. It includes all those technological tools (hardware and software) which a teacher uses in her classroom to impart knowledge, develop comprehension, practical and presentation skills. In the present research paper, an attempt has been made ‘to study the usage of ICT resources for sensory disabled children in inclusive schools at Secondary Stage’. A sample of 60 regular teachers has been selected from 20 Delhi inclusive schools through purposive sampling. Check list, Likert scale and interview schedule have been used as tools for data collection. The main finding of the study revealed that despite the fact that ICT tools have greater potential to foster and actualise inclusive practices in schools, their usage is still limited due to various reasons like inadequate resources, lack of positive attitude, lack of knowledge, time and institutional support and insufficient collaborative approach. Although many aspects of the economy and the society have been transformed through ICT, it has yet to have a tremendous transformational influence on education.