Utilization of English Reading Strategies by the Visually Impaired

Student of Universitas Brawijaya for English Learning Material

Comprehension

Kurnia Asri Prasetyorini and Dita Dewi Palupi

Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities Universitas Airlangga Surabaya Dharmawangsa Dalam Street, Gubeng,

Surabaya, East Java 60286

Keywords: Reading Strategy, SET-BC, Visual Impairment

Abstract: Visual impairment is a disability that affects the eyes function. Although a person utilizes the corrective

lenses, he might still acquire the low vision ability that can impact his education performance, especially in

reading courses materials, since reading is a fundamental tool for critical and creative thinking that enable

the readers to acknowledge more information. Thus, there should be the reading strategies employed for the

learning material comprehension. This study aims to observe the reading strategies utilized by the visually

impaired student of Universitas Brawijaya in comprehending the English learning material. The Special

Education Technology-British Columbia (SET-BC) theory is adapted for observing the reading strategies.

By using observation, field notes, and interview as the methods of data collection, the data is acquired from

the participant who is a visually impaired male student majoring in English Language Education Program,

Universitas Brawijaya. The result demonstrates that there are three reading strategies employed by the

visually impaired student, i.e., paper strategy, e-text strategy, and auditory strategy. The significances of the

strategies are revealing that the strategies indeed assist the student in comprehending the English learning

materials and found out the most effective reading strategy for the visually impaired student.

1 INTRODUCTION

It is estimated by the World Health Organization

(WHO) and the World Bank (Officer, A. and

Posarac, A, 2011) that more than one billion people

suffer from various kind of disabilities. However,

disability becomes an issue of human rights since

people with disabilities are discriminated and often

not treated equally by their fellows without

disabilities, like in education (Officer, A. and

Posarac, A, 2011). For this concern, the concept of

inclusive education is established to eliminate

barriers and contribute reasonable adjustment to

enable all learners, either with or without

disabilities, in participating and attaining in the

regular settings as well as intensifying propinquity

and diminishing prejudgment to the people with

disabilities by their fellows without disabilities

(Officer, A. and Posarac, A, 2011). United Nations

Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization

(UNESCO, 2015) stated that “Persons with

disabilities can access an inclusive, quality, and free

primary education and secondary education on an

equal basis with others in the communities in which

they live.” (p. 6). In following the statement of

UNESCO about the educational right for the people

with disabilities, Universitas Brawijaya opens an

inclusive education that can accommodate the needs

of students with disabilities by establishing Pusat

Studi dan Layanan Disabilitas Universitas

Brawijaya.

Pusat Studi dan Layanan Disabilitas (Center for

Disability Studies and Services) Universitas

Brawijaya, abbreviated as PSLD UB, is an

institution which aims to actualize Universitas

Brawijaya as an inclusive university. Established in

2012, PSLD UB was constituted due to the absence

of access to the higher education for the people with

disabilities in Indonesia. Starting from the concern,

then PSLD UB was established after going through

some consideration among the university officials

about the operational system and the facilities for the

people with disabilities. By establishing PSLD UB,

Universitas Brawijaya, in fact, attempts to raise an

210

Prasetyorini, K. and Palupi, D.

Utilization of English Reading Strategies by the Visually Impaired Student of Universitas Brawijaya for English Learning Material Comprehension.

DOI: 10.5220/0008216000002284

In Proceedings of the 1st Bandung English Language Teaching International Conference (BELTIC 2018) - Developing ELT in the 21st Century, pages 210-219

ISBN: 978-989-758-416-9

awareness about the educational right for people

with disabilities in Indonesia, so that the people with

disabilities can acquire the equality of educational

rights like their fellows without disabilities (Pusat

Studi dan Layanan Disabilitas Universitas

Brawijaya, 2017).

PSLD UB functions as a service provider for

the people with disabilities as well as a research

center for the disability issues (Pusat Studi dan

Layanan Disabilitas, 2017). As a service provider,

PSLD UB assists the students with disabilities by

empowering volunteers with certain criteria to assist

the students in their learning process in the inclusive

classrooms. Then as a research center, PSLD UB

becomes a place for the academics and researchers

to conduct the research regarding the disability

issues. By serving these functions, the objectives of

PSLD UB are providing the opportunities for the

people with disabilities to acquire the higher

education as well as providing the opportunities for

the academics and researchers in enriching the

knowledge in the disability field as well as

increasing public’s awareness on the disability

issues.

In becoming a service provider for the people

with disabilities, PSLD UB accepts many students

with different categories of disabilities to study in

various departments in Universitas Brawijaya. Since

2012, there are 111 students with various range of

disabilities, such as autism, hearing impairments,

visual impairments, mental retardation, and so on,

majoring in various departments, such as fine arts,

English language education, international relations,

accounting, sociology, psychology, visual

communication design, information technology, and

so forth (Pusat Studi dan Layanan Disabilitas, 2017).

This demonstrates that Universitas Brawijaya does

not distinguish the category of disabilities to be

accepted in the university. The students also own the

rights to choose the departments they desire to enroll

in, although there are some departments which

restrict the acceptance of the students with

disabilities regarding the safety and capability of the

students.

One of the disability categories accepted in

Universitas Brawijaya is visual impairment. In

Universitas Brawijaya, like other students with

different disabilities, the visually impaired students

enroll in the regular classes. However, since they

have special needs, they might encounter some

obstacles in enrolling in the regular classes. One of

the obstacles encountered by the students is the

reading skill. In the regular classes, the adjusted

material given to the visually impaired students is

limited. The assistance of the volunteer empowered

by PSLD UB is also often insufficient for the

students in their learning process. Thus, the visually

impaired students require the specific reading

strategies in comprehending the materials given to

them, as well as specific materials and equipment

that meet their needs for the learning process in the

regular classes (Hallahan, D. P. and Kauffman, J. M,

1991).

Noting the phenomenon of students with visual

impairment above, this study aims to observe the

reading strategies utilized by the visually impaired

student majoring in English Language Education

Program, Faculty of Cultural Studies, Universitas

Brawijaya in comprehending the English learning

material. In observing the reading strategies, the

reading strategy created by the Special Education

Technology-British Columbia (SET-BC) is adapted

as the reference. This study attempts to reveal

whether the strategies employed by the students

actually assist him in comprehending the English

learning materials and also to discover the most

effective reading strategy to be utilized by the

visually impaired student. After finding out the

reading strategy employed by the visually impaired

student, this study may be useful for the lecturers

and other visually impaired students in

understanding the kind of strategies suitable for

them to utilize in order to acquire the good reading

comprehension in the learning process.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Visual impairment is a disability that affects the eyes

function that although a person utilizes the

corrective lenses, he might still acquire the low

vision ability that can impact his education

performance (Gargiulo, 2012). Visual impairment is

determined by the legal definition and educational

definition (Hallahan, D. P. and Kauffman, J. M,

1991). The legal definition of visual impairment is

employed to determine a person’s sight disability

from the medical perspective, in which the Snellen

chart is usually involved to measure the visual acuity

and the vision field a person acquires under certain

state (Hallahan, D. P. and Kauffman, J. M, 1991;

Gargiulo, 2012).

The legal definition generalizes the visual

impairment as blind (Hallahan, D. P. and Kauffman,

J. M, 1991). Blind is then divided into three

categories, i.e., legally blind, partially blind, and

totally blind. Legally blind is a kind of visual

impairment which occurs to a person with the visual

Utilization of English Reading Strategies by the Visually Impaired Student of Universitas Brawijaya for English Learning Material

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211

acuity of 20/200 or less even with correction, or a

person with a really narrowed field of vision which

the widest diameter spans an angular distance no

more than 20 degrees (Hallahan, D. P. and

Kauffman, J. M, 1991). Then, partially blind or

partially sighted is a type of visual impairment

which occurs to people whose visual acuity only

reaches between 20/70 and 20/200 with correction

(Hallahan, D. P. and Kauffman, J. M, 1991). Next,

totally blind or functionally blind is a category of

visual impairment which occurs to a person who has

no function of vision at all and relies primarily on

other senses like tactual or auditory skills (Gargiulo,

2012).

However, this legal definition is considered as

inadequate by educators in predicting a person’s

remaining visual function since the legal definition

relies only on the visual acuity and the vision field in

determining the sight disability of a person. Thus,

the educational definition of visual impairment is

required to be determined. The educational

definition of visual impairment, unlike the legal

definition, considers someone with the little ability

to see not as someone who is blind, but as someone

who has low vision. This comprehension is acquired

since not all people who suffer from visual

impairment lose their vision at all. A person is

considered to acquire the low vision when his

performance in daily activities is affected by the

visual impairment occurs to him. Yet, the person

with low vision can still employ his remaining sight

by utilizing the specific assistance media (Gargiulo,

2012).

The individuals with visual impairment are

assumed to have lower intellectual ability compared

to their sighted peers, yet in fact, both the

individuals with and without visual impairment own

the similar intellectual ability (Gargiulo, 2012).

Thus, visual impairment does not spontaneously

generate lower intelligence (Hayes, 1941;

Dijkhuizen, et al., 2016; Majerova, 2015; Ludíková

and Finková, 2012; Vrăşmaş, 2014). However, most

visually impaired individuals tend to experience

academic delays and require additional assistance to

follow the school activities due to the defiance they

encounter in the learning process (Salleh and Ali,

2010). This is also related to the restricted

development of conceptual abilities since the

visually impaired individuals are more likely to

depend on their tactual sense rather than the visual

experience (Gargiulo, 2012; Hallahan and

Kauffman, 1991). This what makes it challenging

for the visually impaired individuals to engage in the

learning activities, particularly in reading the

materials.

Reading, as one of the important skills for the

learning process, is a fundamental tool for critical

and creative thinking that enable the readers to

acknowledge more information (Braunger, 2006).

Reading functions to clarify the underlying meaning

of a text (Küçükoğlu, 2013). Particularly for the

college students, reading becomes an important skill

to achieve since they are the independent learners

who are required to obtain other sources of

knowledge other than the classroom, where they

usually acquire the materials only from the lecturers.

The students are required to comprehend and utilize

the information from the texts they find, and this

becomes crucial for their success in the learning

process (Monet, 2003). Thus, to reach this objective,

students need specific strategies that enable them to

achieve the good reading comprehension.

Reading strategy is a sequence of events the

learners actively employ in reading to develop their

reading ability (Nunan, 2003). The reading strategy

is employed to assist the readers, especially learners,

to understand the meaning of the texts they read

(Monet, 2003; Nordin, et al., 2013). The strategy is

meant to solve the difficulty of reading texts in the

more efficient way (McNamara, 2009). Brown

(2004), for example, develops ten strategies for

reading comprehension, i.e., identifying the purpose

in reading, using graphemic rules and patterns to

assist in bottom-up decoding for the beginner

learners, employing efficient silent reading

techniques for relatively rapid comprehension for

the intermediate and advanced learners, skimming,

scanning, semantic mapping and clustering, guessing

when learners are uncertain, analyzing vocabulary,

distinguishing between literal and implied meaning,

and capitalizing on the discourse markers to process

relationships.

However, not all students are able to utilize the

exact same reading strategies. When students strive

to read, the additional instruction which focuses on

the matter leading to the impediment is required

(University of Texas , 2004). Students with visual

impairment might need other unconventional

strategies regarding their sight disability since

reading engages the visual symbol system printed

together to convey ideas (Savage, J. F. and Mooney

J. F, 1979). These strategies are adjusted to their

specific categories of visual impairment to assist

them to comprehend the reading material. One of the

reading strategies specified for the visually impaired

students is created by the Special Education

Technology-British Columbia.

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The Special Education Technology-British

Columbia, abbreviated as SET-BC, is a provincial

resource program based in Vancouver, British

Columbia, Canada, held by B.C. Ministry of

Education. Established in 1989, SET-BC serves the

physically disabled students by providing the

technology-based services which assist the students

in their learning process in schools. SET-BC was

initially sponsored as a trial program and was

conducted by the people from both the Ministry of

Education and the Ministry of Health. The concerns

of SET-BC are the students with special needs to be

included into the regular classrooms as well as being

expected to participate in the standard curriculum

activities, the development of new technologies to

enable students with disabilities to be more actively

engaged in their educational programs, and the

Provincial Advisory Committee on Computers,

which examined the technology utilization in the

school system, suggested that technology services

for special education should be a priority (Nees and

Berry, 2013; Regec and Pastieriková, 2013; Roberts,

Crittenden, Crittenden, 2011).

The objective of SET-BC is to actualize the

opportunities for the students with physical

disabilities to learn their school materials through

the utilization of assistive technology. The assistive

technology can be adjusted based on the personal

use, ranging “from access to word processing for a

student with fine motor control, to screen readers for

students who are blind or visually impaired, to

switch access for a student who has limited or no use

of their hands, to content enhanced with picture

symbols for students’ with emerging literacy and/or

communication skills” (British Columbia Teachers’

Federation, 2005). SET-BC cooperates with the

school districts in British Columbia by providing the

assistive technologies, such as the reading, writing,

and communication tools, to facilitate their students

in participating in the school activities. Besides

providing the technologies, SET-BC also conducts

the socialization to train the students in utilizing the

technologies. The training includes “streaming

audio-video webcasts, technology-specific narrated

demonstrations, and user tutorials” (British

Columbia Teachers’ Federation, 2005).

SET-BC creates different guidebooks for

teachers in teaching the students with different

disabilities. These guidebooks are also divided based

on the skills the teachers attempt to educate the

students. This division of different guidebooks with

a different focus of skills enables the teachers to

focus on teaching a particular skill to their students

with a specific disability. For training reading skill

to the students with visual impairment, SET-BC

provides a specific guidebook consisting reading

strategies that can be employed by the teachers in

training the reading skill. In the guidebook, SET-BC

(2008) divides reading strategies into three

categories based on the types of media that students

utilize to accomplish the reading tasks, i.e., paper

strategies, e-text strategies, and auditory strategies.

For the paper strategies, the media that can be

employed in assisting the students in their reading

skill are the regular print, handled magnification,

enlargement of small amounts of text, large print

copy, standalone video magnification, video

magnification with computer integration, and paper

braille. For the e-text strategies, the utilized media

are the non-enhancement regular e-text, changing

text appearance, magnifying text and/or computer

screen, tracking support, auditory support, and

refreshable braille. Then, the media employed for

the auditory strategies are the live reader, auditory

books on CD, and digital audio files.

There are previous studies regarding the

assistive technology utilized by the visually

impaired students. Alves, et al. (2009) attempted to

justify the utilization of assistive technology for the

visually impaired students’ education from their

teachers’ perception. The result exhibited that the

teachers considered that the specific computer

programs were required for specific visual

impairment cases. However, since it lacked planning

course, the pedagogical support was also still

required in the learning process. Then, Emerson, et

al. (2009) aimed to examine the different effects

between the contracted and uncontracted braille

teaching to the visually impaired young children’s

literacy skills. The result demonstrated that the

students who were taught the contracted braille

exhibited the better performance on the reading

measure, yet all students had no problem in spelling.

The study concluded that the literacy would be

acquired better if the teacher focused mainly on the

basic reading skills without considering the

introduction of either contracted or uncontracted

braille. Next, Argyropoulos, et al. (2014) conducted

an action research project which focused on the

development and consolidation of teachers’

knowledge in the utilization of assistive technology

for teaching the visually impaired students as well as

engaging the teachers and the students in an

interactive domain like the digital educational game.

The result showed that the digital educational game

as an example of assistive technology was an

advantageous tool in both becoming an instructional

material for the teachers and encouraging the

Utilization of English Reading Strategies by the Visually Impaired Student of Universitas Brawijaya for English Learning Material

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213

visually impaired students in engaging in the class

activities.

3 METHOD OF THE STUDY

3.1 Research Design

The case study is employed as the research design.

The case study is conducted to obtain detail

information about the student’s reading strategies as

well as finding out the most effective strategy

utilized by the visually impaired student.

3.2 Data Source

There are two categories of data source, i.e., the

primary data and the secondary data. The primary

data is obtained from the visually impaired student

while the secondary data is acquired from the field

notes and observation processes. The primary data is

obtained by setting some criteria in selecting the

participant, i.e., the participant is visually impaired

and currently majoring in English Language

Education Program, Faculty of Cultural Studies,

Universitas Brawijaya. By setting the criteria, then a

participant who meets the criteria is acquired. The

participant is a male student who suffers from visual

impairment and he is currently in the second

semester of English Language Education Program.

The participant is then interviewed to gain some

information about the strategies he utilizes in

reading the material handed to him. Moreover, the

secondary data is acquired by taking some field

notes and conducting some observation during the

teaching and learning process in the class. The field

notes and observation processes are conducted to

record any activities related with the research

objective which later can support the data gained

from the interview with the participant.

3.3 Data Collection

For this study, the data were collected through

interview, observation, and field note. The interview

is conducted face to face with the participant by

asking open-ended and unstructured questions to

obtain his opinion and views about the reading

strategies he employed in comprehending the course

material. There are eleven questions arranged but

then are developed based on the condition when the

observation is conducted, i.e., in the class, which

related to the participant’s activities, particularly in

the material reading process. There are 46 elaborated

questions as the total since the interview is

conducted to obtain the deeper information and to

confirm the data obtained from the observation

process. Then, the observation process is conducted

in seven out of eight different courses taken by the

participant, which are Introduction to Literature,

Basic English Grammar, Paragraph Writing, Guided

Reading, Guided Speaking, Guided Listening, and

Introduction to Linguistics. These courses are

required to be observed since all the courses require

English as the language of instruction to deliver the

material related to the topic of this study. The

instrument utilized in the observation process is the

observation checklist adapted from the Special

Education Technology-British Columbia (SET-BC)

with some modifications to adjust with the requisites

of this study. Also, the field notes process is

employed along with the observation. The utilized

field notes are adapted from Creswell (2013). The

field notes are about any activities executed by the

participant to provide some additional details about

what happens during the teaching and learning

process, such as the lecture presentation,

examination and quizzes, and so on. There is a list of

indicators to examine the student’s activity in the

teaching and learning processes created in the field

note sheets, particularly focusing on the reading

process since the indicators can be specifically

elaborated to support the study.

3.4 Data Analysis

The acquired data are analyzed by referring to Miles

and Huberman (1994) data analysis process, which

are data reduction, data display, as well as

conclusion drawing and verification. In the data

reduction, the data obtained from interview,

observation, and field notes are selected. The

acquired data from the interview are reduced by

omitting the answers that are irrelevant with the

focus of the interview. Meanwhile, from the

observations and field notes, the acquired data are

reduced by selecting the activities related to the

topic of the study. Hence, in data display, the

observation, field notes, and interview data are

displayed in the form of narrative description.

Besides, the results of the observation are displayed

in the form of table to ease the readers in reading the

result of the observation. Last of all, the conclusion

from the results of the observation, field notes, and

interview are drawn. The results from each data

instrument are then cross-checked using data

triangulation to validate the result from those three

instruments.

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4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

4.1 Findings of the Observation and Field Note

The observation was conducted on March 29, April

18, April 20, April 22, and April 26, 2016. The data

were collected from the classroom activities,

especially in reading, reading material used by the

participant, and the role of the volunteers and

lecturers in assisting and teaching the participant.

The tables 4.1 and 4.2 demonstrates the notes taken

during the observation, which include the classroom

activities, reading strategies employed by the

participant, volunteer’s roles in assisting the

participant, and lecturer’s role in teaching the

participant’s class.

Table 4.1.1: Observation of reading strategies

employed by the visually impaired student.

Table 4.1.2: Observation of volunteer and lecturer’s

roles.

Course

Volunteer’s Role

Lecturer’s

Role

Course

 Helping the mobility

 Helping the participant

in writing and reading

the material from the

Teaching

regularly (no

special

treatment

power point

 presentation.

given)

Course

 Helping the mobility

 Reading the material

written on the

whiteboard.

 Giving a little

explanation of the task.

Teaching

regularly (no

special

treatment

given)

Course

 Helping the mobility

 Reading the question for

the participant.

 Reading the explanation

written on the

whiteboard.

 Giving an additional

explanation if the

participant seemed to not

understand the topic.

Teaching

regularly (no

special

treatment

given)

Course

 Helping the mobility

 Writing the material on

the cellphone.

 Writing the task given

by the lecturer.

Teaching

regularly (no

special

treatment

given)

Course

 Helping the mobility

 Reading the material

presented on the power

point.

Teaching

regularly (no

special

treatment

given)

Course

 Helping the mobility

 Reading the exercises on

the worksheet.

 Writing the answer of

the exercises.

Teaching

regularly (no

special

treatment

given)

Course

 Helping the mobility

 Reading the exercise on

the worksheet.

Teaching

regularly (no

special

treatment

given)

4.2 Findings of the Interview

After doing the observations, the interview with the

visually impaired student was then conducted. Based

on the interview, during the reading activities in the

classroom, the participant was assisted by a

volunteer empowered from the university. The

volunteer assisted him by helping the participant

reading the material and writing the answer to a quiz

or test. The employment of volunteer was included

into the live reader in the reading strategies adapted

from SET-BC. The participant mentioned that being

assisted by a volunteer was more effective rather

than utilizing the screen reader or Braille as the

reading strategy. But, sometimes the volunteer was

not able to assist the participant, so his classmates

help him to read the material. Furthermore, there

was no special material or media for the reading

Course

Classroom Activity

Reading

Strategies

Used

(SET-BC,

2008)

Course

 Presentation

Live reader

Course

 Discussing the mid-term

test result.

Live reader

Course

 Discussing the mid-term

test result.

 Discussing gerund and

infinitive in Betty Azhar

book.

Live reader

Course

 Discussing Morphology

Live reader

Course

 Discussing and presenting

about the favorite TV

program

Live reader

Course

 Discussing the worksheet

given by the lecturer about

‘Mystery’

Live reader

Course

 Discussing ‘guessing a

topic’ in a short text.

Live reader

Utilization of English Reading Strategies by the Visually Impaired Student of Universitas Brawijaya for English Learning Material

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material handed by the lecturers to the participant,

and the participant obtained the same reading

activity material as other students. However, even

though he preferred to employ the live reader inside

the class, sometimes he utilized the scan reader

application in his cellphone, i.e., Talk Back, to read

the material typed by the volunteer on her cellphone

and sent it to the participant via Bluetooth or email,

but unfortunately this method appeared only once

during the seven-course observations.

Meanwhile, the participant employed different

reading strategies when he was outside the class. It

happened because the assistance of the volunteer

was available only during the teaching and learning

process inside the class. The strategies utilized by

the participant were the screen reader and Braille. A

screen reader is an application employed to interpret

a text into audio. There were several applications

which could be utilized as the screen reader. In the

computer, the application name is Jaws. For the cell

phone, the application name is TalkBack.

Furthermore, the participant also employed

Braille as one of his reading strategies. The

participant explained that if the reading material was

not too long and could be summarized, he prefers to

use Braille as the reading strategies. In addition, he

also wrote down the explanations of the lecturers

that had been recorded using cellphone before the

explanations were changed into the form of Braille

by using a tool named Riglet. Riglet is a tool to write

in Braille which consists of slate, a mold to form a

Braille word, and a stylus. Besides, the participant

also could use Braille printer to write. The Braille

printer was provided by PSLD UB and the students

were allowed to use it. However, the participant

stated that the utilization of Braille printer was only

to print official books or documents such as national

examination worksheet, while if it is only for writing

some short materials, the participant preferred to use

Riglet. However, the participant said that Braille was

considered inefficient and wasteful since it spent a

lot of papers and could not be reused.

The participant also explained that Braille was

crucial to be mastered by the students with visual

impairment. The reason is that mastering Braille for

visually impaired students becomes a fundamental

requirement and it is as important as mastering

alphabet for the students without disabilities.

Besides, mastering Braille for the visually impaired

students is very influential for their reading activity.

Therefore, the participant suggested the students

with visual impairment to strengthen their Braille

mastery in the special school before entering

inclusive education since it is the fundamental

ability they need when they are going to join an

inclusive education. The participant himself was

enrolling in the inclusive education when he was in

the senior high school.

However, the participant had not recognized or

received any Braille textbook from the university.

The textbooks were mostly in the form of a soft file

in the PDF format. The participant mentioned that

the lecturers provided him the soft files because

based on the rule governed by the Ministry of

National Education about disability, the lecturers

should hand the students the soft files for their

learning process in joining in the class activities

(The Ministry of Education, 2014). This rule was

then conveyed to PSLD UB to be delivered to the

lecturers, then the lecturers informed this rule to the

students. However, if there was any printed material

handed by the lecturers, the participant could ask the

volunteer’s help to read the material.

Furthermore, if there were any notes written on

a paper by the volunteer, usually the participant

scanned the notes and converted it into JPEG format.

Yet, the additional application, such as Open Book

and Adobe Reader, is required to convert the JPEG-

formatted notes into the PDF format so it can be

read by the screen reader. However, the participant

stated that the notes were better typed into the digital

form since he could merely read it using the screen

reader without having to scan and convert it into the

PDF format. The information about the additional

applications was obtained from the shared

information among the members of the community

of visual impairment.

Moreover, based on the observation and

interview, the utilization of three reading strategies

mentioned by the participant, i.e., the live reader,

screen reader, and Braille, is employed depending on

the situation where the participant was. The live

reader (volunteer) was employed during the teaching

and learning process inside the class since it was

considered more flexible. Meanwhile, Braille was

used when the material handed by the lecturers was

not excessive, so the participant could record the

material then write it into Braille using Riglet.

Braille was also utilized when the participant

required to learn the material outside of the class.

Meanwhile, the screen reader was used when the

participant considered the material was excessive

and there was nobody that could assist him, so he

only required to read the material by listening to it

by using the scan reader. Above all, the participant

considered that the most effective reading strategy

for himself was the live reader.

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4.3 Discussions

In this section, the findings are discussed and

correlated with the theories related to the research

topic in order to answer the problem of the study.

The participant of this research is categorized as

totally blind, referring to the characteristics of totally

blind by Gargiulo (2012), which is no function of

vision existed in a person’s sight and the person

primary relies on other senses, such as tactual or

auditory skill to acquire information. Therefore, the

reading strategies used by the visual impairment

student both inside the class and outside the class are

adjusted based on the characteristics mentioned.

There are three reading strategies used by the

participant based on the observation and interview.

The first reading strategy employed by the

participant is the live reader and appears as the most

frequently used reading strategy by the participant

inside the class and considered as the most effective

reading strategy because of its flexibility. The reason

that the live reader is the most frequently used

reading strategy by the participant is that he

considers that the live reader, i.e., the volunteer, is

more flexible since the volunteer can read not only

the printed material but also the written material on

the whiteboard and the power point presentation.

Furthermore, the volunteer will explain if there are

any pictures presented during the teaching and

learning process. If there is material presented in the

power point presentation or written on a paper that

the participant does not understand, he can directly

ask the volunteer. This is in accordance with the

advantages of employing the live reader as the

reading strategy stated by SET-BC (2008) in which

by employing the live reader, the material in the

form of charts, graphics, and pictures can be

described.

Moreover, the participant is considered having

a good listening skill. It was seen during the

observation when the lecturer explained and asked a

question, the participant responded to it well. This is

supported by the statement of Hallahan and

Kauffman (1991) about the importance of mastering

listening skill for the visually impaired student as

one of their fundamental requirement of the

educational process since the students with visual

impairment will rely more on their auditory skill to

acquire information. However, the participant’s final

score did not really demonstrate his good listening

skill. The participant indeed acquires the good

listening skill, yet in the process of transferring the

idea into the written form, it depends on the

volunteer who assists him. Furthermore, the way the

volunteer assisted the participant in reading activity

was by reading the gist of the material provided in

the textbook or printed material. It was conducted

that way since the volunteer had to keep up with the

lecturer’s explanation. While the volunteer read the

material to the participant, the lecturer explained

another material, so the participant had to listen to

both explanations at once. However, the participant

said that he did not get confused since the volunteer

helped to reexplain what the participant did not

understand from the lecturer’s explanation.

Based on that reason, since the live reader is

considered as the most effective reading strategy

employed by the participant, it is better for the live

reader, i.e., the volunteer, to have good English

mastery. It is crucial for the volunteer to understand

how to correctly pronounce an English word and

how to spell it since she plays the main role in

reading the material for the participant. Therefore, in

this case, it is better if the volunteer enrolls in the

same department with the participant, i.e., the

English Language Education, or the English

Literature student to assist the participant during

teaching and learning process. The students from

these departments can assist the participant well

since they have the similar language of instruction,

i.e., English, for their courses as well.

The second reading strategy utilized by the

participant is the screen reader. The participant

mentioned that the screen reader is mostly utilized

outside the class when there is no volunteer to assist

him in reading the materials. Besides, the participant

also stated that the utilization of screen reader is

favorable when the reading material is lengthy. This

reading strategy is in accordance with the one from

SET-BC (2008), in which the screen reader is called

as ‘e-text with auditory support’ and categorized in

the electronic-text (e-text) reading strategies. This

type of reading strategy is suitable for the students

who have difficulties in reading. With the assistance

of the application, the computer voice will read the

electronic text for the students and they merely

require in listening to it. Further, SET-BC (2008)

also mentioned that providing e-text with auditory

support can develop the students’ literacy.

The third reading strategy employed by the

participant is Braille. This is in accordance with the

statement of Gargiulo (2012) about the employment

of tactual sensory, besides audio sensory, as the

reading strategy used by the visually impaired

students to acquire information. However, Hallahan

and Kauffman (1991) argued that the use of Braille

is considered hard to do and is more difficult rather

than reading the printed material. This happens

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217

because the student should remember the pattern of

each letter of Braille and they cannot read a word all

at once just like their sighted peers. It makes the

student with visual impairment read the Braille

materials slower than their sighted fellows. To

illustrate, the participant explained that he prefers

utilizing Braille as the reading strategy only if the

reading material is not lengthy and can be

summarized.

Moreover, the participant employs Braille when

he attempts to review the material explained by the

lecturer by writing it down. The way he writes the

material is by listening to the audio of the lecturer’s

explanation that has been recorded beforehand using

his cellphone. Then, he summarizes the material and

writes it in the form of Braille using Riglet on a

paper. In addition, even though the efficiency of

Braille is restricted (Hallahan, D. P. and Kauffman,

J. M, 1991), the participant said that mastering

Braille for visual impairment student is as crucial as

mastering alphabet for the sighted students.

Therefore, the participant suggested to the students

with visual impairment to strengthen their Braille

mastery by joining special school before entering the

inclusive education. This is supported by Kirk, et al.

(2009) that using Braille for visually impaired

students, especially the blind students, is the main

skill for communicating with the sighted world.

5 CONCLUSION

Based on the reading strategy adapted from the

Special Education Technology-British Columbia

(SET-BC) (2008), there are three reading strategies

employed by the visually impaired student, i.e.,

paper strategy, in the form of Braille; e-text strategy,

in the form of screen reader; and auditory strategy,

in the form of live reader. All these reading

strategies immensely assist the student in

comprehending the English learning materials inside

and outside the classroom. Yet, the most effective

reading strategy for the visually impaired student is

the live reader since it is flexible and more efficient

compared to the other two reading strategy. It means

that the fellow students with visual impairment in

inclusive environment can consider in utilizing the

strategy in reading the materials handed to them.

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