Making accommodations for students with visual impairments to participate in the Nominal Group Technique

This research formed part of a larger study concerning an investigation of the e-learning needs of students with disabilities, which involved the use of the Nominal Group Technique (NGT). The NGT is a highly structured consensus method which involves four phases, as follows: Silent generation; round-robin of sharing; open discussion and anonymous voting. The NGT has proven to be a student-friendly data gathering technique and was employed in this study as it was important to provide an opportunity for the participants to discuss and prioritise their e-learning related needs, as well as their recommendations in this regard. The inclusion of students with visual impairments presented challenges, however, as these participants would not be able to read from a hard copy chart sheet or to respond in handwriting. The nominal group process therefore had to be adapted to make accommodations for this category of participants. The objectives in making accommodations for students with visual impairments were to enable them to participate in a particular study and to explore the possibility of conducting the NGT by the use of technology, thus increasing participation for students in distributed locations. The aim of this study required qualitative research and an explorative, descriptive and contextual design was followed. An action research approach, involving cycles of plan, act, observe and reflect was taken. These cycles related to making adaptations to the NGT as data gathering method, to include the specific group of participants. The anticipated use of the Blackboard® online chat tool was abandoned when a range of discoveries was made with regard to the participation of students with visual impairments in a chat. The problems encountered necessitated a review of plans, which initiated a second cycle of action research. The NGT was adapted, but the adaptations limited participation. Yet another cycle of action research is indicated to ensure the full participatio- of students with visual impairments in studies of this nature in future. Furthermore, recommendations were made for technological advancement for students with disabilities at the institution.