Information Behaviour of Visually Impaired Users in the Era of COVID-19 Pandemic in Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

There is a scarcity of research on the information behavior of visually impaired users during the COVID-19 epidemic, and people with visual impairment make up a significant portion of the population in Lagos State, Nigeria. Individuals living with one sort of visual impairment also needed knowledge to be productive and contribute positively to national development, which is why advocacy for equal access to information has been on the rise. This paper tends to document what information visually impaired persons sought after to cope with the current pandemic and life situation in general. Tips on how to address the information demands of the visually impaired efficiently using creative techniques and information technology are provided.

Keywords

• Information Behaviour
• Visually Impaired person
• COVID-19 Pandemic
• Lagos State
• Nigeria

References

1. CDC (2020). Novel coronavirus, Wuhan, China. Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/index.html
2. NCDC (2020). The first case of coronavirus disease confirmed in Nigeria. Retrieved from: https://ncdc.gov.ng/news/227/first-case-of-corona-virus-disease-confirmed-in-nigeria
3. Ramzy, A. & McNeil, D.G. (2020). WHO declares global emergency as Wuhan coronavirus spreads. The New York Times. Retrieved from: https://nyti.ms/2RER70M
4. Sahib, N.G., Tombros, A. & Stockman, T. (2012). A comparative analysis of the information seeking behavior of visually impaired and sighted searchers. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 63(2), 377-391.
5. Wang, S. & Yu, J. (2017). Everyday information behavior of the visually impaired in China. Information Research, 22(1), Paper 743. Zaid, Y. A. (2017). Information provision for students with visual impairment in Nigerian universities: Charting a course from project to service delivery. Journal of Applied Information Science and Technology, 10(1), 1-10.
6. Zhu, N., Zhang, D., Wang, W., Li, X.. Yang, B. & Song, J. (2020). Arrival of coronavirus from patients with pneumonia in China, 2019. The New England Journal of Medicine, 382, 727-733. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10/1056/nejmoa2001017