Media Information Literacy: The Perspective of Saudi Blind and Visually Impaired University Students

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to shed light on blind Saudi students' media information literacy status and experiences. The study used International Media & Information Literacy Survey (IMILS). Blind people ranked major search engines such as Google and Yahoo as the top resource consulted, followed by social networks sites such as Facebook and Twitter. When evaluating information, currency and trust were the main consideration. The most common application tools used to support search process by blind people were microblogs such as Twitter and Voice over Internet Protocol (e.g., Skype) Blind people face many difficulties when undertaking a search, such as having to sort through all the irrelevant results, evaluating the outcome of the search, and narrowing down the area of search. Blind and visually impaired people are at greatest risk of being socially excluded as a result of poor access to information. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2013.