Facilitating the Barriers in Physical Activities of Students with Visual Impairment at Elementary Level Special Education in Pakistan

Abstract

Sports and physical activity tend to contributes in improving balance, posture, coordination,motor skills and quality of life among children with visual impairment (VI) (Bouchard &Tétreault, 2000; Ilhan et al., 2021).It promotes fitness, ensures health benefits (Haegele&Porretta, 2015) and positively impact on ability to perform daily live activities (Engel-Yeger&Hamed-Daher, 2013). This study intends to identify the barriers of physical activity for children with VI in Pakistan, and at the same time aims to explore the possible facilitators that may be in practice or are possible in the context of Pakistan to support inclusive sports and physical activity of children with VI in Pakistan. Using descriptive research, a sample of 200 special education teachers of students with VI (senior special education teachers (N=75), junior special education teachers (N=75) and orientation mobility instructors(N= 50)) was taken from special education department Govt. of Punjab, Pakistan by using simple random sampling technique. Two self-developed scales, Barriers Identification Scale and Facilitating Strategies Scale were used for the data collection. The collected data was analyzed by computing mean scores, ANOVA & t-test through SPSS.