“Blinds’ Concerns are Always Disregarded”: Necessity of Revolutionizing English Education for Visually Impaired ELLs

Abstract

In an era where knowledge is paramount, every student deserves an education that empowers them for academic and professional success, regardless of disability. Focusing on the needs of visually impaired ELLs, this research presents a case study pinpointing gaps in prevailing teaching methods and introduces a revised approach based on 21st-century skills. The study involves four visually impaired fifth-grade students and their English teacher. The selection of the school and participants was based on the purposive sampling technique. Data was collected with the help of an observation checklist and an observer’s diary. A revised version of Bloom’s Taxonomy by Anderson et al. (2001) was used as a theoretical framework, and the top three levels of the taxonomy, along with the 4Cs and ICT literacy skills, were employed as a methodological framework. Content analysis (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) of the data revealed that the teacher uses a traditional pedagogical approach in the classroom, due to which the students have underdeveloped higher order thinking skills (HOTS). Therefore, the methodology was designed to be used by educators to enhance the classroom performance, attitudes, and HOTS of visually impaired students.