Barriers for Working Women with Visual Impairment in Special Education Institutions of Punjab: An Exploratory Research

Abstract

Working women with visual impairment in special education have a dual role to perform in their normal lives. This exploratory study was intended to seek the barriers for working women with visual impairment in the special education institutions in the province of Punjab. It involved qualitative gathering data technique interviews by administering a self-developed semi-structured interview protocol from working women (N = 15) with visual impairment from special education institutions (N = 04) Punjab through purposive sampling technique. The validity of the self-developed semi-structured interview was confirmed through the relevant field’ expert’s opinion (N = 03). The reliability of the instrument was examined through an extensive literature review. There were four major themes that emerged from the thematic analysis technique i.e, perception of working women, Barriers for working women, efforts for facilitation, and strategies for eliminating barriers. The findings of the study revealed that the majority of the working women consider their job as the most important aspect of their social life. Additionally, the majority of working women face different types of barriers in their workplace. This study strongly recommends that a comprehensive training programme on a regular basis should be administered at the departmental level to facilitate working women in their workplace. The department must establish a special section to eliminate the probable barriers for working women in special education.