Assistive Technologies and Patronage of Students with Hearing Impairment in 21st Century Nigerian Academic Libraries by Emem P. Udofia & Aloysius Daniel A.

ABSTRACT
This study was designed to investigate the availability of text phones and utilization by hearing-impaired students in university libraries of South—South Nigeria. One research question and hypothesis were formulated to guide the study. Survey research design was €mpl0yed. The population for the study was 57 hearing-impaired students from 10 universities in South-South Nigeria. A structured questionnaire was developed and used to elicit information from the respondents. Frequency and percentages were used to determine the level of availability and use. Pearson Products Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance.The findings revealed that significant relationship exists between availability of text phones and library patronage by hearing-impaired students in university libraries of South—South Nigeria. The findings also revealed the unavailability and use of text phones in the library. The study concludes that the availability and adequacy of text phones for the hearing-impaired students in university libraries of South-South Nigeria will increase patronage. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that universities in South—South Nigeria should provide text phones such as TTT, cell phone
and PDA for the hearing-impaired students in their respective libraries.
KEY WORDS: Text phones, cellphones, PDAs