Third Eye

Problem:

What does “independence” mean for persons with visual impairment (PVI)?

Method: 

Extracted data from r/Blind subreddit using the Python Reddit API Wrapper (PRAW). PRAW helped in extracting the top 1000 topics and comments for each topic. I combined the body and comments from each topic to build the corpus. Next, I used the root text ’independen’ to pattern match and extract all relevant instances of independence from the corpus. This resulted in 101 instances on which I used thematic analysis to examine the concept of independence as it appears in the r/Blind subreddit. I demonstrate how members of the r/Blind community cooperate to construct the meaning of independence through posts and comments.

Insights: 

How PVI perceive independence is influenced by their individual life experiences. For instance, independence can have different meanings for a person who was born with visual impairment and a person who gradually lost sight over time. However, technology and formal and informal learning seem to be two important paths to independence that this community agrees upon. Hence, assistive technology should provide flexibility and efficient training to help PVI ‘independently’ use it.