The concept of information and questions of users with visual disabilities: an epistemological approach

• Published in: Journal of documentation 2014-09, Vol.70 (5), p.782-800
• Main Author: Stodola, Jiří Tomáš
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Exact sciences and technology; Information and communication sciences; Information science. Documentation; Library and information science. General aspects; Sciences and techniques of general use
• ISSN: 0022-0418; 0022-0418; 1758-7379
• DOI: 10.1108/JD-06-2012-0073

Purpose The aim of the paper is to evaluate the functionality of the particular epistemological schools with regard to the issues of users with visual impairment, to offer a theoretical answer to the question why these issues are not in the center of the interest of information science, and to try to find an epistemological approach that has ambitions to create the theoretical basis for the analysis of the relationship between information and visually impaired users. Design/methodology/approach A methodological basis of the article is determined by the selection of the epistemological approach. In order to think about the concept of information and to put it in relation to issues associated with users with visual impairment, a conceptual analysis is applied. Findings Most of information science theories are based on empiricism and rationalism; this is the reason for their low interest in the questions of visually impaired users. Users with visual disabilities are out of the interest of rationalistic epistemology because it underestimates sensory perception; empiricism is not interested in them paradoxically because it overestimates sensory perception. Realism which fairly reflects such issues is an approach which allows the providing of information to persons with visual disabilities to be dealt with properly. Research limitations/implications The article has a speculative character. Its findings should be supported by empirical research in the future. Practical implications Theoretical questions solved in the article come from the practice of providing information to visually impaired users. Because practice has an influence on theory and vice versa, we hope that the findings included in the article can serve to improve practice in the field. Originality/value This is first study linking questions of users with visual disabilities to highly abstract issues connected to the concept of information.