An Exploratory Study on Support Systems Available in Ghana for Fashion Skill Acquisition by the Visually Impaired

Jacqueline Ogoe, Ebenezer Kofi Howard, Ninette Appiah, Benjamin Kwablah Asinyo, Anthony Boakye Antwi (2023)

This study explored the views of respondents on systems available in Ghanaian institutions that support the acquisition of fashion skills by the visually impaired. The study was premised on the fact that the availability of these systems are not known to redirect and facilitate the skill development of the visually impaired in fashion. Specifically, the study assessed the experiences of visually impaired individuals concerning systems available to enable them to enroll and acquire fashion-related skills. The case study research design was adopted to select and report data qualitatively. Interview and Focus Group Discussion were used to collect data from twenty-seven visually impaired students and six Fashion and Special Education experts. The respondents were reached through the adoption of purposive, convenience and snowball sampling techniques. With the aid of Nvivo software version 14, thematic analysis was carried out and presented as findings in this study. The study revealed that the Ghanaian educational system struggles to provide systems supportive for training the visually impaired with fashion skills. It was recommended that the government and institutions that provide
aids for visually impaired education, implement the necessary support systems to train the visually impaired with fashion skills in order to develop and empower their creative abilities in fashion.