Author(s): Rachel Annoh and Ernest Gyan

Classrooms within Akwapim North Municipality Senior High Schools adopt a traditional seating arrangement of rows and columns, designed to allow students a clear line of sight to the teacher and instructional materials on the work board or whiteboard. To explore the intricacies of students’ seating preferences in relation to their vision impairment status, a survey involving 147 Senior High School students (comprising 41 males and 106 females) was conducted. The study collected responses from three distinct classrooms: an Arts Class, a Science class, and a Business class in July 2023. A questionnaire was employed to investigate the motivations behind students’ choices of seating. The results of the survey unveiled a diverse array of ten distinctive seating preferences based on students’ visual impairment statuses. These preferences are as follows: (1) a preference for seats in close proximity to the work board (81.5%), (2) the utilization of middle seats (80.8%), (3) a penchant for back seats (56.7%), (4) a willingness to sit anywhere (64.2%), (5) a tendency among visually impaired students to be indifferent about their seating choices, (6) the utilization of spectacles as an aid (11.5%), (7) reliance on human recorders (8.1%), and (8) the use of electronic recorders (0.1%) to enhance their learning experience in the classroom. Furthermore, some students (9) lack the autonomy to select their seats, while (10) others prefer the first column of seats reserved for them in the class (0.6%). The findings underscore the direct link between students’ visual impairment needs and their preferences for specific seating arrangements that align with their learning enhancements. This study emphasizes that the diversity in visual impairment statuses among Senior High School students plays a substantial role in determining their seating choices.