One limitation of this study was the reliance on college disability centers and community groups to target appropriate
staff members and students. Thus, the disability centers may have targeted specific students, rather than all students with visual impairments. In addition, those who volunteered to participate may represent staff and students who are most motivated, possibly because of their own concerns in relation to higher education. Furthermore, for reasons of confidentiality, the institutions of the participants were not recorded, and it is possible that some of the individuals in this study were from the same institutions. Thus, the sample cannot be considered random, and the results need to interpreted in light of this limitation. The second limitation was the small sample of the study, which partly reflects the small population of students with visual impairments who attend Canada’s institutions of higher education. However,
the findings do reflect students’ experiences, given the consistency of the responses. Yet, the students who responded
likely represent a more experienced group of students, given their age and higher education experiences. Future research should involve the first-year experiences of those students who enter directly from high school.
The third limitation is related to our reliance on indirect, rather than direct, observation. In this study, the staff and
students were asked about their perceptions. In addition, they speculated on issues such as the reasons why high school students do not apply to institutions of higher education and whether recruitment efforts are effective. Direct observation, such as following students longitudinally to see if they enter and complete their program of study or asking students who chose not to attend institutions of higher education about recruitment, was not undertaken.
Although there was considerable agreement among the participants, it is possible that the participants’ perceptions did not reflect reality (for example, the staff may have perceived that recruitment is ineffective when it is
actually effective). The fourth limitation is that we did not examine the effect of students’ levels of visual function and accommodation on students’ experiences. It is likely that those with less functional vision and lower levels of accommodation have different experiences from those of their peers with more functional vision and higher levels of accommodation, and this should be the focus of a future study.