ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Special Educational Needs
Transforming WhatsApp into an Inclusive Learning Platform for Visually Impaired Students
Provisionally accepted
- 1Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Jenderal Soedirman, Purwokerto City, Indonesia
- 2Serang Raya University, Serang, Indonesia
- 3Universitas Pembangunan Nasional Veteran Jakarta, Jakarta, Indonesia
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This research examines the transformative role of WhatsApp as an inclusive distance learning platform for visually impaired high school students in Bandung, Indonesia. By utilizing built-in accessibility features such as screen reader compatibility, voice commands, and multimedia sharing, WhatsApp enabled asynchronous, flexible, and structured learning experiences. Employing a qualitative approach involving six students and two teachers, data were collected through interviews, observations, and document analysis. The results indicate that WhatsApp served as a primary learning platform, enhancing structured learning, accommodating diverse learning styles, and improving both academic performance and student engagement. Students demonstrated self-regulation strategies, including notification management and academic group chats, while teachers adopted pedagogical adjustments to optimize accessibility. Overall, the findings affirm WhatsApp's transformative potential for inclusive education, offering valuable insights into strategies for equitable digital learning access.
Keywords: Inclusive education, distance learning, Visually impaired students, Mobile learning, WhatsApp platform
Received: 15 May 2025; Accepted: 20 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Istiyanto, Mardiana, Widjanarko and Ayuningtyas. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: S. Bekti Istiyanto, bekti.istiyanto@unsoed.ac.id
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.