Assistive Technologies for Library Patrons with Visual Impairments in African Academic Libraries: A Systematic Review

This project is a systematic review examining whether academic libraries in Africa are structurally equipped to provide assistive technology (AT) access to patrons with visual impairments. The review is motivated by the observation that AT provision is not a discretionary institutional accommodation but a binding obligation under international and regional normative instruments — including the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the Marrakesh Treaty, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the African Union's Agenda 2063 — and by the fact that, despite these commitments, the extent to which African academic libraries actually meet them remains insufficiently understood. The review pursues three objectives: (1) to assess the accessibility of assistive technologies available to patrons with visual impairment in African academic libraries; (2) to analyse patterns and determinants of AT adoption; and (3) to identify the structural barriers constraining effective AT provision and use, including the extent to which these barriers and institutional responses to them align with the rights-based and technical instruments that formally obligate AT provision. Together, these objectives move from documenting what AT exists, to understanding why and how it is or isn't taken up, to explaining the structural conditions — financial, infrastructural, policy, attitudinal, and human-capacity — that sustain the gap between formal rights commitments and institutional practice. Methodologically, the review follows PRISMA 2020 guidelines for transparent and reproducible evidence synthesis, with the protocol preregistered on PROSPERO prior to the literature search. Evidence is drawn from a comprehensive search of major bibliographic databases (including LISTA, ERIC, Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Academic Search Complete, and Africa-Wide Information) supplemented by hand searches of leading library and disability-studies journals. Included studies are synthesised using a novel three-dimensional analytical framework developed specifically for this review: the AT Accessibility Index (ATAI), the Adoption Dynamics Scale (ADS), and the Barrier Severity Matrix (BSM), integrating disability-rights, sustainable-development, and library and information science perspectives. Expected outcomes: The review is expected to produce a synthesised, continent-spanning account of (a) the level and range of AT provision across African academic libraries, (b) the institutional and patron-level determinants of AT adoption, and (c) the structural barriers — and associated deficits in rights-based normative engagement — that constrain effective provision and use. Anticipated findings include evidence that sustained, standards-aligned AT provision is confined to a limited number of well-resourced institutions with dedicated disability infrastructure; that adoption is shaped more by institutional capacity than by patron awareness or technology cost; and that specialised human-capacity deficits, rather than funding shortfalls alone, represent the most pervasive barrier to effective AT provision. The review is also expected to show that explicit engagement with binding rights frameworks (CRPD, SDGs, Agenda 2063) is uncommon in the primary literature, indicating an implementation gap rather than a normative one. These findings are intended to generate evidence with direct implications for library policy, professional practice, and future research, including recommendations on staff capacity-building, prioritisation of low-cost/open-source AT solutions, and the systematic embedding of rights-based commitments into institutional accessibility policy.