According to the statistics, the number of people with sight disorders in Poland exceeds 500 thousand. The world statistics reveal that serious sight disorders reach 1% of the population and the total number of blind and vision loss people has an expanding tendency. Functioning in the contemporary world without the sense of sight is really difficult. The sight plays the major role in experiencing reality, phenomena and objects. It is included in the group of Tele-senses, it receives the stimuli from a distance; it becomes the tool of simultaneous sense of impressions. The aim of the study is to present the estimation of possibilities of needs fulfilment referring to the perspective of people with sight disorders and compare it with analogical estimation made by non-disabled ones. Finally, the article aims to investigate if there is any relation between aforementioned estimation and other variables such as sex, the place of living and the range of vision loss.
Material and methods: The research was carried out in the school year 2008/2009 on the group of sight disordered students from Special Educational Centre for Children and Youth in Bydgoszcz. Statistical analysis was performed on the group of 75 people. The control group comprised of students from IX Secondary Grammar School and Secondary Grammar School of Centre for Permanent Education in Bydgoszcz. The research has been conducted with the help of originally constructed questionnaire. Five categories have been highlighted: the need of safety in confines of life material conditions, the need of orientation, the need of prestige and recognition, the need of psychological distance and the need of self-realisation.
Results: The statistical analysis enabled to form a general conclusion indicating that the average rate obtained by experimental group was definitely lower than the average rate in control group. Analysis conducted with the consideration of sex criterion, the range of vision loss and the place of living, emphasises diversification in estimation of possibilities of needs fulfilment. The results achieved according to the range of vision loss criterion seem to be particularly interesting. In comparison with control group, members of experimental group have lower estimation in terms of realizing their needs, regardless of them being classified as blind or vision loss.
Conclusions: The outcome indicates that the average rate of possibilities of sight disordered people needs fulfilment is lower than analogical rate in control group. Sex and place of living are the factors responsible for such a diversification in the field of estimation of possibility of needs realization. The range of vision loss should therefore not be treated as a factor seriously diversifying the estimation of possibilities of needs fulfilment in experimental group compared to the control group.