Generative artificial intelligence (AI) offers students with visual impairments a potential route from reliance on human intermediaries and conventional assistive technologies toward technologically supported academic autonomy. This study examined the role of generative AI in enhancing the academic autonomy of these students in Palestinian higher education, drawing on Deci and Ryan's Self-Determination Theory (SDT), which holds that autonomous behaviour emerges from the satisfaction of the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Academic autonomy was constructed in three dimensions: learning management and decision-making, independent access to knowledge, and independent academic achievement. Challenges and risks, namely accessibility and compatibility with assistive technologies, reliability, privacy and over-reliance, and university policy, were treated as environmental-technical conditions that support or thwart need satisfaction.
Using a quantitative descriptive-correlational design, a questionnaire was completed by a purposive sample of 33 blind and low-vision students from several Palestinian universities, and the data were analysed with descriptive statistics and partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Generative AI use was moderate overall (M = 3.61; 72%) but frequent, centred on searching for information, understanding concepts, supporting research, and simplifying content rather than completing assignments. Academic autonomy was high (M = 4.22; 84%), strongest in decision-making and weakest in independent achievement. The measurement model showed adequate reliability and validity, and employing generative AI had a significant positive effect on academic autonomy (β = 0.444, p = .022), explaining 19.7% of its variance (f² = 0.245). Autonomy did not differ by gender, type of impairment, or duration and frequency of use. Compatibility with assistive technologies and using AI as an assistant rather than a substitute were the strongest additional predictors, raising the explained variance to 55%.
The findings indicate that generative AI enhances academic autonomy but that its effect depends less on the amount of use than on accessible, self-directed, and need-supportive use. The study recommends clear and accessible university policies on AI use, compatibility standards, and training in responsible use and data privacy for visually impaired students.
Keywords: Generative Artificial Intelligence, Academic Autonomy, Visual Impairment, Self-Determination Theory, Palestinian Higher Education
 

عنوان المؤتمر

AN-Najah 1st Conference For Artificial Intelligence Applications (2026).

دولة المؤتمر

فلسطين

تاريخ المؤتمر

18 أكتوبر، 2026 - 18 أكتوبر، 2026

راعي المؤتمر

An-Najah National University