Since transition to higher education emerged as a research topic in the early 1970s, scholarly inquiry has focused on students without impairments and, what is more, little attention has been paid to the role of digital technologies. This article seeks to address this knowledge gap by looking at the university experiences of a group of first-year students with vision impairments from New Zealand, and the way they use digital tools, such as social media and mobile devices, to manage their transition-related challenges. The article summarises the findings from a longitudinal qualitative project which was methodologically informed by action research (AR). The article explores and discusses scholarly inquiry of transition to university and introduces a conceptual framework which includes five overlapping stages, the transition issues faced by the students and the roles played by digital technologies. The article updates and expands the theoretical understanding of transition to higher education and provides empirical evidence for practitioners to support the needs, inclusion, and participation of young people with disabilities in the tertiary setting.

翻译：自20世纪70年代初高等教育过渡成为研究课题以来，学术研究主要聚焦于非残疾学生，且对数字技术的作用关注甚少。本文旨在填补这一知识空白，通过考察新西兰一组视力障碍一年级大学生的校园经历，以及他们使用社交媒体和移动设备等数字工具应对过渡期挑战的方式。文章总结了基于行动研究方法论指导下的纵向定性研究项目成果，探讨并讨论了有关大学过渡的学术研究，引入了一个包含五个重叠阶段的概念框架，涵盖学生面临的过渡问题及数字技术所扮演的角色。本文更新并拓展了高等教育过渡的理论认知，为实践者提供了实证依据，以支持残疾青年在高等教育环境中的需求、包容与参与。