The accessibility and usage of smartphones by Arab-speaking visually impaired people

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 418-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Najd Al-Mouh ◽  
Hend S. Al-Khalifa
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Internet Usage ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Visually Impaired People ◽  
Impaired People ◽  
Arabic Speaking

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate accessibility and usage of mobile smartphones by Arabic-speaking visually impaired people in Saudi Arabia. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 104 participants with visual impairments were interviewed about their use of mobile phones with the following questions: What is the most commonly used mobile phone? What is the popular domain for which they use mobile phones? What are their favorite applications? What accessibility challenges do they usually face while using mobile phones? How often do they use the Internet via mobile phones and what are the reasons behind that? Findings – This research is the first study with such magnitude to investigate smartphone usage by Arabic-speaking visually impaired people. The survey has revealed that Arabic-speaking visually impaired people utilize mobile phones in different ways and strategies. Getting assistance in performing daily tasks and navigating independently are two of the most common uses for mobile phones. Originality/value – Based on the findings, the authors are going to propose some guidelines to developers to improve smartphone accessibility, application design and Internet usage to improve accessibility for visually impaired people.

scholarly journals An Enhanced Mobile Phone Dialler Application for Blind and Visually Impaired People

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rana Mohammad Yousef ◽  
Omar Adwan ◽  
Murad Abu-Leil
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Voice Recognition ◽  
Blind And Visually Impaired ◽  
Phone Calls ◽  
Visually Impaired People ◽  
Impaired People ◽  
Windows Phone ◽  
Innovative Concept

This paper presents the development of a new mobile phone dialler application which is designed to help blind and visually impaired people make phone calls. The new mobile phone dialler application is developed as a windows phone application to facilitate entering information to touch screen mobile phones by blind people. This application is advantageous through its innovative concept, its simplicity and its availability at an affordable cost. Feedback from users showed that this new application is easy to use and solves many problems of voice recognition applications such as inaccuracy, slowness and interpretation of unusual voices. In addition, this application has increased the users ability to dial phone numbers more independently and less stressfully.

Reading Assistance for Visually Impaired People Using TTL Serial Camera With Voice

2018 ◽  
pp. 170-180
Author(s):  
Sruthi M. ◽  
Rajasekaran R.
Keyword(s):  
Internet Of Things ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Blind People ◽  
Text Book ◽  
Visually Impaired People ◽  
Impaired People

Internet of things is where all the things are connected to the internet and communicate with each other. There are many applications of the IoT in various fields such as healthcare, agriculture, industries, and logistics, and even for empowering people with disabilities. There are many previous work for the blind people using IoT in finding the obstacles many navigation applications have been developed. In this chapter, a system is proposed to assist blind people in reading books. This method is based on capturing the text book pages as an image and processing them into text with speech as an output.

Techno-Social Systems in the Internet as a Tool for Social Adaptation of the Visually Impaired

2019 ◽  
pp. 295-319
Author(s):  
Gennadi B. Pronchev ◽  
Inna V. Goncharova ◽  
Nadezhda G. Proncheva ◽  
Danila N. Monakhov ◽  
Irina V. Vasenina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Banking System ◽  
Social Adaptation ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Visually Impaired People ◽  
Impaired People

The chapter deals with issues related to social adaptation of the visually impaired in techno-social systems of the internet. The current legislation providing access for visually impaired people to such techno-social systems is analyzed, as well as the way the legislation is implemented. Traditions and innovations in the field of accessibility of techno-social systems for visually impaired people in Russia are discussed. The opportunities of the electronic banking system of the European Union and Great Britain for the visually impaired are analyzed.

Ensuring accessibility of electronic information resources for visually impaired people

2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 368-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanus Andreas Kleynhans ◽  
Ina Fourie
Keyword(s):  
Digital Libraries ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Information Resources ◽  
Electronic Information ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Visually Impaired People ◽  
Electronic Information Resources ◽  
Impaired People ◽  
Partially Sighted ◽  
Selection Of

Purpose – The paper addresses the importance of clarifying terminology such as visually impaired and related terms before embarking on accessibility studies of electronic information resources in library contexts. Apart from briefly defining accessibility, the paper attempts to address the lack of in-depth definitions of terms such as visually impaired, blind, partially sighted, etc. that has been noted in the literature indexed by two major Library and Information Science (LIS) databases. The purpose of this paper is to offer a basis for selecting participants in studies of accessibility of electronic information resources in library contexts and to put discussions of such studies in context. Design/methodology/approach – Clarification of concepts concerning visual impairment following a literature survey based on searching two major databases in LIS. To put the discussion in context accessibility is also briefly defined. Findings – Although visually impaired and a variety of related terms such as blind, partially sighted, visually disabled, etc. are used in the LIS literature, hardly any attempt is made to define these terms in depth. This can be a serious limitation in web and electronic accessibility evaluations and the selection of participants. Practical implications – Clearly distinguishing between categories of visually impaired people and the ability of sight of participants is important when selecting participants for studies on accessibility for visually impaired people, e.g. the accessibility evaluation of web sites, digital libraries and other electronic information resources. Originality/value – The paper can make a contribution to the clarification of terminology essential for the selection of participants in accessibility studies, as well as enriching the literature on accessibility for visually impaired people in the context of LIS.

scholarly journals Smart Assistive Shoes with Internet of Things Implementation for Visually Impaired People

2021 ◽  
Vol 2107 (1) ◽  
pp. 012030
Author(s):  
F S Kamaruddin ◽  
N H Mahmood ◽  
M A Abdul Razak ◽  
N A Zakaria
Keyword(s):  
Internet Of Things ◽  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Detection System ◽  
Obstacle Detection ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Transfer Data ◽  
Visually Impaired People ◽  
Impaired People ◽  
Project Smart

Abstract Visually impaired people usually have a lot of difficulties involved in interacting with their environment. Physical movement is a major challenge for them, because it can be tricky to make a distinction about where they are and how they can move from one place to another. In this project, smart assistive shoes with Internet of Things (IoT) implementation is designed. These shoes are equipped with ultrasonic sensors and vibration motors that can warn users about obstacles. Next, the IoT system is implemented using Adafruit IO and If This, Then That (IFTTT) to transfer data between Google Assistant and buzzer for shoes position finder purposes. NodeMCU allows the buzzer on shoes to be controlled by the Internet using its WiFi module which is connected to the mobile phone hotspots. As a result, shoes with an obstacle detection system which can detect obstacles within 20 cm distance and shoes position finder using Google Assistant are designed. In conclusion, hopefully these shoes will become one of the alternatives to aid the independent movement of the visually impaired people in the future.

Digital financial inclusion, informal economy and poverty reduction in Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ikechukwu Kelikume
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Internet Usage ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Significant Positive Relationship ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose This paper aims to examine the relationship between mobile phones, the internet, financial inclusion, the informal economy and poverty reduction. Design/methodology/approach The study examines the relationship between mobile phones, the internet, financial inclusion, the informal economy and poverty reduction using the system generalized method of moments approach and a panel data set of 42 African countries for the period 1995–2017. Findings The study shows that mobile penetration and internet usage have significant positive relationship with the informal sector. Financial inclusion has significant effects, meaning that increased financial inclusion is associated with a developed informal economy. Also, mobile penetration and internet usage play significant roles in the relationship between financial inclusion and the informal economy. Further, mobile penetration and internet usage have a significant positive relationship with poverty reduction. Similarly, financial inclusion has significant effects, meaning higher financial inclusion is associated with increased poverty reduction. The informal economy also has significant effects, suggesting that the development of the informal economy is associated with poverty reduction. Originality/value Most importantly, mobile penetration, internet usage and financial inclusion play significant roles in the link between the informal economy and poverty reduction.

Multimodal and alternative perception for the visually impaired: a survey

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wai Lun Khoo ◽  
Zhigang Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Assistive Technologies ◽  
World Health ◽  
Sensors And Actuators ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Domain Experts ◽  
Visually Impaired People ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Impaired People ◽  
Health Organization

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of navigational assistive technologies with various sensor modalities and alternative perception approaches for visually impaired people. It also examines the input and output of each technology, and provides a comparison between systems. Design/methodology/approach – The contributing authors along with their students thoroughly read and reviewed the referenced papers while under the guidance of domain experts and users evaluating each paper/technology based on a set of metrics adapted from universal and system design. Findings – After analyzing 13 multimodal assistive technologies, the authors found that the most popular sensors are optical, infrared, and ultrasonic. Similarly, the most popular actuators are audio and haptic. Furthermore, most systems use a combination of these sensors and actuators. Some systems are niche, while others strive to be universal. Research limitations/implications – This paper serves as a starting point for further research in benchmarking multimodal assistive technologies for the visually impaired and to eventually cultivate better assistive technologies for all. Social implications – Based on 2012 World Health Organization, there are 39 million blind people. This paper will have an insight of what kind of assistive technologies are available to the visually impaired people, whether in market or research lab. Originality/value – This paper provides a comparison across diverse visual assistive technologies. This is valuable to those who are developing assistive technologies and want to be aware of what is available as well their pros and cons, and the study of human-computer interfaces.

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