In recent years, ICTD (Information Communications Technology and Development) has grown in significance as an area of engineering research that has focused on low-cost appropriate technologies for the needs of a developing world largely underserved by the dominant modes of technology design. Assistive Technologies (AT) used by people with disabilities facilitate greater equity in the social and economic public sphere. However, by and large such technologies are designed in the industrialized world, for people living in those countries. This is especially true in the case of AT for people with vision impairments -market-prevalent technologies are both very expensive and are built to support the language and infrastructure typical in the industrialized world. While the community of researchers in the Web Accessibility space have made significant strides, the operational concerns of networks in the developing world, as well as challenges in support for new languages and contexts raises a new set of challenges for technologists in this space. We discuss the state of various technologies in the context of the developing world and propose directions in scientific and community-contributed efforts to increase the relevance and access to AT and accessibility in the developing world.
Executive SummaryThis paper presents a novel task-oriented, user-centered, multi-method evaluation (TUME) technique and shows how it is useful in providing a more complete, practical and solution-oriented assessment of the accessibility and usability of Learning Management Systems (LMS) for blind and visually impaired (BVI) students. Novel components of TUME include a purposeful integration of a multi-theoretic foundation and multiple methods to accurately identify users' accessibility and usability problems in Web interaction and identify design problems and solutions to ensure technical feasibility of recommendations. The problems identified by TUME remain hidden from extant evaluation methods -therefore, these problems remain in Web-based applications. As a result, evaluation of Web-based applications remains confounded by users' Web interaction challenges; their utility for specific user types remains unclear. Without appropriate evaluation of users' problems and challenges in using Web-based applications, we cannot begin to solve these problems and challenges. This paper demonstrates how TUME can be used to identify the unique problems and challenges of specific user types in using Web-based applications and suggests potential solutions. The outcome is an accurate understanding of specific design elements that present roadblocks and challenges for the user in interacting with the Web-based application and feasible design modifications to potentially improve the utility of these applications for specific user types.We illustrate the application of TUME to test the utility of LMS for BVI students. We use a popular LMS and an on-line exam as a representative task. We present results from three assessments that are essential components of TUME. Assessment I uses verbal protocol analysis to identify where and why BVI participants face LMS interaction problems in completing an exam. Assessment II performs text analysis of accessibility and usability design standards to identify design errors in the LMS exam environment. AsMaterial published as part of this publication, either on-line or in print, is copyrighted by the Informing Science Institute. Permission to make digital or paper copy of part or all of these works for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that the copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage AND that copies 1) bear this notice in full and 2) give the full citation on the first page. It is permissible to abstract these works so long as credit is given. To copy in all other cases or to republish or to post on a server or to redistribute to lists requires specific permission and payment of a fee. Contact Publisher@InformingScience.org to request redistribution permission. Editor: Anthony ScimeEnhancing Learning Management Systems Utility for Blind Students sessment III employs recursive abstraction analysis of Web developers' comments to understand why these problems occur and how they may be addressed feasibly. Together, these assessments show how TUME...
Purpose-The purpose of this study is to explore design issues hampering the accessibility of digital libraries (DLs) for first-time blind users. Design/methodology/approach-A combination of questionnaire, pre-interview, think-aloud and postinterview methods was used to collect data on non-visual interaction experiences with American Memory Digital Collection (AMDC) from 15 blind participants. Qualitative analysis via open coding revealed recurring themes on design problems and consequent difficulties for blind users in accessing DLs. Findings-It was found that AMDC is not blind-friendly. Five categories of design problems were identified. Participants faced difficulty perceiving, operating and understanding content and controls needed for information retrieval. Research limitations/implications-This paper does not offer a comprehensive set of design issues prevalent across DL design models, instead it focuses on design problems observed in a publicly available DL. Practical implications-This paper raises awareness of design choices that can unintentionally bar blind information seekers from DL access, and further suggests solutions to reduce these design problems for blind users. Originality/value-The paper's originality is its identification of unique design problems that prevent blind users from effectively interacting with DLs.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.