A Systematic Literature Review of the Application of Information Communication Technology for Visually Impaired People

Abstract

T echnological advancement in general is providing better and cheaper solutions to assist the visually impaired (VI) community. Although information communication technology (ICT) has great potential to support the inclusion of VI people in educational, social and workforce settings, there are far fewer ICT projects for VI people compared to other projects. This systematic literature review provides our findings on the existing state of ICT projects and describes outstanding issues in ICT support of VI people. Based on our findings, we suggest increased collaboration among healthcare professionals, caregivers, programmers, engineers, as well as policy makers; and adoption of policies in future ICT projects for VI people. A wide search of seven journal databases found a relevant cross-section of articles that were published between 2010 and 2015. Software Zotero Standalone and EndNote were used to screen and maintain metadata. After the initial screening of 6993 titles, 683 abstracts were scrutinised, from which 55 full text articles were selected for final review. We analysed and synthesised 37 articles. Our findings show the progress, awareness, interest, and issues in ICT integration to improve the quality of life for VI people. Three emergent topics for VI people are (a) assistive technology, (b) e-accessibility, and (c) virtual interfaces. Our findings suggest that ICT-aided applications can bring positive changes for VI people. We advance several issues that should be addressed and further developed, collaboratively, to spread awareness and invoke new policies aimed to improve the quality of life of VI people. Keywords: information communication technology (ICT), visually impaired (VI) people, systematic literature review, thematic analysisAccording to the most recent survey by the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of visually impaired (VI) people in the world is 285 million, where approximately 39 million people are blind (Mariotti, 2012). Visual impairment includes both low vision and blindness (WHO, 2007). The majority of people with visual impairment (about 90%) live in developing countries and about 65% are aged 50 or above (Mothiravally, Ang, Baloch, Kulampallil, & Geetha, 2014). Only 14% to 20% of people in developed countries suffer from disabilities in general, and these people have greater opportunities to take advantage of ICT-aided tools (Hogan, Kyaw-Myint, Harris, & Denronden, 2012). Numerous studies have been conducted focusing on people with disabilities from a sociological point of view. McAnaney and Williams (2010) suggest using action research methods for disability management. Hogan et al. (2012) contend that people with disabilities face significant inequity of remuneration, globally, due to the perception of a lack of skills and employment accommodations for particular roles. Niehaus and Marfels (2010) identify the key competencies of disabled people by using factor analysis and investigate the scope of their integration into the workforce and mainstream society. However, ther...

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