The role of the WHO ICF as a framework to interpret barriers and to inclusion: visually impaired people’s views and experiences of personal computers

Abstract

This article describes how the World Health Organisation's International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF), 2001, was used as a framework for the design of the interview schedule used in the Network 1000 project. It is argued that the ICF offers a vocabulary to enable visually impaired participants to describe their lives in terms of participation and potential barriers to social inclusion. The article presents interview data from 960 visually impaired people who were surveyed about their use of computers (amongst other things). Results show that computer use is clearly linked with age, with older visually impaired people far less likely to use computers. It is argued that, while technology may offer many benefits (including access to information and a route into employment), many visually impaired people do not see the relevance of ICT, perceive individually based barriers to the use of ICT (e.g. their visual impairment), and perceive socially based barriers to the use of ICT (e.g. cost, availability and accessibility of technology, and issues related to training). Importantly, it appears that different barriers may be more common amongst different groups. KEY WORDS c o m p u t e r s , I C F, I C T, s u r vey, m e t h o d , t e c h n o l o g y, v i s u a l i m p a i r m e n t

Systematic literature review on ICF from 2001 to 2009: its use, implementation and operationalisation

“…Descriptive statistics for subcategories are reported in Table IV A total of 32 papers described practical applications of the ICF in clinical contexts but not in specific health conditions. They include the development of methodologies and application of tools for health professionals [409,413,425,428,434], and the description of disability of diverse groups of patients from different clinical settings [338,405,419,423,[427][428][429][430][431], and the identification of relevant categories of ICF [407,410,411,414,417,418,420,422,424].…”

Teaching spreadsheets to visually-impaired students in an environment similar to a mainstream class

“…If a participant was not able to solve a task we interrupted him. 6 Additionally, we wrote down questions and comments and the results of the exercise (term-cards).…”

“…Assistive Technologies are one of the key factors for educational inclusion and also for an equal participation in society [6]. They are a powerful tool to write and read in a to investigate the necessary changes in teaching methods in order to provide computer science for all.…”

Access to print literacy for children and young people with visual impairment: findings from a review of literature

“…Trief and Feeney (2003) surveyed visually impaired students who had successfully completed college courses about the importance of various competencies acquired before going to college: computer, assistive technology and keyboarding skills were all emphasised as important. In a large-scale survey of visually impaired people Douglas, Corcoran, and Pavey (2007) found that adults who used technology were more likely to be in employment.…”