Assistive Technology Divide: A Developing Country Perspective

Use of ICTs, in relation to physical challenge, especially visual impairment, is a problematic issue. This study explored awareness, accessibility and use of specialized ICTs among visually impaired adults in selected urban cities in South- eastern Nigeria. Thirty In-depth Interviews were conducted among visually impaired students and government employees. The study established a general awareness of ICTs, and limited awareness of specialized ICTs, among these visually impaired persons. It also found that use of specialized ICTs among them appeared a distant reality. This led to the conclusion that a ‘divide’ exists in terms of accessibility and use of assistive technology for the visually impaired persons in this region. The study recommended individual and governmental interventions, to help bridge this ‘divide’. Keywords:          Assistive Technology Divide, Visually Impaired, Specialized ICTs. DOI: 10.7176/DCS/9-4-13 Publication date: April 30th 201

Bridging the digital divide for hard-to-reach groups

Boeltzig and Pilling identified specific groups of people who typically are not connected to the Internet and examined the circumstances of each - rural, poor, disabled, seniors, and ethnic minorities. They focused on how these groups of people, such as homebound individuals, could benefit most from using online government services. They also identified technical as well as social barriers that limit access. Their recommendations are aimed at both increasing access for these targeted groups and increasing use by individuals in the targeted groups. They also provide valuable recommendations aimed at service or application providers who have a major role in increasing both access and accessibility. The case studies resulted in insights and lessons that are broadly applicable. Based on the case studies, the authors offer recommendations that are practical and serve as useful guides to practitioners and policy makers at all levels of government

A framework for accessible m-government implementation

The great popularity and rapid diffusion of mobile technologies at worldwide level has also been recognised by the public sector, leading to the creation of m-government. A major challenge for m-government is accessibility – the provision of an equal service to all citizens irrespective of their psychical, mental or technical capabilities. This paper sketches the profiles of six citizen groups: Visually Impaired, Hearing Impaired, Motor Impaired, Speech Impaired, Cognitive Impaired and Elderly. M-government examples that target the aforementioned groups are discussed and a framework for accessible m-government implementation with reference to the W3C Mobile Web Best Practices is proposed

Transformational government and assistive web base technologies

Transformational government has been on the European agenda for several years. However, progress towards realising the full potential of ICT to transform public services for older adults with age related cognitive impairments has been very limited. Highlighting such limitations this paper demonstrates how assistive web base technologies can be developed to improve the public services for older adults with age related cognitive impairments. However the paper argues that these transformations can be obstructed if there is no strong leadership and political commitment from people at many levels in public sectors and governments

Implications of the Information Technology Revolution for People with Disabilities

The paper focuses on opportunities for the integration of persons with different types of disabilities in the information technology (IT) labour market. Recent IT developments are identified and examined for their potentially harmful or beneficial effects on access to the IT labour market for persons with disabilities. The opportunities created by new job creation, new forms of training, teleworking, and the role of assistive technologies in facilitating workplace accommodations are briefly described. The focus is on new options for the design and implementation of computer-related assistive technologies in the workplace, and the impact of teleworking and the World Wide Web on employability and work-related training of persons with disabilities. The paper closes with a brief discussion of the roles that government agencies, business firms, labour unions, non-governmental organisations and education can play to help people with disabilities join the IT revolution and share its benefits

Include 2011 : The role of inclusive design in making social innovation happen.

Include is the biennial conference held at the RCA and hosted by the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design. The event is directed by Jo-Anne Bichard and attracts an international delegation

Career Development – A Longitudinal Study Into Career Value Change

Career theorists have long suggested that age and life stages have an impact upon our career values. However there is substantial disagreement over how this actually manifests itself. Some suggest these differences are generational with external factors playing an important role (Westerman & Yamamura, 2007). In contrast developmental theories of careers focus on what happens in distinct career stages. These theories provide some structure to careers through the lifespan suggesting that early careerists will focus on exploration, mid careerists are concerned with advancement and the late careerists concentrate on passing their skills to others. Savickas (2002) calls for more longitudinal research in the field of careers to examine in depth what happens to individuals as they progress through these stages rather than taking the more popular cross sectional approach to research. This paper describes the development of a study that aims to examine career values through the lifespan using the career anchor model as a measure of career values

Assistive Technologies in Developing Countries

Assistive technologies enable people to live healthy, productive, independent and dignified lives, yet most people who need them are currently unable to access them. This rapid review looks at examples of existing literature on the availability of assistive technologies and efforts to make these technologies more affordable and accessible in developing countries

Combating e-discrimination in the North West - final report

The Combating eDiscimination in the North West project examined over 100 websites advertising job opportunities both regionally and nationally, and found the vast majority to be largely inaccessible. Professional standards, such as using valid W3C code and adhering to the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, were largely not followed. The project also conducted interviews with both public and private sector web professionals, and focus groups of disabled computer users, to draw a broader picture of the accessibility of jobs websites. Interviews with leading web development companies in the Greater Manchester region, showed that there is a view there should not be any additional cost in making websites accessible, as the expertise to create a site professionally should be in place from the start, and that accessibility will follow from applying professional standards. However, through the process of trying to create a website for the project, with such a company, it was found that following professional standards is not sufficient to catch all the potential problems, and that user testing is an essential adjunct to professional practice. The main findings of the project are, thus, that: • Most websites in the job opportunities sector are not following professional standards of web development, and are largely inaccessible • Professional standards of web development need to be augmented with user testing to ensure proper accessibility

Towards a Conceptual Framework for E-Government Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities in Developing Countries

Most governments around the world are fast advancing in the provision of services to their citizens through the web. However, developing countries still lag behind in the adoption and use of ICTs in government for inclusive purposes, specifically for persons with disabilities (PWDs) who tend to be side-lined from the population mainstream. Studies focusing on E-government accessibility for PWDs have been minimal from the developing countries context; and this is despite the fact that over eighty percent of the over one billion populations living with disabilities worldwide reside in the developing countries. For E-government to achieve its purpose of providing fast and efficient services to citizens, there is the need to adopt a context-oriented approach. Against this background, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for improving E-government accessibility for PWDs in the developing countries context. Through a systematic synthesis of the literature on E-government accessibility especially in developing countries, a conceptual framework, termed the E-government Accessibility Development Model (EADM) is proposed. EADM describes accessibility challenges of PWDs by identifying contextual barriers of E-government accessibility from multiple stakeholder perspective in developing countries