A glimpse into smartphone screen reader use among blind teenagers in rural Nepal

Abstract

Purpose: Access to appropriate assistive technology is a challenge worldwide and especially in low GDPper-capita countries. Nepal is one example of a country with several coinciding challenges: some claim having a high rate of blindness in the general population, a low-GDP-per capita and some studies claim it has a low literacy rate, especially in rural areas. Without appropriate assistive technology, some disabled youth may not get full access to education. Methods: To gain insight into assistive technology use in rural Nepal, five blind teenagers in a mixed secondary school with disabled and non-disabled students in rural Nepal were interviewed about their daily smartphone use. Results: The results show that all the participants used screen readers on donated smartphones. None of the participants had received formal training in using smartphone screen readers and therefore lacked knowledge about basic and essential operational aspects of the devices as well as misguided expectations about the technology. Conclusions: One implication of the findings is that smartphone accessibility features training material needs to be made easily available to schools and all disabled youth worldwide, as smartphones are increasingly becoming available in low-income remote regions with low literacy rates. The built-in accessibility features of smartphones promise disabled youth a non-stigmatizing platform for social participation and access to the information society. ä IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION The built-in accessibility features of smartphones provide disabled youth a non-stigmatizing practical platform for social participation and access to education. Training material on how to use smartphone accessibility features needs to be made easily available to schools and all disabled youth worldwide.

Is there an imbalance in the supply and demand for universal accessibility knowledge? Twenty years of UAIS papers viewed through the lens of WCAG

“…The recent emergence of research from Southeast Asia and the Middle East could indicate that there may be national events that have triggered an intensified effort on universal accessibility. Recent rises in Southeast Asian papers on human computer interaction have also been reported by Sakamoto [25]. However, researchers from Japan were known as early drivers of universal accessibility technology (see, for instance, Saito [53] and Ostroff [54]) although this is not obvious from the results presented herein.…”

“…This result is unfortunate given Africa's sizable population. It is likely explainable by socioeconomic factors [52].…”

“…Bibliometric methods have been used to identify trends in different geographical regions. In the field of human-computer interaction, researchers have explored the situations in Southeast Asia [25], Brazil [26], India [27,28], Australia [29], New Zealand [30], and the UK [31].…”

“…Bibliometric methods have been used to answer specific questions such as whether productive researchers receive higher pay [32] and effectiveness of incentive systems [33]. Sakamoto [25] used bibliometric methods to document the absence and presence of research from Southeast Asian researchers along a timeline. There has also been some interest in the assessment of the effects of funding investments on research [34].…”

Users Perceptions of Headphones and Earbuds in Norway and Brazil: An Empirical Study Based on a Kahoot Quiz

“…Internet connectivity allows users to subscribe to and access huge music libraries and audio books via streaming. Such personal audio systems are also an essential tool for blind and visually impaired users who use screen readers with text-tospeech [1] as users without vision must rely on audio or haptics instead [2]. Music and other audio contents are highly personal, and most people listen to their audio content via headphones (see Fig.…”