Assistive technology and the employment of people with vision impairments in India

Abstract

This is a qualitative study into the workforce participation of computer-based assistive technology users in Bangalore, India. We conduct a systematic examination of respondents' discussions on their workplace experiences, aspirations, social inclusion, future concerns, institutional perceptions, and technology use. We present results on six resulting themes: The evolution of aspiration post AT access, the economic engineering of AT users, Underemployment, Peer effects in employment choice, Perceptions of the state, and finally telecommuting and social inclusion. The participants' responses highlighted here present a rich narrative of the transition from training to the desk, given that many here are the first or only employees who are visuallyimpaired in their workplaces. These voices of the first generation of assistive technology users in India offer useful insights into the design of policies and services for visually-impaired populations, and a more accessible public sphere in the future.

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

“…r Studies have found AT is valuable to enable active participation, learning and economic and social development as a potential way of including VI people into the workforce, hence AT needs funding (Pal & Lakshmanan (2012).…”

“…Kanık (2014) suggests that every library and information centre should provide assistive technology to VI people (as such, many Turkish libraries use assistive technology for VI people and find it to be valuable and useful). Pal and Lakshmanan (2012) suggest that there should be government initiated subsidies or open-source assistive technology based on an in-depth study that identified prospects of assistive technology (such as social, educational, and workforce integration). Likewise, Borg, Larsson andÖstergren (2011) advocate that it is an international and national responsibility to ensure that VI people can access and avail themselves of assistive technology.…”

“…Aims/Objectives of Study Methods Research Findings Pal & Lakshmanan (2012) To study the role of AT to assist participation of VI people in finding employment in the labour market.…”

Educational Content Creation and Sharing by Low-Income Visually Impaired People in India

“…However, both access to higher education [49] and use of assistive technologies [35,45] have been shown to improve occupational and financial outcomes for people with disabilities. In the developed world, visually impaired people access textual information through Braille books [39], audio recordings [29], or screenreaders on their phones or computers [26,30].…”

“…Even when the technological requirements for screen readers are fulfilled, the limited availability of inexpensive TTS for Indian languages further limits the adoption of screen reader software by visually impaired people who are not fluent in English [5,46]. While previous research has explored the usage of screen readers in India, study participants were typically highly educated and recruited from urban areas [25,35], and were not representative of visually impaired people in rural and peri-urban areas. Though researchers have provided general recommendations for designing low-cost AT for people suffering from visual impairment in India [36], the recommendations do not offer ways to improve the creation, consumption, and sharing ecosystem for educational content.…”