2007 PhD Thesis Final Revised.pdf - Curtin University

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understanding of what people with vision disabilities needed from IT and, in turn, complete the objectives of the thesis. A complete list of questions contained in the survey instrument can be found in Appendix B. Section A, personal information, consisted of ten questions, each relating to personal data about the survey respondent. These data were vital in providing information on the effects of established disability divide factors and also in detecting the impact of other personal factors. The first topic explored was the issue of age. The age of an individual was of particular significance as the use of computing and Internet technologies varies significantly depending on the age of an individual. Location and gender information is also important in determining if location or gender affects the results of the study. The data also provided a basis for detecting bias in the sampling as the gender responses should be equal and the location data should be evenly spread across Australia. Another theme within the use of personal information was in regards to an individual’s living arrangements, designed to determine if assistance was available within the house. The rate of employment and income amongst the respondents were additional items. Given the established factors of poverty and unemployment amongst people who were blind or vision impaired, it was important to determine the extent of these factors in the prevention of access to computing and Internet-based technologies. Another major focus regarding personal information was to determine the level of eyesight held by the surveyed individual and the type of condition faced by an individual. As many AT devices cater for people who are either blind or vision impaired, it would suggest that these groups have significantly different needs from computing and Internet-technologies. As such these questions were designed to determine if this was the case. The final focus of Section A was to determine the education levels of the individual. The questions were designed to determine if the previous or current educational levels of a blind or vision impaired individual affected their ability to access computing or Internet-related technologies. In essence, these questions were designed to determine if there were non-technical issues which were leading to experiences which contribute to the disability divide. 143
Section B focused on the use of computing and associated assistive technology products by respondents. This section was used to determine the ease in which computing and AT could be used and the effectiveness of such tools. The initial questions were designed to determine familiarity with computing and AT products. The aim of these questions was to verify whether the user had been exposed to the benefits of computing and AT products. The initial questions focused on familiarity with computing operating systems and hardware. The following question focused on the awareness of AT products such as screen magnification software and text-to-speech programs. A large block of questions in this section focused on the knowledge and use of computing and AT. The questions were designed to establish initially if there was a difference between having a conceptual understanding of computing and AT products and actually using the products to achieve tasks. The questions also differentiate between the use of applications and the OS on the computer and the AT used to provide access to the applications or OS. Another key indicator of the computing experience for respondents was determining their attitude towards purchasing new technologies. Respondents were asked about the willingness of an individual to participate in new technologies. The four choices were based on the interview conducted with the representative from Microsoft who indicated that people with disabilities can essentially be broken up into four categories when it comes to embracing new technologies. Those four categories consist of constantly using the latest computing technology, generally seeking advice or wait for the market response before using new computing technologies, only embrace new computing technologies when it was absolutely necessary and not use new computing technologies at all. The remaining questions in this section were used to determine if the comfort level in using a computer was affected by the use of AT, the use of accessibility tools in the OS or the changing of colour schemes within the OS. Each of these elements contributed to the assessment of whether or not the use of such tools improve access to computing applications and the Internet through further analysis. Essentially, this 144
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Faculty of Media, Society and Cultu
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ABSTRACT People with disabilities,
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3.0 ELEMENTS OF THE DISABILITY DIVI
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APPENDIX A: PERSONAL INTERVIEWS....
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The following orga
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INTRODUCTION Purpose of the study A
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! Are computing and Internet-relate
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disabilities in the workforce. As a
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entertainment package and, at worst
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Chapter 6, The provision of operati
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Australia, approximately four milli
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which people with disabilities perc
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dependence (J. Wilson & Wilson, 200
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economic model complements the righ
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ole of people with disabilities, go
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time. Policy and resulting legislat
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improved, funds were now available
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United Nations (UN) during the Inte
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actions and participation is connec
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occasional struggle for people with
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lindness within society also create
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communication. This chapter contrib
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seen as applicable to the developme
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Although clear-path and object-anal
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easily interpret text, making the A
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interface in their next OS release.
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networks so that there is exchange
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of information largely inaccessible
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again become sufficiently accessibl
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Figure 3.1 Household Computer or In
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of tertiary education compound the
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desire to repair the inferior body
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computing firms seemed to take issu
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an operating environment which was
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accessible and compatible with AT p
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cater for the needs of this group.
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4.2 Methodology for personal interv
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! Steger, John. Senior Consultant,
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All of these points were used with
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ates improved significantly due to
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(f) to assist in achieving positive
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disability-related discrimination i
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was that Section 508 only applied t
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in order to combat the disability d
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Such views again highlight the inco
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vision disabilities must rely on US
Page 93 and 94: 5.0 THE PROVISION OF ONLINE INFORMA
Page 95 and 96: exist but not how to resolve the pr
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Page 99 and 100: Essentially, the SOCOG case present
Page 101 and 102: In terms of finding out what people
Page 103 and 104: devices. The study concluded that t
Page 105 and 106: 6.0 THE PROVISION OF OPERATING SYST
Page 107 and 108: networking infrastructure market, w
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Page 111 and 112: developer conferences as a good way
Page 113 and 114: 6.3 Disability-specific product ven
Page 115 and 116: company which tries to do everythin
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Page 119 and 120: with low vision was the addition of
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Page 125 and 126: character containing two dots. Brai
Page 127 and 128: Figure 6.7 Vario 80 Refreshable Bra
Page 129 and 130: Figure 6.10 Omni Phantom (SensAble
Page 131 and 132: addition there are other input-base
Page 133 and 134: HP, Cisco and IBM have all contribu
Page 135 and 136: ‘upper-echelons’ of users would
Page 137 and 138: such as Vision Australia located at
Page 139 and 140: internal policies reflect the need
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Page 143: 1. to demonstrate the ways in which
Page 147 and 148: question was to determine the exten
Page 149 and 150: defined opinions in this study. The
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Page 153 and 154: The print and Braille formats were
Page 155 and 156: with 23 telephone interviews and 3
Page 157 and 158: Frequency 100 80 60 40 20 0 Valid 1
Page 159 and 160: Valid Male Female Total Gender Freq
Page 161 and 162: Frequency 200 150 100 50 0 Valid Fu
Page 163 and 164: Valid Degenerative Stable Total Vis
Page 165 and 166: Frequency 100 80 60 40 20 0 Valid M
Page 167 and 168: 7.4.2 Computing and assistive techn
Page 169 and 170: Frequency 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Kno
Page 171 and 172: Frequency 100 80 60 40 20 0 Ability
Page 173 and 174: Frequency 150 120 90 60 30 0 Valid
Page 175 and 176: Frequency 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0
Page 177 and 178: N Valid Missing Familiarity of Inte
Page 179 and 180: Frequency 125 100 75 50 25 0 Valid
Page 181 and 182: Frequency 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Val
Page 183 and 184: Frequency 100 80 60 40 20 0 Valid D
Page 185 and 186: Internet session will contain a var
Page 187 and 188: Frequency 250 200 150 100 50 0 Vali
Page 189 and 190: Frequency 250 200 150 100 50 0 Vali
Page 191 and 192: Frequency 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Dis
Page 193 and 194: Frequency 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Gov
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Frequency 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0
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Frequency 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Des
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Frequency 100 80 60 40 20 0 Valid I
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7.4.5 Open-ended comments The Comme
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There were also a number of comment
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8.0 ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS 8.1 Introd
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levels of the working population. A
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the colour scheme question received
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Respondents were fairly evenly spre
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esult indicated that it is likely t
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able to interact with computing and
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Count Ability to Understand and Use
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Ability to Understand and Use a Com
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that knowledge of IT did not necess
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impaired people were not associated
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Count Income Total Income * Cost of
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8.3.5 Disability-specific issues fo
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The final comparison focused on the
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CONCLUSION Addressing the research
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with vision disabilities until the
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ole of this policy, in terms of inf
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een largely resolved in recent time
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vision disabilities perceived the I
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In essence, this study has revealed
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! the creation and implementation o
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Australian Federal Government. (200
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Galitz, W. (2002). Essential Guide
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Lindlif, T. R., & Shatzer, M. J. (1
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Stubbins, J. (1977). Social and Psy
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Zakon, R. (2002, 1 April). Hobbes'
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ETHICS APPROVAL: products and servi
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Name: _ Signature: Date: authorizat
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13. In the United States, the Rehab
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8. Do you perceive that people with
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Title: Department: Organisation: Ye
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18. In your opinion, are educationa
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e found at http://www.vipsurvey.org
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[ ] 2 Living in shared accommodatio
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[ ] 1 Screen magnification software
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24. My ability to use the Internet
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process which I mastered by myself:
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! 5.2 For data tables that have two
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! 10.5 Until user agents (including
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IBM International Business Machines
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