ICT ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY FOR THE BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED PERSONS

ABSTRACT

This study sought  to understand  the role of the Internet  in information  provision, within the context of other sources of information and everyday information needs. The study also presents findings about the current ways in which people who are blind and visually impaired find information for their everyday lives; the role of the Internet in this process; barriers to using computers and the assistive technologies. A system was designed and created using Visual Basic studio15 to show how information and communication  has influenced the  blind positively and to eliminate the digital gap. People with disabilities, and in particular people who are blind or vision impaired, are not embracing computing, Internet-related and assistive technologies at the same rate as the able-bodied  population.   The purpose of this study was to find the reasons behind  this  digital divide for people with disabilities  and provide  solutions.   The investigation into this ‘disability divide’ initially examined the historical significance of the social construction of disability, the developments of computing and Internet- related  technologies  and  the  evolution  of  associated  government  and  corporate policies.   In order to gain an understanding  of the  specific elements in the current disability   divide,   interviews   were   conducted   with   a   range   of   government representatives,    multinational    information    technology   developers   and   online information providers in Nigeria. In order  to gain an understanding of what people with disabilities required from information technology, a survey was conducted with people who are blind or  vision impaired to determine their computing and Internet experiences.   This study clearly identified that people with vision disabilities have a high  level  of   computing  and  Internet  expertise  and  it  is  specific  barriers  or disadvantages, rather than lack of will, that has prevented access to computing and available assistive technologies.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 .     Introduction

INTRODUCTION

Much of everyday life involves the activity of moving from one place to  another. Unfortunately, in many countries, facilities such as shops, leisure and sports centers are increasingly being located outside the centers of population. For visually impaired and  blind  people,  most  of  whom  are  not  able  to  drive,  access  to  such  locations depends on the availability of public transport and, in many cases, the assistance of a human  guide.  In addition,  there  is a tendency  for people  to live away from their workplace and, at least in the industrialized countries, increasing numbers of people are travelling abroad on holiday. Thus, the ability to travel at least short and medium distances  and  find  one’s  way  around  public  spaces  and  commercial  centers  is important  for  personal   independence,   for  employment  and  for  participating  in shopping  and  leisure  activities.  Consequently,  visually  impaired  and  blind  people need  assistive  technology  systems to support  effective  travel  and to  contribute  to independent living and working. Further, the design of urban and other environments should  be  improved  to make  them easy to move around  and obstacles that could endanger  safety,  particularly  of  visually  impaired  and  blind  people,  should  be removed.  This is likely to have benefits  for everyone,  whether  visually  impaired, blind or sighted. Travelling, even for relatively simply trips, involves  a number of different activities which are most easily carried out using vision. Consider a journey across a city by bus to visit a hospital consultant.  The tasks  involved  include the following:

    Being able to avoid obstacles on the pavement.

    Walking in the right direction.

    Crossing the road safely.

    Finding the correct bus stop.

    Knowing which the right bus is.

    Paying the correct fare.

    Finding a vacant seat.

    Knowing when to get off the bus.

      Crossing the road safely (at a different location and probably no crossing at all).

    Walking to the hospital entrance.

    Finding the main reception desk.

    Finding and using a lift (elevator) to the correct floor.

    Locating the waiting room and the consultant’s room.

Blindness  and  visual  impairments  are common  disabilities  in all countries  of  the world. Nigeria is no exception to this phenomenon. The total population of Nigerians is estimated at 150 million people (Federal Office of Statistics, 2006), with blind and visually impaired persons numbering at least 1.5 million [19]. It is also estimated that of this figure, more than 25,000 persons are of school age, and less than 10 percent of these actually attend  school,  with the remaining  90  percent confined  to houses or roaming the streets as beggars [20]. For the  small percentage of blind and visually impaired  persons  in schools  from  primary to  tertiary  levels,  there  is  no  adequate provision of reading and information materials. The need to produce enough reading and  information  materials  in  alternative  formats  for  blind  and  visually  impaired students’ at all educational institutions in Nigeria is steadily gaining momentum. This is a  consequence of the federal government policy (Federal Ministry of Education,

1981) of equitable educational provision for all children, regardless of their physical, mental, or emotional disabilities. This policy encouraged an overwhelming increase in school enrollment for blind and visually impaired students.

In Nigeria today blind and visually impaired  students are found at all  educational institutions primary and secondary schools, polytechnics, universities, and vocational training  centers.  They,  like  their  sighted  counterparts,  are  in  search  of academic laurels.  Unfortunately,  the production  and distribution  of  information  resources  in alternative formats to meet the needs of these blind and visually impaired students is haphazard and uncoordinated. The reason may be attributed to the fact that there is no national library service for blind and visually impaired persons in Nigeria.

1.0.1    The Challenge

Although  there  is  no  national  library  service  there  is  a  myriad  of  organizations involved in attempting to meet the needs of the blind and visually impaired, as set out in  Table  1.  The  author  was  successful  in  winning  the  Ulverscroft  Foundation/ International  Federation  of  Library  Associations  (IFLA)  Libraries  for  the  Blind Section’s Institutional Best Practice Award in 2003, in order to address the challenge of systematically auditing and recording the national provision of alternative format materials in Nigeria.

Federal Government Involvement: Educational Provision and Library Services

The   federal   government’s   involvement   has   tended   more   toward   establishing educational  institutions  to  train special  teachers  rather  than  providing  information material or library services. The establishment of the  Federal College of Education (Special)  (1977)  and  the  Department  of Special  Education  in the  Universities  of Ibadan (1974), Jos (1977), Bayero, Calabar, and Uyo attest to this fact. Government involvement in providing library services is minimal.

1.1.     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Information Communication Technology (ICT) has tremendous positive impacts and application in all facets of human endeavor. ICT is acclaimed  the solution to  most endeavor  as it  eases  procedures  to  produce  effective  results.  Particularly,  ICT  is supposed to bridge the information gap between people with disabilities (especially the Blind and Visually Impaired), and their ‘able-bodied’ counterparts.

Technology has removed  many barriers to education and employment  for  visually impaired individuals. Students with visual impairments can complete homework, do research, take tests, and read books along with their sighted  classmates,  thanks to advances in technology.  Adults with visual impairments  can continue to work and pursue a tremendous  range of careers because  of the  use of computers  and other devices. [17]

These include:

Assistive technology programs that run on off-the-shelf computers can speak the text on the screen or magnify the text in a word processor, web browser, e-mail program or other application

Stand-alone  products  designed  specifically  for  people  who  are  blind  or  visually impaired,  including personal digital assistants  (PDAs)  and electronic  book players provide portable access to books, phone numbers, appointment calendars, and more.

Optical character recognition systems scan printed material and speak the text. Braille embossers turn text files into hard-copy braille.

This research work will provide a wealth of information and advice for acquiring and using assistive technology effectively and design voice application for the blind [17].

The development of the Graphical User Interface (GUI), provided a more accessible computing environment for a majority of users, but ironically left the Internet more inaccessible to some disability or physically challenged groups, especially, the blind and visually impaired.  Thus, ICT further widened the digital divide for the blind and visually impaired, considering the fact that the input, processing and output of ICT systems rely greatly on GUI, which places them at a disadvantage. The rapid arrival of the Internet into the public realm changed the perceived importance of computing. The  Internet  added  a  vital  information  and  communication  resource  to  personal computers.   The widening  gap between  people who were able to access this new technology  in  comparison  to  groups  in  society  who  were  unable  to  access  the technology is generally referred to as the digital divide. This digital divide is wider for the   blind   and   visually   impaired   people.   Nevertheless,   there   are   information technology solutions to the problem of digital divide intrinsic with ICT.

The arrival of computing and assistive technology creates the potential for blind and visually  impaired  people  to gain access  to  resources  previously  denied,  including internet.    Assistive  Technologies  and/or  Adaptive  Technologies  are  born  out  of necessity for enhancing accessibility for the Blind and Visually Impaired, as well as promoting  of  the  rights  of  the  blind  and  visually   impaired.     Such  assistive

technologies  includes  but  not  limited  to:  text-to-speech  software,  magnification accessibility features, computer keyboard based on braille keys with direct translation, talking web browsers, electronic travel devices, talking watches,   phones with text readers and voice dialing, etc.

World Health Organization states that there is a paucity of data on the prevalence and causes of blindness and visual impairment in African countries, as very few have data at the national level. Such data are essential for planning services for the realization of the goals of VISION2020: the global Right to Sight initiative posited that, Nigeria is the most populous  country in Africa with an estimated  population of 160 million which also makes it the ninth most populous country in the world [1]. This statistics, reported  that  “over  1  million  adults are blind  and  another  3  million  are  visually impaired”. This population of blind persons  accounts for approximately 3% of the total population. It is also estimated that of this figure, more than 25,000 persons are of school age,  and less than 10  percent  of these  actually attend  school,  with the remaining 90 percent confined to houses or roaming the streets as beggars [2].

In Nigeria today, there presently exist 28 (twenty-eight) dedicated schools and special centers for the blind to carter for the special education need of the blind.  More so, blind  and  visually  impaired  students  are  found  at  all  educational  institutions  in primary and  secondary  schools,  polytechnics,  universities,  and  vocational  training centers. They, like their sighted counterparts, are in search of academic laurels in a quest for excellence  and a chance to be productively  involved  in nation building, while maintaining some level of independence such that they don’t become liabilities to others.

Another  vulnerable  group  with prevalence  of visual  impairment  are  persons  with ocular albinism (albino).  The population of Albino in Nigeria stands at 4 million. Out of  this  figure,  2  million  persons  are  with  ocular  albinism,  while  those  with  full albinism are over 2 million. Persons with ocular albinism  usually have normal skin pigmentation  but loss of melanin  in the eyes,  which  causes  some form  of visual impairments [4].  This accounts for another estimated 3% of Nigeria’s population. Within contemporary Nigerian society,  there is little  appreciation  that disability  is fundamentally an issue inexorably linked to and rooted in human rights. The common perception, held by policy-makers and the public at large, is that disabled people and disability issues are viewed in terms of charity and welfare. The blind and visually

impaired have a right to education and information resource available on the internet. Using the appropriate assistive technology available, the blind and visually impaired can be helped to bridge the digital divide and education gap.

1.2.     Statement Of The Problem

Despite   the   power   and   enormous   capability   of   Information   Communication Technology,  the  intrinsic  digital  divide  it  creates  and  the  extenuating  assistive technologies, the blind and visually impaired in Nigeria are  yet to fully harness this dimension of ICT.   The blind and visually impaired in developed world have since embraced this and have increased their productivity, ensured their rights and enhanced social inclusion  in society.  This  is far from  the  case in developing  countries  like Nigeria; there is a paucity of data on the level of awareness and adoption of assistive technology by the blind  and  visually  impaired. This thesis therefore  carry out an assessment study of the ICT support services for the blind and visually impaired in Nigeria. The study  also  focused on what the latest technology to assist blind and vision-impaired people are and if the voice Application for the blind can bridge this gap.

The aim was to use qualitative techniques to understand the perceptions of  people about the new technology. The future jobs of thousands of visually disabled people, their  ability to  use labor  saving  household  appliances,  and  their  capacity  to  deal electronically with the rest of the world is at stake [5].

1.3.     Research Questions

The research questions for this study are as follows:

      How do people with vision disabilities perceive themselves and society, and how does this affect access to computing and Assistive technologies?

• What are the barriers preventing blind and vision impaired from using Computers and Assistive Technology?

• Are computing and Internet-related  technologies  beneficial to people with  vision disabilities?

• Are computing and assistive technologies providing effective tool for people with vision impairment?

• In what way do government policies, online information providers and information technology corporations affect the disability divide?

• How can issues related to the disability divide be resolved?

1.4.     Purpose of the Study

The main aim of this thesis is to carry out an inclusive assessment of the ICT support services available to assist the blind and visually impaired to bridge the digital divide. To achieve this aim, the following objectives are paramount

1.   Critically assessment of the assistive technologies specifically designed to bridge

the digital divide for the blind and visually impaired

2.   Assess the level of awareness and adoption of the assistive technology by the blind and visually impaired.

3.   Identify major challenges facing the blind and visually impaired with respect to harnessing the ICT support services.

4     To demonstrate on the system ways in which Internet technologies  provide advantages for people with vision disabilities;

5     To develop a clear understanding  of the ways in which people with  vision disabilities perceive, establishing the extent and nature of perceived barriers or benefits;

6     To determine the effect of government policy and corporate initiatives on the issues surrounding the disability divide; and

7     To investigate and determine the effectiveness of Internet-related products or assistive technologies are available to assist people with vision impaired;

8     Proffer ICT solutions to challenges facing the blind and visually impaired by Designing and implement a system as a solution to bridge the gap of existing technology

1.5.     Significance of Study

Before now, the blind and visually impaired in Nigeria are relegated to beg or remain liabilities to those they depend on. They are viewed in terms of charity and welfare. The effort of few brilliant  blind  and visually impaired  to earn  education  and use information resource are not very fruitful because of their disability challenge. This thesis  assesses  the  assistive  technology  required  to  bridge  the  digital  divide  and information gap. The assessment  would help to  provide the much needed data for promoting the adoption and proper  harnessing of assistive technology for the blind and visually impaired. This  research would also provide the framework for proper policy legislation to  ensure the rights of the blind and visually impaired as well as promote social inclusion and higher productivity by this class of people.

This study investigates and design a system to show the ways in which the Internet and assistive technology, while promising much assistance to many people who are blind or vision impaired, has become yet another arena in which disability leads to inequalities  in society.   In the course of the investigation,  this  study has sought to discover  the ways  in which this digital divide for  people with  vision disabilities, referred to as the disability divide, can be  bridged. The significance of this project work also serve as a helping tools for the vision impaired people, therefore, this goes a long way by creating a voice application. The blind will use the software to voice out what they have type.

1.6.     Scope and Limitations of Study

The scope of this research work converts text into spoken word, by analyzing and processing the text using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and then using Digital Signal Processing (DSP) technology to convert this processed text into  synthesized speech representation of the text.

This study also investigates  and designs a system to show the ways in which  the Internet, while promising much assistance to many people who are blind or  vision impaired, has become yet another arena in which disability leads to  inequalities  in society.  In the course of the investigation, this study has sought to discover the ways in which this digital  divide  for people  with  vision  disabilities,  referred  to  as the disability divide, can be bridged.

The specific research objectives were:

1.   Critically  assessment  of  the  assistive  technologies  specifically  designed  to bridge the digital divide for the blind and visually impaired

2.   Assess the level of awareness and adoption of the assistive technology by the blind and visually impaired.

3.   Identify major challenges facing the blind and visually impaired with respect to harnessing the ICT support services

4.   To  demonstrate  on  the  new  system  ways  in  which  assistive  technologies provide advantages for people with vision disabilities;

5.   To develop a clear understanding  of the ways in which people with  vision disabilities perceive, establishing the extent and nature of perceived barriers or benefits;

6.   To determine the effect of government policy and corporate initiatives on the issues surrounding the disability divide; and

7.   To investigate and determine the effectiveness of Internet-related products or assistive technologies are available to assist people with vision impaired;

8.   To propose solutions that will help close the disability divide in relation to Internet use, assistive technology and access between people with and without a disability.

One of the  limiting  factors  to  the  study was  that  only a few people  with  visual impairments were interviewed because it was not possible to go to many as States or location as possible due to time constraints.  Regardless of this limitation, the findings

are consistent with the local and international literature. Therefore, the findings of the study may be generalized.

1.7.         Definition of Terms

For the purpose of this study, key terms are used as follows;

Assistive technology: A broad term used to describe both the products and services given  to  the  individuals  with  Special  Education  Needs  (SEN)  to  enhance  their vocation, recreation, education and independence.

Braille: A system of writing that involves a combination of six embossed dots.

Career: Activities and positions involved in vocations, occupations as well as related activities associated with an individual’s life time of work.

Career choice: The act of selecting a career.

Career  development:  The  interaction  of psychological,  sociological,  economical, physical  and  chance  factors  that  shape  the  sequence  of  identifying,  selecting  and maintaining a career engagement throughout one’s lifetime.

Career guidance: Provision of services and activities to individuals of any age and at any  point  throughout  their  lives  to  help  them  make  educational,  training  and occupational choices.

Disability: A restriction or disadvantage imposed on an individual’s functioning as a result of impairment.

Guidance:  The  help  or  advice  given  to  someone  about  their  work,  education  or personal life.

Impairment: An identifiable defect in the basic functions of an organ or any part of the body system.

Self-perception: A person’s view of themselves and of a mental or physical attribute that makes up the self.

Parent: A person acting as a father or mother; guardian.

Self:  The  term  for  one’s  experience  or  image  of  one  self,  developed  through interactions with others.

Self-actualization: Psychological need to develop ones’ capabilities and potential in order to enhance personal growth.

Self-concept:  An individual’s  view  of himself  or  herself,  consisting  of  attitudes, feelings,   beliefs, perceptions,  behaviors and other characteristics  that  are uniquely ones’ own.

Self-esteem:  The value or judgment individuals place on their behavior.

Self-efficacy:  The  belief  that  one  can  successfully  execute  behavior  required  to produce a particular out come.

Switchboard operating: Receiving and connecting telephone messages to recipients.Visual impairment:  Vision loss (of a person) either partial or total resulting  from disease, trauma, or congenital or degenerative conditions that cannot be corrected by conventional means such as refractive correction, medication or surgery.

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