Department of Community Ophthalmology, Dr. R. P. Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
Department of Ophthalmology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, United States.
Front Public Health. 2022 Jul 6;10:912460. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.912460. eCollection 2022.
Studies have reported that knowledge and skills to operate smartphones among people with profound visual loss are limited especially in low- to middle-income countries as many important functions of smartphones are unknown to them. This report presents smartphone use, its challenges, and enablers in two persons with profound visual impairment while executing their daily routine and instrumental living activities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the lockdown period, we provided tele (vision) rehabilitation service. From the list of the callers, we purposely selected two callers with significant visual impairment, one woman and one man, to allow us to gather rich information related to smartphone use, enablers, and challenges faced during the usage. A semistructured interview was done to obtain insights into the information. The selection criteria were (1) continuous smartphone use independently for more than 5 years; (2) graduation-level education or higher; and (3) no additional disabilities.
We found substantial use of smartphones in executing their daily and instrumental daily living activities by these two participants. The extent of the use of mainstream apps for various tasks was almost equivalent to what we observed among sighted persons. The most important enabling factors were the presence of a screen reader "TalkBack" on Android phones and data connection of the mobile, followed by the ability to assess multiple languages using the text-to-speech feature. A supportive environment from peers or family members is important for the beginner. Poor battery backup, frequent unwanted ads or pop-ups while using the phone, not readable contents with a screen reader, e.g., CAPTCHA, and slow or unresponsiveness of the screen reader were frequent challenges faced by them. Both cases reported that around 80% of daily solutions were helped by using a smartphone.
The current advances in accessible technology of smartphones enable an individual with profound visual loss to use them almost equivalently as a sighted person. To reduce the gap in digital inclusion, people with visual impairment should be encouraged to use the smartphone for their daily solutions with attention to proper training.
研究表明，在视力严重受损的人群中，操作智能手机的知识和技能有限，尤其是在中低收入国家，因为他们对智能手机的许多重要功能并不了解。本报告介绍了在 COVID-19 大流行期间，两名视力严重受损的人在执行日常和工具性日常生活活动时使用智能手机、遇到的挑战和助力因素。
在封锁期间，我们提供远程（视力）康复服务。在来电者名单中，我们特意选择了两名视力严重受损的来电者，一男一女，以便我们收集有关智能手机使用、助力因素和使用过程中面临的挑战的丰富信息。我们采用半结构化访谈来获取相关信息。选择标准为：（1）持续独立使用智能手机超过 5 年；（2）毕业或更高学历；（3）无其他残疾。
我们发现这两名参与者在执行日常和工具性日常活动中大量使用智能手机。他们使用主流应用程序完成各种任务的程度几乎与我们在视力正常者中观察到的相同。最重要的助力因素是安卓手机上的屏幕阅读器“TalkBack”和移动数据连接，其次是使用文本转语音功能评估多种语言的能力。来自同伴或家庭成员的支持性环境对初学者很重要。他们经常面临的挑战包括电池续航能力差、使用手机时频繁出现不需要的广告或弹出窗口、屏幕阅读器无法读取内容（例如验证码）、屏幕阅读器响应缓慢或无响应。这两个案例都报告说，大约 80%的日常解决方案都得益于使用智能手机。
当前智能手机无障碍技术的进步使视力严重受损的个体几乎可以与视力正常者一样使用智能手机。为了缩小数字包容差距，应鼓励视力障碍者使用智能手机来解决日常问题，并注意适当的培训。
