{"id":{"repo_id":"cape-town","oai_identifier":"oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/15611"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/cape-town/oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/15611","repository":{"repo_id":"cape-town","name":"University of Cape Town","base_url":"https://open.uct.ac.za/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Enabling visually impaired people to use touch screen phones","abstract":"Most mobile applications are not designed for visually impaired people. The concept of universal design is not adopted by most application developers. Therefore, interaction between a visually impaired user and the mobile application becomes cumbersome. Assistive technologies such as screen readers have been developed for different mobile device manufacturer s for visually impaired users. However, they only support the most popular languages spoken in the world such as English. To our knowledge, although research on assistive technologies for the use of mobile devices by visually impaired people has been done, information on that relating to minority languages such as Swahili is virtually non-existent. Therefore, this study investigated the challenges faced by visually impaired Swahili speakers when using mobile phones and then developed a mobile phone application which would enable them to use touch screen phones more independently. As a user center design methodology was adopted, visually impaired people were the focal point for this study. The mobile application was designed and implemented based on the feedback from the participants in all iteration phases and thereafter the final evaluation of a complete application was conducted. The results of the user evaluation showed that most of the visually impaired users were able to complete the tasks independently and were excited to practice even more. Although, the results showed that the sliding - text entry method had more problems than the Braille - method, still users showed preference for the former method. Furthermore, with regard to spoken feedback, the users were willing to use the app even though the quality of the voice was not natural. Overall, the mobile application developed was found to be usable and preferable. While the challenges were explored on the common basic features, it is believed that this work has laid a solid platform for future extensions.","abstract_html":"Most mobile applications are not designed for visually impaired people. The concept of universal design is not adopted by most application developers. Therefore, interaction between a visually impaired user and the mobile application becomes cumbersome. Assistive technologies such as screen readers have been developed for different mobile device manufacturer s for visually impaired users. However, they only support the most popular languages spoken in the world such as English. To our knowledge, although research on assistive technologies for the use of mobile devices by visually impaired people has been done, information on that relating to minority languages such as Swahili is virtually non-existent. Therefore, this study investigated the challenges faced by visually impaired Swahili speakers when using mobile phones and then developed a mobile phone application which would enable them to use touch screen phones more independently. As a user center design methodology was adopted, visually impaired people were the focal point for this study. The mobile application was designed and implemented based on the feedback from the participants in all iteration phases and thereafter the final evaluation of a complete application was conducted. The results of the user evaluation showed that most of the visually impaired users were able to complete the tasks independently and were excited to practice even more. Although, the results showed that the sliding - text entry method had more problems than the Braille - method, still users showed preference for the former method. Furthermore, with regard to spoken feedback, the users were willing to use the app even though the quality of the voice was not natural. Overall, the mobile application developed was found to be usable and preferable. While the challenges were explored on the common basic features, it is believed that this work has laid a solid platform for future extensions.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Kivaisi, Alexander"],"institution":"Department of Computer Science","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Mbogho, Audrey J W"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2015,"date_issued":"2015","date_published":"2015","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:23:02Z","subjects":[],"languages":["eng"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15611","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Mbogho, Audrey J W"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Kivaisi, Alexander"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2015-12-04T19:33:39Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2015-12-04T19:33:39Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2015"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.department","label":"Dc Publisher Department","values":["Department of Computer Science"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.institution","label":"Dc Publisher Institution","values":["University of Cape Town"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Master Thesis"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationlevel","label":"Dc Type Qualificationlevel","values":["Masters"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationname","label":"Dc Type Qualificationname","values":["MSc"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["eng"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15611"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Includes bibliographical references"]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Most mobile applications are not designed for visually impaired people. The concept of universal design is not adopted by most application developers. Therefore, interaction between a visually impaired user and the mobile application becomes cumbersome. Assistive technologies such as screen readers have been developed for different mobile device manufacturer s for visually impaired users. However, they only support the most popular languages spoken in the world such as English. To our knowledge, although research on assistive technologies for the use of mobile devices by visually impaired people has been done, information on that relating to minority languages such as Swahili is virtually non-existent. Therefore, this study investigated the challenges faced by visually impaired Swahili speakers when using mobile phones and then developed a mobile phone application which would enable them to use touch screen phones more independently. As a user center design methodology was adopted, visually impaired people were the focal point for this study. The mobile application was designed and implemented based on the feedback from the participants in all iteration phases and thereafter the final evaluation of a complete application was conducted. The results of the user evaluation showed that most of the visually impaired users were able to complete the tasks independently and were excited to practice even more. Although, the results showed that the sliding - text entry method had more problems than the Braille - method, still users showed preference for the former method. Furthermore, with regard to spoken feedback, the users were willing to use the app even though the quality of the voice was not natural. Overall, the mobile application developed was found to be usable and preferable. While the challenges were explored on the common basic features, it is believed that this work has laid a solid platform for future extensions."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Enabling visually impaired people to use touch screen phones"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Mbogho, Audrey J W"],"dc:creator":["Kivaisi, Alexander"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2015-12-04T19:33:39Z"],"dc:date.available":["2015-12-04T19:33:39Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2015"],"dc:description":["Includes bibliographical references"],"dc:description.abstract":["Most mobile applications are not designed for visually impaired people. The concept of universal design is not adopted by most application developers. Therefore, interaction between a visually impaired user and the mobile application becomes cumbersome. Assistive technologies such as screen readers have been developed for different mobile device manufacturer s for visually impaired users. However, they only support the most popular languages spoken in the world such as English. To our knowledge, although research on assistive technologies for the use of mobile devices by visually impaired people has been done, information on that relating to minority languages such as Swahili is virtually non-existent. Therefore, this study investigated the challenges faced by visually impaired Swahili speakers when using mobile phones and then developed a mobile phone application which would enable them to use touch screen phones more independently. As a user center design methodology was adopted, visually impaired people were the focal point for this study. The mobile application was designed and implemented based on the feedback from the participants in all iteration phases and thereafter the final evaluation of a complete application was conducted. The results of the user evaluation showed that most of the visually impaired users were able to complete the tasks independently and were excited to practice even more. Although, the results showed that the sliding - text entry method had more problems than the Braille - method, still users showed preference for the former method. Furthermore, with regard to spoken feedback, the users were willing to use the app even though the quality of the voice was not natural. Overall, the mobile application developed was found to be usable and preferable. While the challenges were explored on the common basic features, it is believed that this work has laid a solid platform for future extensions."],"dc:identifier.uri":["http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15611"],"dc:language.iso":["eng"],"dc:publisher.department":["Department of Computer Science"],"dc:publisher.institution":["University of Cape Town"],"dc:title":["Enabling visually impaired people to use touch screen phones"],"dc:type":["Master Thesis"],"dc:type.qualificationlevel":["Masters"],"dc:type.qualificationname":["MSc"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:23:02Z"}