• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.127-132
• /
• 2016

The purpose of the study is to identify the accessibility of OpenCouresWare(OCW) from the perspective of college students with visual and hearing impairments. Six students with visual impairments(3 blind and 3 low vision) and four students with hearing impairments(2 deaf, 2 hard of hearing) implemented usability testing. Two modules in KOCW were selected for testing. Students implemented usability testing and then each individual case was analyzed through quantitative and qualitative methods. As results, the degree of usability and accessibility in two modules indicated low level. Implications and recommendations for designing OCW module based on the results were suggested.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.186-200
• /
• 2023

This study aims to improve the usability of the white cane, which is walking equipment that most local visually impaired people use and carry when going out, and to contribute to the prevention of safety accidents and the walking rights of visually impaired people by providing improvement and resolution measures for the problems identified. Also, this study is a study on the visually impaired, primarily targeting the 1st to 2nd degree visually impaired people, who cannot go out on their own without walking equipment such as a white cane, corresponding to 20% among approximately 250,000 blind and low vision people in the Korean population. In the study process, the concept has been developed from the user's point of view in order that the white cane becomes a real help in the walking step of the visually impaired and the improvement of usability of the white cane, the main walking equipment for the visually impaired, are done by problem identification through the Double Diamond Model of Design Thinking (Empathize → Define → Ideate → Prototype → Test (verify)). As a result of the investigation in the process of Empathy, a total of five issues was synthesized, including an increase in the proportion of the visually impaired people, an insufficient workforce situation to help all the visually impaired, an improvement and advancement of assistive devices essential for the visually impaired, problems of damage, illegal occupation, demolition, maintenance about braille blocks, making braille block paradigms for the visually impaired and for everyone. In Ideate and Prototype steps, situations derived from brainstorming were grouped and the relationship were made through the KJ method, and specific situations and major causes were organized to establish the direction of the concept. The derived solutions and major functions are defined in four categories, and representative situations requiring solutions and major functions are organized into two user scenarios. Ideas were visualized by arranging the virtual Persona and Customer Journey Map according to the situation and producing a prototype through 3D modeling. Finally, in the evaluation, the final concept derived is a device such a smart cane for guidance for the visually impaired as ① a smart cane emphasizing portability + ② compatibility with other electronic devices + ③ a product with safety and convenience.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.43-50
• /
• 2016

The purpose of the study is to identify the usability of OpenCouresWare(OCW) from the perspective of students with visual and hearing impairments. Twelve college students with disabilities(8 visual and 4 hearing impairment) implemented usability testing. Two modules in both edX and KOCW were selected for testing. Students with disabilities implemented usability testing and then each individual case was analyzed through quantitative and qualitative methods. As results, the degree of general usability in both edX and KOCW indicated an average level and the degree of accessibility in edX module was evaluated higher than KOCW. Specifically, the module of edX was rated highly by students with hearing impairments and the usability level of KOCW module was highly appreciated by blind students.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.41-60
• /
• 2016

This study investigated how people who became blind midway through life used music and how these uses differed according to individual factors. Sixty-one late-blind adults aged 40 to 60 years attending six welfare centers for the blind in Seoul and Gyeonggi region participated in this research. Participants were asked to complete a 25-question survey in Braille on music utilization and preference, as well as the purpose of music utilization. The response rate was 87.1%. The results were as follows. First, with regard to listening preference, they reported preferring to listen to upbeat popular music on the radio when resting at home. They liked to sing along to lyrics reminiscent of personal memories. String instruments were preferred when playing an instrument. With regard to the reason for using music, inducing mood change was found to be the biggest reason, followed by seeking enjoyment, comfort, sense of achievement, and sense of belonging. Third, for people with adventitious visual impairments, individual factors, such as gender, level of disability, and period without eyesight, did not reveal any significant differences. Last, participants were found to obtain a higher sense of belonging through music compared to those having low vision. Regarding time without eyesight, it appeared that the shorter the period, the higher the sense of belonging participants had from utilizing music, and vice versa. This study provides fundamental information for organizing an effective music program that can meet the needs and demands of people with adventitious visual impairments.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.187-198
• /
• 2017

In this study, we analyzed the accessibility of open platform Android mobile banking applications, based on Korean mobile application accessibility KS standard, Section 508 technical standard of Rehabilitation Act, and European BBC guidelines. Experimental result showed that there are no mobile banking applications of 8 commercial banks in Korea that satisfy all guidelines of three standards. Typical violations included missing alternative text, keyboard focus violations, control size and spacing non-compliance, and low contrast ratio. These violations are fatal in that they make the accessibility of the blind, the disabled and the low vision and the elderly impossible. The reason that mobile banking applications do not comply with accessibility is that mobile application developers and providers have low awareness of accessibility and do not know how to implement accessibility properly. Comparing Korea mobile application accessibility guidelines with the revised standard of the Section 508 of Rehabilitation Act and the BBC standard, many guidelines are missing. Also, evaluation criteria are ambiguous and abstract, making it difficult for developers to refer specifically. Therefore, improving mobile application accessibility requires developer and government efforts and complementation of standards.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.100-107
• /
• 2013

As the eBook market grows fast recently, various eBook viewer solutions such as hardware viewers and software readers came out to the market. We can, however, hardly find mobile eBook interfaces for the reading disabled people who have difficulties in reading for their visual impairment or learning disabilities, or dyslexia. An eBook viewer interfaces for the reading disabled people should be carefully and distinctively designed because the reading disabled people cannot use normal versions of eBook viewer. In this paper, we suggest a eBook viewer interface model to make the reading disabled people read eBooks easily. Depending on the type of the reading disabled people: the full blind, the almost blind, the just learning disabled, our model provides an adaptive interface to make them read eBooks effectively. In addition, unlike the existing simple audio books, we also support annotation systems to make the reading disabled people interact with eBook viewer. To show the effectiveness of our model, we implemented an eBook viewer prototype on an android-based mobile device. We are sure that our model and implementation can make the reading disabled people, who is 10% of all the domestic people, read eBooks effectively.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.18 no.6
• /
• pp.243-256
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study was to perform a content analysis on 62 domestic and international journals from 1998 to 2017, in order to review research trends in music and people with visual impairments. The framework of the content analysis was based on the year of publication, field of journal, research method, type of research, research subject, participants' age, and factors of impairment. The results showed that both domestic and international journals have rapidly increased in the last 10 years, and have expanded into the fields of education and therapy. In the research method, survey research was conducted much more frequently in domestic journals, while both qualitative and experimental research were employed on a roughly even basis in international journals. With respect to the type and subject of research, music perception and recent trends on the subject of musical interest and aptitude took up the majority of domestic journals, while international journals focused on music intervention, music perception and cognition with musical influences and experiences. The participants in both domestic and international journals were children, adolescents and adults, while the elderly were not observed. In the factors of impairment, research on people with total blindness or low vision were conducted frequently, but those with adventitious vision loss or multiple impairments were rarely performed. This study could be meaningful to suggest the direction of further studies, through the investigation of research trends in music and people with visual impairments.

• Journal of the Korean BIBLIA Society for library and Information Science
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.283-304
• /
• 2015

The purpose of this study was to identify Web accessibility issues of healthcare websites of the Korean government and public agencies by evaluating these websites' accessibility in accordance with the Korean Web Contents Accessibility Guideline. This study conducted both automated and expert testing to assess the accessibility of a total of 27 health-related websites. The results of the assessment which was conducted in two stages indicated that institutions such as the National Hospital and National Rehabilitation Center demonstrated almost no Web accessibility error. In addition, the Korea Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Health Services Agency, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, and the Korea Medical Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Agency attained very high web accessibility. However, the results of an expert evaluation highlighted that there were considerable errors in providing appropriate alternative text, which was not found in the automated test, and the color contrast of the text content did not comply with Web accessibility standard. Therefore, these websites did not support web accessibility for the sight-impaired. Furthermore, the present study found that it was difficult to deliver accurate information to users due to errors in the default language display and markup, and also, issues of skipping repeated content, content linearization, and compliance with keyboard use were considered as challenges that might arise for people with sight, cognitive and mobility impairments with respect to Web accessibility. It is the first study that evaluated accessibility of healthcare websites of the Korean government and public agencies based on the Korean Web Contents Accessibility Guideline. The present study made a contribution to research on Web accessibility by conducting expert testing, which provided a more complete assessment that identified the degree and specific issues of accessibility errors when compared to automated testing.