The Rate of Blind Usage of Information and Communication Technology for Meeting Informational Needs

Subject Areas : Infomartion Technology

Hasan Siamian ¹ ( PhD Graduated in Knowledge and Information Sciences, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran )
Mohammad Hassanzadeh ² ( Associate Professor, Department of Knowledge and Information Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran )
Fatemeh Nooshinfard ³ ( Assistant Professor, Department of Knowledge and Information Science, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran )
Nadjla Hariri ⁴ ( Associate Professor, Department of Knowledge and Information Science, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran )

Received: 2013-04-05 Accepted : 2014-04-05 Published : 2014-08-01

Keywords: Information and communication technology, blind people, Information Society, information needs, information media,

Abstract :

This study aimed to assess the blind usage of ICT and special information media for meeting the information needs. Regarding the purpose, this research was applied and regarding the data collection, it was analytic which conducted in 2012. The statistical sample size determined based on the Krejcie & Morgan table was 384. The data was collected using a researcher made questionnaire with 0.85 reliability coefficient. For data analysis, descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, percent and inferential statistics including the Friedman test and Binomial test were used. Results of the study of certain information media showed that item "listening" had the highest usage and items "Podcast" and "Vodcast" had no application. Most of the blind people's use of special information resource was "listening" and the lowest use of information resources of the blind people was "talking". More than half of the blind people used lower than the average size of Information Technology (electronic and internet resources). The most frequently used of the tool and technology for the blind people was "computer" and least used was "blog design and blogging". From the viewpoint of the blind people, the most resources required for training and guiding were the use of special software; guidance of librarians and talking books and the minimum of needed resource was "self-training".

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