AUTHOR=Senjam Suraj Singh , Primo Susan A. 

TITLE=Challenges and Enablers for Smartphone Use by Persons With Vision Loss During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Report of Two Case Studies

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.912460

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2022.912460

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Purpose: 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 (LMICs) as many important functions of smartphones are unknown to them.  This report presents smartphone use, their challenges and enablers in two persons with profound visual impairment while executing their daily routine and instrumental living activities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.  Case selection and interview: During the lockdown period, we provided tele (vision) rehabilitation service. From the list of the callers, we purposively selected two callers with significant visual impairment, one female and one male, to allow us to gather rich information related to smartphone use, enablers, and challenges faced during the usage. Semi-structured 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. Discussion: We found substantial use of smartphone in executing their daily and instrumental daily living activities by these two participants. The extend of use of mainstream apps for various tasks was almost equivalent with what we observed among sighted persons.  The most important enabling factors were the presence of a screen reader “TalkBack” on Android phone and data connection of the mobile, followed by the ability to assess multiple languages using 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 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 smartphone. Conclusions: The current advances in accessible technology of smartphones enables an individual with profound visual loss to use them almost equivalently as a sighted person. To reduce the gap of digital inclusion, people with visual impairment should be encouraged to use smartphone for their daily solution with attention to proper training.