Optimizing the Usability of Mobile Phones for Individuals Who Are Deaf
By Liu, Chien-Hsiou; Hsiao-Ping Chiu; Hsieh, Ching-Lin; Li, Rong-Kwer; Assistive Technology, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 115-127Publication Date: Summer 2010
Study was undertaken for the development of optimized mobile phone functions for the deaf community. In depth interviews were performed with 12 deaf and hard of hearing individuals to determine their usage difficulties and needs with respect to mobile phones in daily life. A simulated mobile phone interface, the PeacePHONE, was designed to evaluate 16 functions grouped into 3 categories: communication, announcement, and m-commerce. PeacePHONE usability was tested with 18 deaf participants, 9 of whom were male. Perceived overall usability of the instrument was reported by participants as excellent. For communication functions, all participants thought short message service (SMS), video phone, GPS, and touch panel functions should be retained. The phone’s display was found to be large enough to communicate by sign language. A majority of participants also favored retaining multimedia messaging service (MMS), MSN Messenger, handwriting recognition, and Internet search. For m-commerce functions, 89 percent of participants thought the fare cards function should be retained, and 78 percent thought that e-money, the banking function, should be retained, although privacy and security concerns were voiced for these functions. All participants were in favor of adding the following new functions: kickstand for facilitating sign language communication, SMS emergency announcements, MMS emergency announcements, doorbell announcements, and fire announcements. Drawbacks to the PeacePHONE noted were no options to select a preferred input method and a lack of visually oriented entertainment functions.
Published by: Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) (Website:http://www.resna.org)
