THE SURVEY OF TAB TELEPHONY 1414 OF PERSONS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT

Jakkrit Thanchayakorn¹, Benjaporn Saksiri², Issavara Sirirungruang³

¹sirmjbb10@windowslive.com

Abstract

The purposes of this study were: 1) to survey the use of DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) via automatic telephone system (TAB Telephony 1414) of persons with visual impairment; 2) to study the problems persons with visual impairment face when using the TAB Telephony 1414; and 3) to make recommendations for the improvement of TAB Telephony 1414.

The participants were persons with visual impairment who registered with the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities since the 1^st November 1994 until the 31^st July 2014. All of the participants live in Bangkok. A questionnaire was used to collect the behavior of persons with visual impairment in using the TAB Telephony 1414 service and guidelines in providing the service.

The results of this study revealed that most participants were frequent users who knew the service from friends recommendation and they had few problems in using the service. For those who had used the service and did not use it anymore as well as those who never used the service, it was found that they mostly never saw the announcement about the service in braille and radio advertisement. The differences in education levels of the frequent users in relation to the level of problems faced when using the service were found to be statistically significant at .05; users with not education and those with primary education were found to have few usage problems than those with secondary education. It was found that if the problems were solved and adequate information about the service is provided, users who previously used the service and currently do not use it anymore as well as those who never use the service would come back to use the service. in Thailand.

Keywords: persons with visual impairment, DAISY-on-telephone system, behavior