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Vision Impairment and Electronic Government

Vision Impairment and Electronic Government

Reima Suomi, Irene Krebs
Copyright: © 2013 |Pages: 13
ISBN13: 9781466620711|ISBN10: 1466620714|EISBN13: 9781466620728
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-2071-1.ch020
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MLA

Suomi, Reima, and Irene Krebs. "Vision Impairment and Electronic Government." Cases on Progressions and Challenges in ICT Utilization for Citizen-Centric Governance, edited by Hakikur Rahman, IGI Global, 2013, pp. 449-461. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-2071-1.ch020

APA

Suomi, R. & Krebs, I. (2013). Vision Impairment and Electronic Government. In H. Rahman (Ed.), Cases on Progressions and Challenges in ICT Utilization for Citizen-Centric Governance (pp. 449-461). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-2071-1.ch020

Chicago

Suomi, Reima, and Irene Krebs. "Vision Impairment and Electronic Government." In Cases on Progressions and Challenges in ICT Utilization for Citizen-Centric Governance, edited by Hakikur Rahman, 449-461. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2013. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-2071-1.ch020

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Abstract

Visually impaired people are in a distinctive disadvantage when using computer screens based on visual presentation of data. Their situation becomes increasingly critical, as most society services, including issues such as e-Commerce, e-Business, e-Health, and e-Government go online. Yet modern technologies can also offer solutions to their problems, both at hardware and software level, and often with reasonable cost. Effective ICT can open up new communication channels and functionalities for say totally blind people, which would not have been available for them otherwise. General sensitivity for this issue, and especially sensitivity among designers of governmental e-services, must be developed. E-Government is an especially demanding activity area as it comes to all sorts of imparities (not just vision impairment), as governmental services are often in a monopoly service delivery situation: citizen have to use them, and there is often no other alternative. The issue binds it to the wider discussion on digital divide, where vision impairment is one cause for digital divide, and often very devastating, especially if still combined with other sources of digital divide.

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