Title: An impact assessment of information and communication technology for disabled people through technology acceptance model in Bangladesh

Authors: Md. Jahangir Alam Zahid; Md. Mahfuz Ashraf; Bushra Tahseen Malik

Addresses: Researcher, Brainstorm Bangladesh, Road 28/K, House 08, Banani, Dhaka 1213, Bangladesh ' Department of Management Information Systems, Faculty of Business Studies, University of Dhaka, MBA Building, Room No: 2001 (1st floor), Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh ' Researcher, Brainstorm Bangladesh, Road 28/K, House 08, Banani, Dhaka 1213, Bangladesh

Abstract: At present about 6,437 million people are suffering by various forms of disability. Realising the importance of disabled for economic and social development, policymakers of both developed and developing countries have recommended different strategies and among them most noticeable recommendation is to provide the disabled the equitable access to information and communication technology (ICT) facilities as ICT interventions are recognised as the most powerful transmission mechanism for exploiting competitive advantages in the new economy. For this reason different ICT interventions are implemented for disabled people. In this paper, we have tried to find the impact of these interventions from actual beneficiary perspective. We have used technology acceptance model to know about perceived usefulness and perceived easiness of different ICT interventions from the disabled person in our paper from visually impaired person's perspective. Our research finds that though technology has improved a lot but still visually impaired persons are facing many difficulties especially in terms of local language as most of the facilities are not customised for local language. Study also shows that besides technological development, changes in attitude of social variables are important for getting acceptance of disabled people.

Keywords: information and communications technology; ICT; information technology; disabled people; disabilities; visually impaired persons; VIP; social development; economic development; technology acceptance model; TAM; thematic analysis; impact assessment; Bangladesh; perceived usefulness; perceived ease of use.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTM.2013.054197

International Journal of Services Technology and Management, 2013 Vol.19 No.1/2/3, pp.43 - 62

Received: 03 Jul 2012
Accepted: 27 Dec 2012

Published online: 30 Apr 2014 *

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