The Uses of Smart Phones Applications by people with visual impairments in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Achieved Gratifications

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Ain shams university, Faculty of Art, Communication & Media Science Department

Abstract

This study aims at identifying the uses of smartphone applications by people with visual impairment in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The study also aims at determining the top Smartphone applications used by these people, and to determine the motives for that use in addition to the gratifications.
The study depends on the assumptions of the Uses and Gratifications. The questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection, and it was applied to a sample of (275) respondents in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
The study found important results the most important of which were as follows:
A percentage of (95.5%) people with visual impairment in the Kingdom of Bahrain use smartphone applications, and most of the study sample use an iPhone, and most of them access smartphone applications on their own. A large proportion of the study sample spends more than three hours a day on applications via smartphones. In addition, the most visually impaired smartphone applications used by the sample were "Envision Al", then "TapTap See". The sample's motives for using utilitarian and ritualistic smartphone applications were high, and utilitarian motives were higher, through "communicating with family and friends", and "obtaining information". It also turns out that the most achieved gratification is that it "helps send messages through programs and applications", "facilitates me to communicate and makes me more social". The results also showed that the higher the rate of use of smartphone applications by the visually impaired, the higher their motivation to use.
 

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References

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