The Competencies of Digital Participation of Students with Total Blindness--- A Continuing Three-Year Study

[[abstract]]This three-year research will focus on investigating the competencies of digital participation of high school and college students with total blindness, and developing two more new assistive technology devices (the web-accessible PDA devices and the Chinese DAISY players) for these students. This is a continuing study of last year’s research. The purposes of this new three year proposal are as follows. For the first year, the researchers will complete the Chinese Braille reading and writing system (CBRWS). Next, a web-accessible PDA device will be developed. Then, a survey will be used to investigate the competencies of digital participation of high school and college students with total blindness, in order to better understand their needs and competencies of digital participation. For the second year, a Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) player will be developed and user-tested. Then, the web-accessible PDA device will be augmented and adjusted continuously. And, a draft of digital participation enhancement program will be developed and its applicability will also be examined for improvement. For the third year, the usability of the three devices will be evaluated. “Usability” means learnability, efficiency of use, memorability, few and noncatastrophic error and sjujective satisfaction. This evaluation aims to enhance the functions of the three newly developed devices. Next, the participants of a large sample size will be invited to verify the digital participation enhancement program (DPEP). In addition, the learning outcome and feedback of these participants will be recorded and analyzed. Then, a follow-up survey on the competencies of digital participation will be conducted to discover whether there are differences before and after the DPEP is implemented in terms of competencies of digital participation. Finally, semi-structured interviews will also be conducted with the participants of this study. Hopefully, the results of this study will improve motivation, quality and frequency of digital participation, and outcome of digital learning in students with total blindness. Through the assistance of the three digital learning devices, hopefully the gap between students with visual impairments and their sight peers will be filled. Suggestions for future researchers will be provided.