Appropriating Technology to Facilitate Mobility: An Exploratory Study of the Use of the “Tune Map” Mobile Application by Visually Impaired Pedestrians in Bandung City, Indonesia

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.201125.031How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Appropriation of technology, ICT, minority, media, mobile application, visual impairment

Abstract

This exploratory study investigates the way people with disabilities use digital technology in context specific ways. The authors examine the ways in which modern societal structure and organization have systematically disadvantaged citizens with minority attributes. The scope of our study is confined to Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy. We examine how Internet and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can provide assistance to marginalized individuals, with a particular focus on how people with disabilities use technologically to increase their access and participate socially in communities and environments. Tune Map is a currently evolving mobile pedestrian navigation application that aims to assist users with visual impairment navigate the city of Bandung, West Java. This article examines the effects of using the Tune Map application on the everyday walking experience of people with visual impairment. This ethnographically inspired study investigates the daily lives of three visually impaired pedestrians in Bandung city as means of exploring their subjective experiences. We argue that it is necessary to investigate the subjective experiences of people with disabilities in order to design useful interfaces for visually impaired and general users. Our results indicate that although Tune Map is useful, it requires further development in order to specially addresses the needs of people with visual impairment. Future versions should be designed in conjunction with people with visual impairment as well as people without visual impairment. We conclude that while disability is a social construct, based on the dominant norms by which society and media systems are organized, wider spaces for the mobility of marginalized groups can be shaped through meaningful understanding of the ways in which they use technologies to assimilate into society.

Copyright

© 2020, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Nur Rafiza Putri
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/11/27
TI  - Appropriating Technology to Facilitate Mobility: An Exploratory Study of the Use of the “Tune Map” Mobile Application by Visually Impaired Pedestrians in Bandung City, Indonesia
BT  - Joint proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Intervention and Applied Psychology (ICIAP 2019) and the 4th Universitas Indonesia Psychology Symposium for Undergraduate Research (UIPSUR 2019)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 369
EP  - 382
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.201125.031
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.201125.031
ID  - Putri2020
ER  -