The use of electronic communication has been significantly increased over the last few decades.Email is one of the most well-known means of electronic communication.Traditional email applications are widely used by a ...The use of electronic communication has been significantly increased over the last few decades.Email is one of the most well-known means of electronic communication.Traditional email applications are widely used by a large population;however,illiterate and semi-illiterate people face challenges in using them.A major population of Pakistan is illiterate that has little or no practice of computer usage.In this paper,we investigate the challenges of using email applications by illiterate and semi-illiterate people.In addition,we also propose a solution by developing an application tailored to the needs of illiterate/semi-illiterate people.Research shows that illiterate people are good at learning the designs that convey information with pictures instead of text-only,and focus more on one object/action at a time.Our proposed solution is based on designing user interfaces that consist of icons and vocal/audio instructions instead of text.Further,we use background voice/audio which is more helpful than flooding a picture with a lot of information.We tested our application using a large number of users with various skill levels(from no computer knowledge to experts).Our results of the usability tests indicate that the application can be used by illiterate people without any training or third-party’s help.展开更多
About one tenth of the world’s population cannot read and write sufficiently. Cognitive abilities, such as selective attention and crystallized as well as fluid intelligence, have been defined as crucial factors for ...About one tenth of the world’s population cannot read and write sufficiently. Cognitive abilities, such as selective attention and crystallized as well as fluid intelligence, have been defined as crucial factors for the acquisition of written language skills. However, it is unclear whether these abilities are necessary also for the alphabetization of adults. Before and after a one-year alphabetization course, we compared the attention and intelligence of 47 illiterate individuals to 41 matched literate controls who did not take part in the alphabetization course. Illiterate individuals improved in selective attention and crystallized intelligence from before to after the alphabetization course;however, they did not reach the same level of functioning as literate controls. In addition, the fluid intelligence of illiterates did not improve. More importantly, when controlling for attention improvement, we found that improvement in crystallized intelligence was associated with alphabetization above and beyond the influence of attention. Our results suggest that alphabetization is closely related to improvements in attention and crystallized intelligence. Specifically, socio-cultural, knowledge- specific learning processes improve during the acquisition of written language skills and may not depend on only the enhancement of the ability to attend to relevant stimuli. Alphabetization programs may, therefore, benefit from distinct considerations of attentional, intellectual, and literacy related skill acquisitions.展开更多
There is a great need to provide educational environments for blind and handicapped people. There are many Islamic websites and applications dedicated to the educational services for the Holy Quran and Its Sciences (Q...There is a great need to provide educational environments for blind and handicapped people. There are many Islamic websites and applications dedicated to the educational services for the Holy Quran and Its Sciences (Quran Recitations, the interpretations, etc.) on the Internet. Unfortunately, blind and handicapped people could not use these services. These people cannot use the keyboard and the mouse. In addition, the ability to read and write is essential to benefit from these services. In this paper, we present an educational environment that allows these people to take full advantage of the scientific materials. This is done through the interaction with the system using voice commands by speaking directly without the need to write or to use the mouse. Google Speech API is used for the universal speech recognition after a preprocessing and post processing phases to improve the accuracy. For blind people, responses of these commands will be played back through the audio device instead of displaying the text to the screen. The text will be displayed on the screen to help other people make use of the system.展开更多
基金This work is supported by the Security Testing Lab established at the University of Engineering&TechnologyPeshawar under the funded project National Center for Cyber Security of the Higher Education Commission(HEC),Pakistan。
文摘The use of electronic communication has been significantly increased over the last few decades.Email is one of the most well-known means of electronic communication.Traditional email applications are widely used by a large population;however,illiterate and semi-illiterate people face challenges in using them.A major population of Pakistan is illiterate that has little or no practice of computer usage.In this paper,we investigate the challenges of using email applications by illiterate and semi-illiterate people.In addition,we also propose a solution by developing an application tailored to the needs of illiterate/semi-illiterate people.Research shows that illiterate people are good at learning the designs that convey information with pictures instead of text-only,and focus more on one object/action at a time.Our proposed solution is based on designing user interfaces that consist of icons and vocal/audio instructions instead of text.Further,we use background voice/audio which is more helpful than flooding a picture with a lot of information.We tested our application using a large number of users with various skill levels(from no computer knowledge to experts).Our results of the usability tests indicate that the application can be used by illiterate people without any training or third-party’s help.
文摘About one tenth of the world’s population cannot read and write sufficiently. Cognitive abilities, such as selective attention and crystallized as well as fluid intelligence, have been defined as crucial factors for the acquisition of written language skills. However, it is unclear whether these abilities are necessary also for the alphabetization of adults. Before and after a one-year alphabetization course, we compared the attention and intelligence of 47 illiterate individuals to 41 matched literate controls who did not take part in the alphabetization course. Illiterate individuals improved in selective attention and crystallized intelligence from before to after the alphabetization course;however, they did not reach the same level of functioning as literate controls. In addition, the fluid intelligence of illiterates did not improve. More importantly, when controlling for attention improvement, we found that improvement in crystallized intelligence was associated with alphabetization above and beyond the influence of attention. Our results suggest that alphabetization is closely related to improvements in attention and crystallized intelligence. Specifically, socio-cultural, knowledge- specific learning processes improve during the acquisition of written language skills and may not depend on only the enhancement of the ability to attend to relevant stimuli. Alphabetization programs may, therefore, benefit from distinct considerations of attentional, intellectual, and literacy related skill acquisitions.
文摘There is a great need to provide educational environments for blind and handicapped people. There are many Islamic websites and applications dedicated to the educational services for the Holy Quran and Its Sciences (Quran Recitations, the interpretations, etc.) on the Internet. Unfortunately, blind and handicapped people could not use these services. These people cannot use the keyboard and the mouse. In addition, the ability to read and write is essential to benefit from these services. In this paper, we present an educational environment that allows these people to take full advantage of the scientific materials. This is done through the interaction with the system using voice commands by speaking directly without the need to write or to use the mouse. Google Speech API is used for the universal speech recognition after a preprocessing and post processing phases to improve the accuracy. For blind people, responses of these commands will be played back through the audio device instead of displaying the text to the screen. The text will be displayed on the screen to help other people make use of the system.
