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The purpose of this paper is to provide insights on the most hindering barriers that sight and hearing impaired passengers face when using public transport services. Furthermore, possible convenient solutions to the identified problems shall be presented. To allow for an understanding of these propositions a short introduction and clear definition on sight and hearing impairment is provided.

First a clear definition of sight and hearing impairment is developed to delimit from blind and “normal” persons. A two phase approach was utilized where in the first step qualitative interviews were conducted and the findings were then evaluated based on a literature review.

The authors found a wide variety of different problems being imposed on impaired passengers that could be segmented into four categories (“stops and stations”, “vehicles”, “general mobility problems” and “public awareness”). Additionally multiple solutions to each of these barriers are presented and the main target group is indicated.

Further research is required in the perception of the impaired on specific barriers and solutions, which was only qualitatively provided in this study. Additionally the attitude and awareness of public transport companies towards the recognition of sight and hearing impaired as a specific target group and the implementation of solutions for them are important factors that are not investigated as of yet.

As public transport is an ever more important factor in everyday life, the responsible authorities should be made aware of the specific problems imposed on sight and hearing impaired persons. Therefore, this paper provides a first comprehensive list of barriers with convenient solutions that should be considered for a barrier‐free public transport system.

This paper provides a first introduction of barriers and possible solutions for sight and hearing impaired passengers in public transport systems. Therefore, authorities and public transport companies looking for options to improve their services can lean on these results.

Hearing impaired users often find it difficult to listen to voice over television, computer or public announcement systems due to background noise, music or poor sound quality. This paper presents a hearing impairment simulator that can help digital content developers to understand the auditory perception of hearing impaired users. Existing hearing impairment simulations often fail to publish results on validation or running the system on stored files. The present work describes validation result on a hearing impairment simulator and link to download the system that can simulate any sound stored as a wav file.

This work presents a simulator with a downloadable link to the software and results on a couple of user trials involving users with varying degrees of hearing impairment validating the system. The simulator also simulates frequency smearing which is not available in most online hearing impairment simulators. The simulator is part of a bigger project which also involves simulating visual, cognitive and motor impairment.

The result shows the present implementation can accurately simulate hearing perception for spoken voice. It also demonstrates that both frequency attenuation based on audiogram response and smearing are needed for accurate simulation as random frequency attenuation does not distort the sound well enough to be inaudible.

It should be noted that this simulation is not accurate enough to be used for medical purpose, rather aims to be an engineering tool to simulate approximately correct auditory perception of hearing impaired people. However, like other researches on user modelling and simulation in HCI, this simulator aims to enhance the design space where designers can optimize volume and quality of sound output and if necessary of background music or noise.

This paper presents a hearing impairment simulator that can help digital content developers to judge the sound quality of their content for hard of hearing users.

Existing literature on hearing impairment simulators either presents a software without detailed result on validation or focuses on detailed theoretical results on psychology without any easy deployable software. Most existing software also does not allow running simulation on stored file which limits their purpose. This work presents a simulator with a downloadable link to the software and results on a couple of user trials involving users with varying degrees of hearing impairment validating the system. The simulator also simulates frequency smearing which is not available in most online hearing impairment simulators.

Despite developments in the fields of technology and health, some people may still have congenital or acquired disabilities. In our world, where one in every seven consumers is disabled, these consumers also have the right to utilize the services offered to them in the best way as the other six. With the developed technology and innovations, it has become easier and more inexpensive for disabled consumers to access products and services. The number of disabled consumers is also increasing day by day in the tourism sector. However, the designs of touristic products are not suitable for every type of disability. The concept in disabled tourism that is known as “Quiet Tourism” in the literature represents the group including consumers with hearing and speech loss. This section aims to present consumers with hearing and speech loss who have to continue their lives this way becoming a new market for accommodation firms and what types of difficulties and opportunities may be encountered. It is aimed to show that the existing infrastructure at accommodation firms is not adequate, but there is a considerable potential.

Investigates ways in which computer technology can enable people with a hearing and/or speech impairment to communicate. These range from telecommunication devices for the deaf (TDDs) to software designed to teach deaf children how to read and write in English (often their second language!). Other new technology includes software that converts English into American Sign Language vocabulary, and under development is a system which will facilitate communication between a hearing person and a person with a combination of hearing/visual or hearing/speech impairment.

It has been argued by researchers from the Anglo‐Saxon nations that the rationality of the market has increasingly infiltrated the medical field. This paper seeks to enquire via policy analysis to what extent these principles have affected the prototypical welfare state of Denmark in relation to Danish hearing health policies.

The paper is based on qualitative methods comprising observations and interviews in two hearing clinics.

The paper shows that rather than a “withdrawal” of the state there has been a process of reform. The data suggest that a distinguishing mark of the consumer role on offer in Denmark is that, along with a free hearing aid, the Danish health consumer enjoys a range of rights and reciprocal responsibilities. The paper concludes that few of the hearing‐impaired patients were able to embrace the consumer ethos, and those who chose not to wear their prescribed hearing aids experienced the added burden of moral reproach.

It makes little sense to analyse abstracted rationalities without proceeding to analyse how they actually function in practice. This paper demonstrates empirically how and to what degree governmentality is embedded in social practice in two public hearing clinics in Denmark.

Beck discusses the need to improve library and information services for the deaf community. The technological support available to libraries to serve the deaf is identified and described. Turnkey systems are found to be lacking in applications devoted to those who cannot hear or who are hard of hearing. Other technologies, like captioned videos, TDDs, and assistive listening systems, are examined for levels of service and excellence as well as cost. Examples of technology in transition and for the future are offered, along with experiments on speech and sound. These include inner ear implants, the “data glove” experiments, and tactile translators. Technological conflicts that may arise due to one person having multiple disabilities are presented with a discussion on the prevention of dangerous or difficult situations. Possible difficulties and ways to handle opposing technologies are examined briefly. Appropriate sections of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Guidelines are grouped with the technologies that aid compliance. Additional laws are mentioned where their inclusion is appropriate. Suggested guidelines for serving the deaf/disabled community are offered for librarians working in all library types.

Developing countries are endeavoring to advance into the 21st century information age. Their progress, however, is hamstrung by the dire lack of trained, skilled and knowledgeable IS workers who are able to interact with online and off‐line information sources. These countries can tap from the rich intellectual capital lying dormant within the ranks of disabled people to boost the pool of IS workers in their societies. However, before developing countries can draw on the information systems capabilities of disabled workers, these workers themselves must be able to function at par with their able‐bodied counterparts as information workers. This presupposes the availability of special‐purpose information systems devices and approaches developed for disabled users. In this paper, therefore, we examine several issues that are pertinent to IS and disabled people in developing countries, and propose an integrated infrastructure to enhance the interaction of disabled people with on‐line information sources. The study includes issues related to the suitability of different interaction methodologies and technologies for people with disabilities. Additionally, we propose the design of customized interfaces that can be used by disabled people to develop Web‐based database applications and to access and query on‐line databases.

In the literature there is limited research on the interaction of language and arithmetic performance of deaf students, although previous studies have demonstrated that many of these students are delayed in both their language acquisition and arithmetic performance. The focus of the first part of this work is a brief review of the literature on acquisition of learning abilities in prelingually deaf children with hearing aids and cochlear implants. Children who experience severe to profound deafness early in their life have a better prognosis for normal literacy development than ever before. In fact, the restoration of the auditory threshold allows children to achieve language and learning abilities like normally hearing children. In the second part we describe our initial experiences in the field. We discuss some preliminary results of an investigation of the longitudinal development of cognitive abilities related to numerical cognition in hearing-impaired children who have had a hearing aid or a cochlear implant at a young age. Specifically, we analyse the development of numerical abilities related to verbal abilities (such as those implied in counting tasks), reading and writing numbers, and analogical numerical abilities (such as those based on quantity recognition as in number comparison and number seriation).

Prevalence of hearing impairment is quite common in people with learning disabilities (double jeopardy). However, this debilitating co‐morbidity remains largely undetected by carers and professionals due to presence of additional disabilities and complex clinical presentation in this population on the one hand, and lack of specialist hearing impairment service provision and difficulty in accessing generic audiology services on the other hand. This article aims to provide practical guidance on assessment and management of hearing impairment in people with learning disabilities by offering a narrative review of available literature on gaps in service delivery.

Reports on a conference held in 1989 in Wisconsin, which focused on the topic of providing better access to information for people with disabilities. According to the author, the conference concentrated mainly on those with vision‐related difficulties. Summarizes two of the speeches made at the conference and examines some of the technology on display. Stresses the need for adaptive technology to enable people with a disability to access the increasing amounts of computer technology in everyday life.