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1 – 10 of over 20000Despite a lot of agricultural initiatives by the government in a regionally diversified country like India, agriculture is poor, and farmer suicide cases are rampant. This study…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite a lot of agricultural initiatives by the government in a regionally diversified country like India, agriculture is poor, and farmer suicide cases are rampant. This study aims to socially transform and bring behavioural change among the farmers of southern India through the usage of new media. The research has gauged the factors that affect new media accessibility and usability, hindrances in the process and change of farmer’s behaviour through online social marketing bringing social transformation.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is action participatory in nature, and the data is triangulated by conducting a survey at the first level using the Delphi technique among 184 rural south Indian farmers who are smartphone users use new media, and at the next level, the farmers were requested to use WhatsApp for agricultural new sharing, and in the last stage, personal interview with entrepreneurs and farmers has been conducted to understand their new media adoption, e-learning and online social marketing.
Findings
New media is the best way to transform agricultural practices socially. It is a forum where all the farmers of the country can get together and address the issue of the agrarian crisis. Online social marketing (OSM) through WhatsApp is one of the best methods of behavioural change because different farmers can share their experiences and emotion for the crisis and give an appropriate solution to a problem. And, one of the most important features of OSM is it removes third parties from miscellaneous issues be it selling, buying or seeking and sharing information.
Research limitations/implications
Despite trying to cover different hindrances in the way of social marketing of agriculture, the study is not free without its limitations. Language was a barrier, and this study require a lot of time to perceive the changes and adoption. Also, due to time constraint, the authors have categorically clubbed innovators, early adopters and early majority in the same layer opinion leaders and adopters of innovation. These could be analyzed separately in five layers, as suggested by Rogers (1995).
Practical implications
From the managerial perspective, the government should extend services that teach the agriculturists, farmers the use of new media. The marketers and makers of apps and software can tap into this business for launching products for farmers. We need apps designed only for farmers, where agricultural and farming practitioners all over the country and globe can interact about their products, conditions of agriculture and give solution to issues arising in agriculture and farming.
Originality/value
The researchers posit that there are hardly any studies that provide strategies to the agricultural and farming sectors in a regionally diversified country like India. The study is one of its first kind to propose new media strategies to reach out to the farmers of different regions and segmentation for a behavioural change and adoption of new media for better and sustainable agriculture. It has gauged into the factors that affect new media accessibility and usability among farmers and simultaneously gave strategy for behavioural change.
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Trish Andrews, Belinda Tynan and Rosalind James
This paper aims to report on a recent study that investigated the distance learner's voice in relationship to their “lived experiences” of the use of information and communication…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to report on a recent study that investigated the distance learner's voice in relationship to their “lived experiences” of the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), including new media, for teaching and learning. The study reported on here sought to understand how distance learners are using new technology for teaching and learning in a world that increasingly uses and relies on these technologies.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study took a phenomenological approach to investigating the students' experiences with ICTs. Participants were purposively selected to represent a variety of undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as a diverse range of distance learning experiences. A number of strategies for collecting the student voice were utilised, including the Day Experience Method (DEM), Charting the Week's Activities (CWA) and focus group discussions.
Findings
The study found that learners vary widely in their use of new media. However, there is emerging evidence that distance learners of all ages are beginning to appropriate new media to support a more mobile and connected learning experience.
Originality/value
These findings suggest that students' learning preferences are changing. This study provides the basis for further studies in this area and the need for institutions to consider how these changing preferences might be considered in relation to policy and practice in the provision of education for distance learners.
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This article provides an update on “web accessibility” issues.
Abstract
Purpose
This article provides an update on “web accessibility” issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Provides background information on currently applicable accessibility standards and offers a framework for exploring issues and highlighting potential pathways for success.
Findings
This article provides an overview of how a database driven approach to web development can help address significant technical challenges related to providing universal information access.
Originality/value
This paper is useful for information management professionals who seek greater understanding of database driven approach to web development.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore both accessibility and usability and examine the inhibitors and methods to evaluate site accessibility. Design techniques which improve…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore both accessibility and usability and examine the inhibitors and methods to evaluate site accessibility. Design techniques which improve end‐user access and site interactivity, demonstrated by practical examples, are also studied.
Design/methodology/approach
Assesses various web sites for accessibility and usability.
Findings
Criteria are determined by which to assess accessibility and usability of web sites.
Originality/value
Disability is an important consideration in the development of contemporary web sites. By understanding the needs of all users, not only those with disabilities, organisations may begin the process of advancing both accessibility and usability and integrating these elements into their web development strategies.
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Cara Peters and David A. Bradbard
Web accessibility is the practice of making web sites accessible to people, such as the disabled, who are using more than just traditional web browsers to access the internet. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Web accessibility is the practice of making web sites accessible to people, such as the disabled, who are using more than just traditional web browsers to access the internet. The purpose of this paper is twofold: to overview web accessibility and to highlight the ethics of web accessibility from a managerial perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
To that end, this paper reviews related literature, highlights relevant public policy, discusses web accessibility from a systems development perspective, and concludes with a discussion of web accessibility with respect to different ethical theories.
Findings
The findings take the form of a tutorial that highlights how to address web accessibility projects. The findings also examine web accessibility projects as they relate to well‐known ethical theories. Additionally, the findings also incorporate ethical opinions from web designers who have completed web accessibility projects in the past.
Originality/value
The paper makes several contributions to the existing literatures on web accessibility and ethics. An important contribution is that the paper is the first tutorial on web accessibility that also examines the topic through the lens of ethical theories. In addition to the tutorial, the paper reports on the opinions of web designers who have worked on web accessibility projects in the past.
Soo Il Shin, J.B. Kim, Sumin Han and Sangmi Lee
The purpose of this study is to examine factors affecting mobile phone users' attitude toward watching TV content on a mobile device. Under the uses and gratifications theory, the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine factors affecting mobile phone users' attitude toward watching TV content on a mobile device. Under the uses and gratifications theory, the current study examined attitude toward watching TV content on a mobile phone, with antecedents of affinities for both watching TV content and a mobile phone use.
Design/methodology/approach
The current study adopted a construct of relative advantage as a mediator between affinities and attitude, and four moderators that affect the relationship between relative advantage and attitude. The study then analyzed 430 survey responses from public mobile phone users with a generalized linear model.
Findings
Research findings reveal that both affinities are significantly associated with the relative advantage of watching TV content on a mobile phone. Relative advantage plays a salient role in explaining attitudes toward watching TV content on a mobile phone. The relationship between attitude and relative advantage was significantly affected by relaxation, fashion status and accessibility.
Originality/value
This study contributes to media literature, especially where new, applied technology is considered. Particularly, the current research theoretically explains rationale behind a mobile phone user's positive attitude toward watching TV content on a mobile phone, and potential implication of the current and increasing trend of broadcasting individual content through social media outlets.
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Alex H. Cohen, Jorge E. Fresneda and Rolph E. Anderson
This research seeks to fill a gap in the service and retailing marketplace experience literature as well as retailing practice by extending Attribution and Expectancy…
Abstract
Purpose
This research seeks to fill a gap in the service and retailing marketplace experience literature as well as retailing practice by extending Attribution and Expectancy Disconfirmation Theories to the large and growing market of consumers with vision disabilities. It reveals how accessibility-related service failures with a retailer's website can lead to anti-firm reactions from blind and low vision consumers, including social media sharing, negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) and avoidance of the retailer's other sales channels even if they are accessible.
Design/methodology/approach
Blind respondents were recruited from national blindness organizations to participate in this study using a within-subjects design to test reactions to accessibility-related propositions in two different scenarios involving varying degrees of effort.
Findings
In both high- and low-effort conditions, an accessibility-related service failure leads to the anti-firm consequences of NWOM, social media sharing and avoidance of the retailer's sales channels. Additionally, blind and low vision consumers who also feel inaccessible websites are discriminatory develop stronger anti-firm attitudes toward the offending retailers. Further, we aver that the retailer's entire website including all its features, not just the homepage, should be made accessible to the growing market of vision-impaired consumers and thereby obtain substantial competitive advantages.
Originality/value
This research pertains to the service failure and recovery nomological network. It extends the existing paradigm to include accessibility-related service failures experienced by consumers with disabilities into the specialized category of discrimination-based service failures in instances where service recovery is not easily achieved. Empirical investigations of these experiences have been rare, despite the frequency with which they occur.
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The purpose of this paper is to illustrate one library’s role in the development of a new collaborative captioning service to provide accessible media for classroom use. This…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate one library’s role in the development of a new collaborative captioning service to provide accessible media for classroom use. This pilot project created a new workflow for on-demand captioning of videos.
Design/methodology/approach
Through collaboration and iteration, university and library personnel addressed the challenges involved in building new and improved services related to accessible media resources. Circulation and acquisition data were collected via Alma Analytics.
Findings
Working collaboratively enabled the expansion and improvement of specialized services to the deaf and hard of hearing community on campus.
Originality/value
While many libraries provide captioning for their communities, little is found in the literature to help others establish a similar service. This study demonstrates how collaborative planning can efficiently and effectively use resources and expertise to create a sustainable service, and it may provide an example that could be followed by other institutions with limited budgets.
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Filippo Trevisan and Derrick L. Cogburn
International organizations are working on an unprecedented number of development initiatives relevant to people with disabilities. This makes it essential for the global…
Abstract
Purpose
International organizations are working on an unprecedented number of development initiatives relevant to people with disabilities. This makes it essential for the global disability community to be able to participate effectively in the decision-making processes associated with these programs. In light of this, this study aims to explore whether information technologies can help create a more inclusive global governance, forming the basis for equitable development for people with disabilities.
Design/methodology/approach
The results of a global survey of disabled people’s organizations’ (DPOs) leaders are discussed. This asked disability rights advocates about their experiences with accessibility and barriers to effective participation, low-cost accessible technological solutions for remote participation and freely available “off-the-shelf” online technologies – in particular social media platforms – to bridge the gap between the disability community and global governance processes.
Findings
Although only a small number of international conferences offer accessible virtual participation through web conferencing and other tools, responses from DPO advocates suggest that there is a strong demand for this technology and provide evidence of its potential for improving accessibility in global governance. Furthermore, disability organizations all over the world have embraced social media platforms to liaise with their grassroots and enable them to part-take in policy-making processes.
Originality/value
This study highlights community-backed technological solutions to persisting barriers that systematically exclude people with disabilities from fundamental global governance processes, illuminating the nexus of disability, accessibility, and participation.
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Maria Gorete Dinis, Celeste Eusébio and Zélia Breda
This paper aims to present a framework to analyse whether information published on social media is accessible for people with disabilities (PwD), namely, visual and hearing…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present a framework to analyse whether information published on social media is accessible for people with disabilities (PwD), namely, visual and hearing disabilities, with an application to a music festival.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology used in this exploratory study consists of establishing a recommended framework to assess social media accessibility for PwD, especially for people with visual and hearing disabilities (PwVHD), and analyse, through an observation grid, if the information published on the official pages of the “Rock in Rio Lisboa” music festival on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube is accessible for this target audience.
Findings
The results indicate that, although the Rock in Rio Lisboa music festival is promoted as a festival for all, posts on social media are not accessible for people with visual and/or hearing disabilities and do not meet most of the defined parameters established in the proposed assessment framework.
Originality/value
Social media accessibility has not been analysed in previous research in the tourism context. This paper aims to fill in the void by establishing criteria and parameters that can serve as a basis for a framework for accessibility assessment in social media for PwVHD.
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