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Mobile phones may be the right devices for supporting developing world accessibility, but is the WWW the right service delivery model?

Published: 22 May 2006 Publication History

Abstract

In this paper we detail the synergies we have observed between the features and limitations of mobile phones, and the usability and accessibility requirements of rural developing world users. This includes support for sequential interaction, multimedia input and output, asynchronous messaging and a universally familiar numeric keypad. However, we argue that the WWW as currently conceived may be an inappropriate model for delivering mobile information services in this context. We highlight a number of tensions we have observed between the traditional web model, and the design synergies that we have uncovered. To demonstrate an alternative framework, we describe CAM --- a platform for delivering mobile information services in the rural developing world. Supporting scripted execution, media-driven, tangible interaction as well as an offline usage model, CAM is uniquely adapted both to rural accessibility requirements and the inherent capabilities of mobile phones. By learning from the CAM design, we can either improve the design of existing mobile web standards and services, or implement a more appropriate framework altogether.

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Cited By

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  • (2014)The Digital Divide Objectified in the DesignJournal of Computer-Mediated Communication10.1111/jcc4.1207119:3(712-726)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2014
  • (2009)FOLKSOMAPS - towards community driven intelligent maps for developing regionsProceedings of the 3rd international conference on Information and communication technologies and development10.5555/1812530.1812540(85-94)Online publication date: 17-Apr-2009
  • (2009)Claim mobileProceedings of the 3rd international conference on Information and communication technologies and development10.5555/1812530.1812535(35-45)Online publication date: 17-Apr-2009
  • Show More Cited By

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cover image ACM Other conferences
W4A '06: Proceedings of the 2006 international cross-disciplinary workshop on Web accessibility (W4A): Building the mobile web: rediscovering accessibility?
May 2006
153 pages
ISBN:159593281X
DOI:10.1145/1133219
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 22 May 2006

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Author Tags

  1. ICT
  2. mobile computing
  3. mobile phones
  4. novice users
  5. rural development

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Cited By

View all
  • (2014)The Digital Divide Objectified in the DesignJournal of Computer-Mediated Communication10.1111/jcc4.1207119:3(712-726)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2014
  • (2009)FOLKSOMAPS - towards community driven intelligent maps for developing regionsProceedings of the 3rd international conference on Information and communication technologies and development10.5555/1812530.1812540(85-94)Online publication date: 17-Apr-2009
  • (2009)Claim mobileProceedings of the 3rd international conference on Information and communication technologies and development10.5555/1812530.1812535(35-45)Online publication date: 17-Apr-2009
  • (2009)Claim Mobile: Engaging conflicting stakeholder requirements in healthcare in Uganda2009 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD)10.1109/ICTD.2009.5426704(35-45)Online publication date: Apr-2009
  • (2008)Research Approaches to Mobile Use in the Developing WorldThe Information Society10.1080/0197224080201997024:3(140-159)Online publication date: 1-May-2008
  • (undefined)E-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with DisabilitiesSSRN Electronic Journal10.2139/ssrn.2187252

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