Browsing by Author "Tucker, William D"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Browser-based and mobile video communication alternatives for Deaf people
    (University of the Western Cape, 2011) Wang, Yuanyuan; Tucker, William D; Dept. of Computer Science; Faculty of Science
    This thesis offers some prototypes to provide browser-based and mobile video communication services for Deaf people and evaluates these prototypes. The aim of this research is to identify an acceptable video communication technology for Deaf people by designing and evaluating several prototypes. The goal is to find one that Deaf people would like to use in their day-to-day life. The thesis focuses on two technologies | browser-based systems and mobile applications. Several challenges emerged, for example, specific Deaf user requirements are difficult to obtain, the technical details must be hidden from end users, and evaluation of prototypes includes both technical and social aspects. This thesis describes work to provide South African Sign Language communication for Deaf users in a disadvantaged Deaf community in Cape Town. We posit an experimental design to evaluate browser-based and mobile technologies in order to learn what constitutes acceptable video communication for Deaf users. Two browser-based prototypes and two mobile prototypes were built to this effect. Both qualitative data and quantitative data are collected with user tests to evaluate the prototypes. The video quality of Android satisfies Deaf people, and the portable asynchronous communication is convenient for Deaf users. The server performance is low on bandwidth, and will therefore cost less than other alternatives, although Deaf people feel the handset is costly.
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    Challenges for the adoption of ICT for diabetes selfmanagement in South Africa
    (University of the Western Cape, 2019) Petersen, Fazlyn; Afeefa, Brown; Shaun, Pather; Tucker, William D
    The increasing disease burden in developing countries inhibits the provision of quality care to citizens. However, the increased availability of information communication and technology (ICT) tools makes this a viable option for inclusion in primary health care. Even so, barriers are impeding the successful adoption and usage of ICT tools in health care contexts. This research focuses on one such context to identify the challenges and barriers for the adoption of ICT tools for diabetes self‐management in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The extended technology acceptance model (TAM) and four factors (educational, technological, economic, and sociocultural factors) were identified as a basis for investigation. Evidence was gathered from a sample of 131 diabetic patients using semistructured interviews. These factors, together with TAM constructs, explore how patients interact with ICT and their attitudes towards the use of ICT for diabetes self‐management. The results indicate that all four factors form barriers to ICT adoption for diabetes self‐management. These findings provide a basis to inform how future interventions at the primary health care level may be developed to overcome the identified barriers in efforts to integrate ICT tools into diabetic patients' daily selfmanagement routines.
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    Impact of Socio-Demographic Factors on the Acceptance of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) for Diabetes Self-care
    (Springer Nature Switzerland, 2020) Tucker, William D; Baker, Adiel; Petersen, Fazlyn; Pather, Shaun
    This research investigates the impact of socio-demographic factors such as age, gender, income and location on ICT acceptance for diabetes selfcare. The investigation is due to the increasing number of diabetic patients in South Africa, where large segments of the population experience technological forms of exclusions. The context warrants research in geographical areas where ICT use is not pervasive yet. This research, used the UTAUT model with purposive sampling for 497 diabetic respondents, residing in low socio-economic communities. It analysed survey data using linear regression. It found that age had a strong moderating effect on all four UTAUT constructs. Gender only had a moderating effect on performance expectancy and social influence. In contrast to findings in the extant literature, income and location had no significant moderating effect in this context.
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    Mose: A Mobile Application for Women Street Vendors in Cape Town
    (University of the Western Cape, 2020) Majoni, Tavonga; Zegeye, Yodit; Tucker, William D
    psychological and many other forms of abuse. This trait is more prominent in African homes and especially poor African homes [1]. Despite women's contribution to society, they are still seen as inferior and the gender gap is large, especially in poor areas [1]. The evident gender discrimination and male dominance sometimes lead women into believing that they are powerless and results in them depending on a man to be the sole provider or decider of women’s fate [1]. For example, in West Bengal where no woman had ever been a leader, 86% of parents wanted their daughters to become whatever their in-laws wanted, or to become a housewife [1]. Women's empowerment becomes very crucial, as it can improve women’s self-worth and reduce the gender gap. In some African countries, males are the sole leaders on culture, religion, and politics [2]; and this violates basic human rights such as inclusion and nondiscrimination [3]. Gender equality and women empowerment comprise one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [4]; to promote equality and also bring another aspect of development [1], and the benefits can be carried over to the next generation [5].
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    Video Relay Service for Deaf people using WebRTC
    (University of the Western Cape, 2019-03) Henney, Andre J; Tucker, William D
    This paper reports on an experimental open source video relay service prototype that helps Deaf people communicate with hearing people by accessing a third party sign language interpreter on a mobile device. Deaf people are disadvantaged in many ways when communicating with the hearing world in real world scenarios, such as hospital visits and in cases of emergency. When possible, Deaf people can enlist the assistance of a family member, community worker or sign language interpreter to assist with such scenarios, however this assistance is pre-arranged and Deaf people would prefer on-the-fly assistance. Our application will assist Deaf people to contact any available sign language interpreter to facilitate communication between the Deaf person and a hearing person using a split screen model, effectively creating a three-way conversation between the Deaf person, the hearing person and the sign language interpreter. The prototype was developed using the WebRTC platform, with JavaScript for browser operability and hardware platform independence. Our hope is that the research can be used to persuade mobile network operators of the need for free or heavily discounted data connection to relay services for Deaf mobile customers.