Use of Internet of things (IoT) for the people with disabilities: a Sri Lankan case study

Abstract

The main reason for Disability among young cause is until the year 2009 Sri Lanka had 30 years of humanitarian operations in the country. Most of them were permanently disabled while working in the National security forces in the country. The objective of this study is to overcome the difficulties faced by blind or visually impaired community in Sri Lanka using Internet of things (IOT) concept. The study is basically consisting with two phases. In the first phase of the study examined the current technology adaption among the differently abled community in Sri Lanka and problems faced by them. The second phase examines how the modern new technologies such as Internet of things (IoT) successfully solving the issues in globally and develop a model to overcome the Sri Lankan disability digital divide. First phase of these study two set of samples were interviewed to identify the current disability digital divide in the country. Initially 314 participants were interviewed and in the second set of sample including with 180 disabled participants. Sample selected from different communities, different disabled categories and different geographical locations. Findings indicated that basic level ICT technologies used by the differently abled community are low. Findings indicated that Network layer, Application layer and Presentation layer considerations are need to be importance to overcome the disability digital divide as a holistic model to overcome the disability digital divide in the country.