Ofcom publishes research on visually impaired people’s use and awareness of communications services

Ofcom has today published qualitative research on how visually impaired people use communications services and some problems commonly experienced.

 

The research revealed that factors such as age and degree of independence influenced people’s experiences and attitudes to communications services.  It also revealed that visually impaired people often hold low expectations of service providers. Some respondents cited bad experiences with call centre staff who were not able to deal with callers who could not see to read out information on a mobile phone or TV screen.

 

Equipment that ‘talked’, for example a radio that announced the channels, was valued, as was audio description on television. Awareness of services that could benefit visually impaired people varied and word of mouth was a key source of information.

 

An audio version of this text can be found here:

 

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/reports/visual/audio/

 

The full research, including illustrative anecdotes, can be found here:

 

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/reports/visual/