TAILIEUCHUNG - User requirement analysis of a mobile augmented reality application to support literacy development amongst children with hearing impairments

The results of the study was used in the preliminary development of Word & Sign, an AR mobile application intended to aid Arab children who are hearing impaired in their linguistic development. | Journal of ICT, 18, No. 2 (April) 2019, pp: 207–231 How to cite this article: Al-Megren, S., & Almutairi, A. (2019). User requirement analysis of a mobile augmented reality application to support literacy development among children with hearing impairments. Journal of Information and Communication Technology, 18(2), 207-231. USER REQUIREMENT ANALYSIS OF A MOBILE AUGMENTED REALITY APPLICATION TO SUPPORT LITERACY DEVELOPMENT AMONGST CHILDREN WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENTS Shiroq Al-Megren & Aziza Almutairi King Saud University, Saudi Arabia salmegren@; ABSTRACT Literacy is fundamental for children’s growth and development, as it affects their educational, societal, and vocational progress. However, the mapping of language to printed text is different for children with hearing impairments. When reading, a hearingimpaired child maps text to sign language (SL) which is a visual language that can benefit from technological advancements, such as augmented reality (AR). Several research efforts that utilises AR for advancing the educational needs of people who are hearing impaired for different SLs are evident. Nevertheless, only a few directly elicit the visual needs of children who are hearing impaired. This study aims to address this gap in the literature with a series of user studies to elicit user requirements for the development of an AR application that supports the literacy development of Arab children who are hearing impaired. Three instruments were utilised in these user studies, each targeting a different group of literacy influencers: questionnaires issued to parents of children with hearing impairments, interviews with teachers, and observations of children who were deaf or hard of hearing. The findings indicated that the parents and teachers preferred Arabic SL (ArSL), pictures, and videos, whereas the children struggled with ArSL and preferred fingerspelling. These Received: 22 September 2018 Accepted: 10 January 2019 Published:

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• User requirement analysis of a mobile augmented reality application
• Support literacy development amongst children with hearing impairments
• Support literacy development amongst children
• AR mobile application
• Deaf and hard of hearing