Not turning a blind eye: Digital inclusivity and smartphone adoption among the visually impaired in Singapore

Smartphone technology has become indispensable for living highly digitalized societies. In such societies, the smartphone is crucial for performing many critical life activities, such as banking, shopping, and accessing government services. Virtually all commercially available smartphones are primarily designed for individuals who are not visually impaired (VI); thus, a baseline level of visual acuity is required for seamless usage. VI individuals have no alternative to the contemporary smartphone and are effectively forced to use it in highly digitalized societies, for it would otherwise be exceedingly onerous or impossible to perform critical life activities and functions, such as banking and accessing government services, in highly digitalized societies. Existing theoretical approaches to technology use and adoption are mostly inadequate for understanding forced adoption of technology by people with disabilities. Therefore, this paper critically interrogates the problem of the VI individual’s everyday experience with using commercially available smartphones in the Singapore context. Singapore is one of the world’s most digitalized societies following a decade of digital transformation through its Smart Nation policy initiative launched in 2014. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 12 visually impaired smartphone users in Singapore, we sought to understand their everyday lived experiences of using smartphone technology that is primarily designed for non-visually impaired users. Findings reveal that visually impaired users have been left behind in the country’s rapid digitalization efforts and are digitally marginalized, facing a multitude of problems performing critical daily tasks. Examples include frequently failing to enter one-time passwords within time limit due to inability to see the passwords clearly, as well as difficulty in reading texts due to the lack of high contrast interfaces in banking applications, which increases the likelihood of financial loss through banking transaction mistakes. Findings also reveal structural challenges for VI smartphone users, who often do not have financial means to purchase higher-end smartphones that have much improved accessibility functions that can mitigate some of the problems they face when using contemporary smartphones that are primarily designed for non-visually impaired users. These findings suggest that Singapore’s smart nation drive has not been sufficiently inclusive for VI smartphone users; policy interventions and greater awareness of the importance of digital inclusivity are needed so that traditionally marginalized groups such as the visually impaired are not further marginalized in highly digitalized societies.