Abstract
Most governments have integrated digital technologies into all facets of their operations to improve internal government operations and enhance effective and efficient service delivery to the citizenry. As a result, accessibility of e-government services is important for all citizens, especially for persons with disabilities. Government plays a crucial role in addressing accessibility challenges internally before services can be cascaded to all citizens. While several studies have evaluated the accessibility of e-government services to persons with disabilities, these studies have not explored the perspective of visually impaired government employees. With this gap in mind, the purpose of the study is to explore the experiences of visually impaired government employees with e-government services. The study is inductive and uses qualitative semi-structured interviews to collect data from ten visually impaired government workers. The findings identified six themes that shape employees’ experiences with e-government services. The findings contribute to the gap in literature on the accessibility of e-government services for persons with disabilities employed in the government sector. The study also underpins directions for management in government workplaces regarding the needs of persons with disabilities.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Hazineh, S.A., Eleyan, D., Alkhateeb, M.: E-government: limitations and challenges: a general framework for to consider in both developed and developing countries. Int. J. Sci. Technol. Res. 11, 1 (2022). www.ijstr.org
Maluleka, S.M., Budree, A., Van Belle, J.P.: A systematic literature review on south african government to harness software as a service for enhanced e-government. In: Ninth International Conference on eDemocracy & eGovernment (ICEDEG), pp. 1–6 (2023)
Enaifoghe, A., Dlamini, N.P., Jili, N., Mthethwa, R.: The role of e-government as enabler of good governance for socio-economic development in South Africa. Int. J. Soc. Sci. Res. Rev. 6(21), 493–508 (2023). https://doi.org/10.47814/ijssrr.v6i1.826
Lulaj, E., Zarin, I., Rahman, S.: A novel approach to improving e-government performance from budget challenges in complex financial systems. Complexity 1–16 (2022)
Wilson, C., Mergel, I.: Overcoming barriers to digital government: mapping the strategies of digital champions. Gov. Inf. Q. 39(2), 101681 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2022.101681
Babalola, Y.T.: Nigeria’s information infrastructure policy: implications for e-government. Arab. J. Bus. Manag. 2(11), 8–15 (2013)
Choi, H., Jae, M., Jeung, J., Zo, H.: Rethinking the assessment of e-government implementation in developing countries from the perspective of the design reality gap: applications in the Indonesian e-procurement system. Telecommun. Policy 40(7), 644–660 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2016.03.002
Rorissa, A., Demissie, D.: An analysis of African e-Government service websites. Gov. Inf. Q. J. 27(2), 161–169 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2009.12.003
Jalali, M., Shahabi, S., Lankarani, K.B.: COVID-19 and disabled people: perspectives from Iran. Disabil. Soc. 35(5), 844–847 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2020.1754165
Cumbie, B.A., Kar, B.: Information Technology for Development A Study of Local Government Website Inclusiveness: The Gap Between E-government Concept and Practice, vol. 1102 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1080/02681102.2014.906379
Nakatumba-Nabende, J., Kanagwa, B., Kivunike, F., Tuape, M.: Evaluation of accessibility standards on Ugandan e-government websites. Electron. Gov. Int. J. 15(4), 355–371 (2019)
Verkijika, S.F., De Wet, L.: A usability assessment of e-government websites in Sub-Saharan Africa. Int. J. Inf. Manage. 39, 20–29 (2018)
Ukwuoma, H.C., Cirman, N.E., Oye, P.O.: The role of e-Government in overcoming the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria. J. Gov. Account. Stud. 2(1), 79–92 (2022). https://doi.org/10.35912/jgas.v2i1.1157
Zeleke, Y.: Usability and accessibility model for e-government websites in Ethiopia. In: African Conference on Information Systems and Technology (2020)
WHO: Disability considerations during the COVID-19 outbreak (2020). www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-2019-nCoV-Disability-2020-1. Accessed 22 Sept 2023
Hostetter, H., Naser, M.Z.: Characterizing disability in fire: a progressive review. J. Build. Eng. 53, 104573 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2022.104573
WHO (2023). www.who.int/news-room. Accessed 17 Sept 2023
Hunt, X., et al.: Community support for persons with disabilities in low-and middle-income countries: a scoping review. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 19(10), 8269–8283 (2022)
Narayanan, S.: A study on challenges faced by disabled people at workplace in Malaysia. In: 5th Putrajaya International Conference on Children, Women, Elderly and People with Disabilities, pp. 185–197 (2018)
Akpan-Obong, P.I., Trinh, M.P., Ayo, C.K., Oni, A.: E-Governance as good governance? Evidence from 15 West African countries. Inf. Technol. Dev. 29(2–3), 256–275 (2023)
Paul, C., Adams, S.O.: The effect of e-government development indices (EGDI) on corruption perception index in sub-Sahara Africa: a panel data analysis. Afr. J. Sci. Technol. Innov. Dev. 16, 1–9 (2023)
Agbozo, E., Spassov, K.B.: Evaluating metropolitan assembly web sites in ghana : accessibility, evaluating metropolitan assembly web sites in ghana : accessibility, compatibility and usability. Webology 15(1), 46–60 (2018)
Ciesielska, M., Rizun, N., Chabik, J.: Assessment of E-government inclusion policies toward seniors: a framework and case study. Telecommun. Policy 46(7), 102316–102333 (2022)
Kulkarni, M.: Digital accessibility: challenges and opportunities. IIMB Manag. Rev. 31(1), 91–98 (2019)
Statistics South Africa: National Poverty Lines. https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications. Accessed 23 Aug 2023
McKinney, E.L., Swartz, L.: Employment integration barriers: experiences of people with disabilities. Int. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 32(10), 2298–2320 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2019.1579749
Lippens, L., Vermeiren, S., Baert, S.: The state of hiring discrimination: a meta-analysis of (almost) all recent correspondence experiments. Eur. Econ. Rev. 151, 104315 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2022.104315
Al Sayegh, A.J., Ahmad, S.Z., AlFaqeeh, K.M., Singh, S.K.: Factors affecting e-government adoption in the UAE public sector organisations: the knowledge management perspective. J. Knowl. Manag. 27(3), 717–737 (2023)
Rao, V.R.: Collaborative government to employee (G2E): issues and challenges to e-government. J. e-Gov. 34(4), 214–229 (2011). https://doi.org/10.3233/GOV-2011-0279
Antoni, D., et al.: Public services point network design for local government. In: Proceedings - 4th International Conference on Informatics, Multimedia, Cyber and Information System, ICIMCIS 2022, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., pp. 473–477 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICIMCIS56303.2022.10017567
Sagheb-Tehrani, M.: A model of successful factors towards e-government implementation. Electron. Gov. Int. J. 7(1), 60–74 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1504/EG.2010.029891
Kariuki, P., Ofusori, L., Goyayi, M.: E-government and citizen experiences in South Africa: ethekwini metropolitan case study. In: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance, pp. 478–480 (2019)
Olivier, B., Murenzi, P.: E-government challenges faced by selected district municipalities in South Africa and Rwanda. Adm. Publica 25(1), 141–172 (2017)
Thakur, S., Singh, S.: Study of some E-government activities in South Africa. Afr J Comput ICT 6(2), 41–54 (2013)
Bourne, R., et al.: Trends in prevalence of blindness and distance and near vision impairment over 30 years: an analysis for the global burden of disease study. Lancet Glob. Health 9(2), 130–143 (2021)
Arsh, A., Darain, H., Zeb, A., Ullah, S., Ullah, I., Ilyas, S.M.: Employment status of persons with disability in government departments in khyber pakhtunkhwa Pakistan Pakistan. Pak. J. Med. Sci. 35(5), 1392–1396 (2019)
Ramachandra, S.S., Murthy, G.S., Shamanna, B.R., Allagh, K.P., Pant, H.B., John, N.: Factors influencing employment and employability for persons with disability: insights from a City in South India. Indian J. Occup. Environ. Med. 21(1), 36–41 (2017)
Dečman, M.: Understanding technology acceptance of government information systems from employees’ perspective. Int. J. Electron. Gov. Res. 11(4), 69–88 (2015)
Ahn, M.J., Chen, Y.C.: Digital transformation toward AI-augmented public administration: the perception of government employees and the willingness to use AI in government. Gov. Inf. Q. 39(2), 101664 (2022)
Ali, O., Shrestha, A., Osmanaj, V., Muhammed, S.: Cloud computing technology adoption: an evaluation of key factors in local governments. Inf. Technol. People 34(2), 666–703 (2021)
Zhu, X., Law, K.S., Sun, C., Yang, D.: Thriving of employees with disabilities: the roles of job self-efficacy, inclusion, and team-learning climate. Hum. Resour. Manage. 58(1), 21–34 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21920
Setiyanto, A.I., Wulandari, M.: The effect of instrumental social support and self-efficiency on performance of employees with disabilities. In: International Conference on Applied Economics and Social Science, pp. 8–11 (2019)
Chaudhry, I.S., Paquibut, R.Y., Tunio, M.N.: Do workforce diversity, inclusion practices, & organizational characteristics contribute to organizational innovation? Evidence from the U.A.E. Cogent Bus. Manag. 8(1), 1–24 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2021.1947549
Jahan, N., Holloway, C.: Barriers to Access and Retain Formal Employment for Persons with Disabilities in Bangladesh and Kenya Key Questions (2021). https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.17179.28966
Rahmatika, R.A., Pratiwi, C.P., Basuki, C.: Does the provision of assistive technology increase disability employment? Indones. J. Disabil. Stud. 9(2), 179–199 (2022)
Wahidin, H., Waycott, J., Baker, S.: The challenges in adopting assistive technologies in the workplace for people with visual impairments. In: Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction, pp. 432–442. Association for Computing Machinery (2018). https://doi.org/10.1145/3292147.3292175
Jansen, J., van Ooijen, R., Koning, P.W.C., Boot, C.R.L., Brouwer, S.: The role of the employer in supporting work participation of workers with disabilities: a systematic literature review using an interdisciplinary approach. J. Occup. Rehabil. 31(4), 916–949 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-021-09978-3
Patwa, N., Sivarajah, U., Seetharaman, A., Sarkar, S., Maiti, K., Hingorani, K.: Towards a circular economy: an emerging economies context. J. Bus. Res. 122, 725–735 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.05.015
WHO: Global Report on Assistive Technology. https://iris.who.int/bit-stream/handle/10665/354357/9789240049451-eng.pdf
Opoku, M.P., Swabey, K., Pullen, D., Dowden, T.: Poverty alleviation among persons with disabilities via united nations’ sustainable development goals in ghana: voices of stakeholders with disabilities. Sustain. Dev. 27(1), 175–182 (2019)
Rozali, N., Abdullah, S., Ishak, S.I.D., Azmi, A.A., Akhmar, N.H.: Challenges faced by people with disability for getting jobs: entrepreneurship solution for unemployment. Int. J. Acad. Res. Bus. Soc. Sci. 7(3), 333–339 (2017)
Abanumy, A., Al-badi, A., Mayhew, P.: E-government website accessibility: in-depth evaluation of Saudi Arabia and Oman. Electron. J. E-Gov. 3(3), 99–106 (2005)
Agangiba, M.: Accessibility of E-government Services for Persons with Disabilities in Developing Countries-The Case of Ghana. University of Cape Town (2020)
Boussarhan, I., Daoudi, N.: The accessibility of moroccan public websites: evaluation of three e-government websites. Electron. J. e-Gov. 12(1), 67–81 (2014)
Messaoudi, M.D., Menelas, B.A.J., Mcheick, H.: Review of navigation assistive tools and technologies for the visually impaired. Sensors 22(20), 7888 (2022). https://doi.org/10.3390/s22207888
Potnis, D., Mallary, K.: Proposing an information value chain to improve information services to disabled library patrons using assistive technologies. J. Inf. Sci. 48(6), 825–837 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551520984719
Hill, H.: Disability and accessibility in the library and information science literature: a content analysis. Libr. Inf. Sci. Res. 35(2), 137–142 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2012.11.002
Sullivan, K.: The Prevalence of the Medical Model of Disability in Society
AHS Capstone Projects. Paper 13. http://digitalcommons.olin.edu/ahs_capstone_2011/13. Accessed 25 May 2023
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Ethics declarations
The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2024 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing
About this paper
Cite this paper
Ramadimetjar, J., Kabanda, S., Agangiba, M. (2024). Experiences of Visually Impaired South African Government Employees with E-Government Services. In: Chigona, W., Kabanda, S., Seymour, L.F. (eds) Implications of Information and Digital Technologies for Development. ICT4D 2024. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 708. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66982-8_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66982-8_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-66981-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-66982-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)