DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNOLOGICAL MEDIA, FACILITIES AND INNOVATIONS OF AUDIOBOOKS TO REDUCE INEQUALITY OF DISABLED AND UNDERPRIVILEGED PEOPLE

Abstract

The purposes of the research were to study the current condition of innovative audiobook service provision and to develop the audiobook innovation to reduce inequality of the vision disabled and the underprivileged in the Disabled Student Services Thammasat University (DSS TU). The research was conducted through the mixed-methods design. The current condition of innovative audiobook service provision was studied through two methods. 1) The quantitative approach was used to collect the data from nine audiobook service providers and 152 audiobook customers with the rating scale questionnaire. The data were analyzed in terms of frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. 2) The qualitative approach was used to study one best practice resource, which was DSS TU, and the data were collected by the in-depth interview of executives and analyzed by the content analysis. The development of technological media, facilities and innovations of audiobooks was engaged in the research and development (R&D) methodology to get an innovation that was capable to reduce a gap or an inequality for the vision disabled or the underprivileged to read the regular letters. The research findings were as follows: 1) The current condition of audiobook services was still found full of inequality for the disabled and underprivileged to access information; there were only a few audiobook service providers and new audiobooks. As a result of the research, each of them was found to be at a low level of mean scores. However, it was good that the up-to-date technology granted an opportunity to provide or receive faster services. 2) The innovative audiobooks, based upon the research result, were found to access via smart phones and a wide range of personal computers. The innovative assessment by nine experts was found to be overall at the highest level.