청각장애인의 정보통신기기 활용실태와 효율화 방안

Abstract

Current society has have increased amount and values of information due to development of new technology and expansion of internet services and digital culture. In such society, personal ability is proportionate to ability to use information and importance of information and communication equipment has greatly increased. This study is to identify information gap, education, obstacle against information use and countermeasures, and environment of information at school for the students with hearing impairments, targeting the students with hearing impairment. Targeting 117 adults and students with hearing impairments living in Jeollanamdo, this study identifies frequency and percentage of the response, and uses test to figure out distribution between sub-areas according to education level in each group. The results obtained through this study are presented as follows: First, it identifies information gap between the subjects in use of IT equipment and both of the subjects answer they consider information use ability as important. The reason why information use is important is that all of the subjects who are well-educated answer that it is important to acquire information. Most of the students obtain new information through the internet service in this information society, and the adults who have educational background of just middle school acquire information from other people. The higher educational background they have, the more information through the internet service. More than 50% of the subjects have computers, internet services and mobile phone except fax. The higher educational background they have, the more computers and mobile phone they have In respect to current status and degree of IT equipment use, more than 50% of the subjects have computers, internet services and mobile phone. In particular, the higher educational background they have, the more frequently they use computers. In respect to the use of internet service, most of the subjects who below a junior high school graduate do not use it at all, and many of those who have high school graduate degree use it for information search. In respect to the ability to use IT equipment, both of the students and adults use it for computer games through the internet service. Specifically, the higher educational background students have, the higher ability to use in various fields. For the adults, the higher educational background adults have, the higher ability to use computers, internet services and mobile phones. For fax, most of the subjects with hearing impairment who do not use it than. Therefore, to activate the use of IT equipment, proper environment to use information should be prepared for the students with hearing impairment and they should be trained to use IT equipment for various fields such as information or knowledge acquisition, and recreation. Second, more than 50% of the students with hearing impairment have information education and some of them answer that they do not have it because there is no reason to use it or it is difficult to learn. To improve such problems, the persons with hearing impairment should be given education to help them perceive the necessity of information education. Their ability to understand characters should be improved and the sign language book on IT use should be introduced and distributed. And government and private supports should be actively made to help the persons with hearing impairment make an easy access to IT education in their community. Third, in the obstacles against information use and countermeasure, the persons with hearing impairment have been perceived to have less IT equipment use ability and less programs for them. To overcome the obstacles, various programs on information use that are appropriate for them who are illiterate in structure should be developed and published. And the government and local governments should prepare regulations on expansion of information education opportunities and free supply of the equipment, which will contribute to reinforced effectiveness of the regulation. Fourth, it is confirmed that the students with hearing impairment under the information-oriented school environment are satisfied with computer facilities and education hours, and many of those at special schools participate in the computer skill contests. To help the students with hearing impairment promote use of information, we should consistently develop information use programs and games for them.