Sound Seat Ticketing (SST)
What is it?
According to the International Neuromodulation Society, motor skills impairment is defined as the partial or total loss of function of a body part, usually a limb or limbs. This may result in muscle weakness, poor stamina, lack of muscle control, or total paralysis. Motor impairment is often evident in neurological conditions such as cerebral palsy, Parkinson’s disease, stroke and multiple sclerosis.
On the other hand, visual impairment is a term experts use to describe any kind of vision loss, whether it's someone who has central vision loss, peripheral vision loss, blurry vision and visual disorders following brain injuries. In simple terms, it’s someone who has lost complete vision or another who has partial vision loss. According to kidshealth.org, The American Foundation for the Blind estimates that 10 million people in the United States are visually impaired. As a result, we feel that these people might face difficulties when booking movie tickets online.
Hence, we aim to focus on the ability for people with motor skills or visual impairments to book movie tickets without assistance from a person, so they are able to enjoy entertainment services at cinemas which are catered for their needs too.
Some existing solutions related to this field are applications that allow disabled users to do things related to booking movie tickets are Google Assistant and Siri. However, the functionality they offer is extremely limited. Based on our testing, Siri is only able to direct a user to a site whereby they can book their desired tickets, and Google Assistant requires complex onscreen navigation to book the tickets, something that the visually impaired user may not be able to access easily. These people also may not have the luxury of having an available caregiver to book tickets for them when they want the tickets.
Another existing solution would be for the people with visual impairment to book their tickets via a phone line. However, such phone lines may not be manned as frequently due to the advent of online bookings and are hence not an effective long-term solution for the specific needs of the disabled. In addition to that, those with motor skills impairment may find it difficult to use certain types of phones to place calls, and the calling functionality of Siri and Google Assistant is challenging to learn and use effectively.
Yet another existing solution would be to seek help from a local disability organisation, which would be specially catered to allowing the disabled to perform tasks such as booking movie tickets. However, these organisations may be short on manpower and as a result be unable to effectively run these services, and they may not be very user-friendly in some instances. Some regions also lack these services, making them a nonviable option for many. Subscription services also exist, but they are not the most ideal option for many.
Hence, we have developed a solution that is more ideal for most and fits all these needs.
Developed by: Nicole, Luke and Rachel
Copy of MST_D !mentally sane_2024 Sec 4 Computing+ Coursework.mp4
