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Table 3 Results of interviews of visually-impaired interviewees using open-ended questions based on the most frequent answer (cut off at 10)

From: Pharmaceutical mobile application for visually-impaired people in Thailand: development and implementation

Questions

Group Answers

Frequency

1. How do you find medicine when you are sick?

Ask friend or relative to buy medicine at pharmacy or hospital

42(1)

Use Google and voice recognition mode on smartphone

35(2)

Go to pharmacy or hospital myself

28(3)

Use old prescribed medicine or home remedy

19

Find treatment information via website using a computer

12

2. Is it easy for visually-impaired people to use smart tools to find medicine?

What makes it difficult for you

to access the required medication?

Not easy. It is difficult to use smart tools

43(1)

Not easy. Websites delivering information with pictures are inaccessible

42(1)

Not easy. Voice recognition mode from Google translates incorrectly and users are not familiar with medical terms

32(1)

Difficult because I am not convinced by some data on the web

26

Not all the Google search results can be easily validated

19

Most Google search results are presented in English on foreign websites

16

Medicine information is different on each website

12

etc

9

3. Why do visually-impaired people not use pharmaceutical mobile applications on a smartphone?

Difficult to use

48(1)

Pharmaceutical information on applications hard to understand

26(2)

My device has a low performance

23(3)

The application does not support a disability mode

14

Not a smartphone owner/can’t afford it

12

Didn’t know about it

8

4. What would be a good solution

for a future pharmaceutical mobile application?

A function that helps to find medicinal information easily and provides the appropriate information for primary treatment

42(1)

A function that explains self-preparation when sick

39(2)

A function that navigates directly to the pharmacy, clinic or hospital with just one click

37(3)

A function that explains the treatment steps and medicine administration

37(1)

A function that records treatment information

35

A doctor appointment-reminder function

35

An application with disability mode support

34

etc

9

  1. (1) (2) (3) are rankings