Comparison of touch and speech-enabled IVR systems in low literacy users

This paper addresses the feasibility of using the telephone as a tool for information access in the technology challenged and illiterate communities of Southern Africa. We did a case study of the OpenPhone system in the context of caregivers for HIV/AIDS infected children in Botswana. The aim was to design an IVR system for delivering care-giving health information in Setswana using a normal telephone. The study compares DTMF and speech-enabled IVR systems. The targeted users are predominantly females, ranging from semi-literate to illiterate adults but who are nevertheless numerically literate. We found that obscured socio-cultural circumstances of the users instigated their choice of DTMF over the speech-enabled IVR modality and this in turn led to elevated levels of both acceptance and rapid learnability towards the users' technology of choice.