“Now I am Socially Well Respected” - From being Bullied in the Society to being Important Community Member
Ifti Azad Abeer, Anik Sinha, Rahat Jahangir Rony, Anik Saha, Md Ulfat Tahsin, Syeda Shabnam Khan, Nova Ahmed · 2024
People with Disabilities (PWDs) struggle in different aspects of their lives, especially in resource-constrained regions like South Asia. The role of Mobile Financial Services (MFS) in improving their lives has been emphasized in literature where works in the South Asian region focus on the challenges of MFS adoption for PWDs. This research focuses on the opportunities of the impact of MFS on PWDs in low-resource context. It considers n=20 PWDs in Bangladesh who were mostly technology familiar. Participants shared their struggles while seeking education and employment. MFS along with their technology familiarity facilitated them to engage in financial activities and empower themselves to change their societal and financial status. Many participants overcame their socio-economic struggles despite living in resource-constrained regions through their technological skills paired with efficient MFS usage. This paper presents the potential of community-centric work-oriented technology training focusing on efficient MFS usage for PWDs in resource-constrained communities.