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Computer and information technology access for deaf individuals in developed and developing countries.

In recent years, advances in computer and information technology have profoundly affected people's lives and work. Information and ideas now travel predominantly by airwaves, and the Internet has become an important conduit for information dissemination across the globe (Guemriche, 1997). A recent study by the Computer Industry Almanac, Inc. (1998) estimates more than 400 million computers in use and 147 million Internet users worldwide at the end of 1998, with a projected increase to 579 million computers and 300 million Internet users by 2000. However, most of the computers in use and the majority of Internet users are concentrated in developed countries (Chowdary, 1997). An information gap separates industrialized nations from the poorer ones; building an information technology network requires large investments in equipment, infrastructure, education, and training. Many developing nations are struggling to catch up, but they face a host of challenging problems such as unreliable telecommunications systems, low literacy, exorbitant telephone costs, and lack of trained technical staff (Chepesiuk, 1998). Thus, the growing disparity in access to information technology threatens to further widen the socioeconomic gap between the world's industrialized nations and the less developed ones. This article presents the results of a comparative overview of the accessibility to computer and informa-