International Journal of

ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES

EISSN: 2313-3724, Print ISSN: 2313-626X

Frequency: 12

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 Volume 12, Issue 4 (April 2025), Pages: 116-135

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 Original Research Paper

The role of digital transformation in enhancing support and care for families of people with disabilities in Saudi Arabia and Egypt: Current realities, challenges, and strategies for improvement

 Author(s): 

 Sahar Sleem 1, Mashael Khayyat 2, *

 Affiliation(s):

  1Department of Gifted and Learning Disabilities, College of Special Education, Misr University for Science & Technology, 6th of October City, Egypt
  2Department of Information Systems and Technology, College of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Jeddah, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

 Full text

    Full Text - PDF

 * Corresponding Author. 

   Corresponding author's ORCID profile:  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3770-432X

 Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2025.04.014

 Abstract

This study investigates the role of digital transformation in enhancing support and care for families of individuals with disabilities in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, focusing on realities, challenges, and strategies for improvement. Adopting a descriptive-analytical comparative approach, data were collected through an online questionnaire involving 605 families—296 from Egypt and 309 from Saudi Arabia. The findings indicate that families in Saudi Arabia generally exhibit more positive attitudes towards digital transformation than those in Egypt, with younger individuals (under 34), males, and those with educational qualifications below secondary school and bachelor’s degrees demonstrating higher positivity. Additionally, families of individuals with physical and hearing disabilities reported more favorable attitudes compared to families of individuals with visual and intellectual disabilities, who were largely neutral. The results also reveal significant differences between the two countries in digital transformation utilization, with Saudi Arabia showing a higher overall mean score (3.395) compared to Egypt (2.824). Moreover, families in Egypt face considerable challenges in adopting digital technologies, and the effectiveness of proposed strategies to overcome these challenges is greater in Saudi Arabia. Notably, significant differences in digital transformation use were attributed to country and age, while gender, educational qualifications, and type of disability showed no substantial impact.

 © 2025 The Authors. Published by IASE.

 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

 Keywords

 Digital transformation, Families with disabilities, Support and care, Comparative study, Technological challenges

 Article history

 Received 3 December 2024, Received in revised form 28 March 2025, Accepted 23 April 2025

 Acknowledgment

No Acknowledgment.

  Compliance with ethical standards

  Ethical considerations

The study adhered to ethical research standards involving human participants. Participation was voluntary, and informed consent was obtained from all respondents. The data collection was conducted anonymously to ensure confidentiality and privacy.

  Conflict of interest: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

 Citation:

 Sleem S and Khayyat M (2025). The role of digital transformation in enhancing support and care for families of people with disabilities in Saudi Arabia and Egypt: Current realities, challenges, and strategies for improvement. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 12(4): 116-135

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 Tables

  Table 1  Table 2  Table 3  Table 4  Table 5  Table 6  Table 7  Table 8  Table 9  Table 10  Table 11  Table 12  Table 13 

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