396 research outputs found

    Out of sight, out of mind: accessibility for people with hidden disabilities in museums and heritage sites

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    As of 2020, an estimated 14.1 million residents of the United Kingdom reported a disability (DWP 2020). Within this population, approximately 6.1 million people have a hidden disability (Buhalis and Michopoulou 2011). These hidden disabilities range widely, from neurodiverse conditions like autism and dyslexia to long term chronic conditions such as fibromyalgia and arthritis. Due to the wide range of disabilities and their impact on a disabled person’s life, they have generally been underrepresented in accessibility studies. This thesis uncovers the accessibility needs of people with hidden disabilities, specifically in museums and heritage sites where they have heretofore mostly been overlooked. I utilise semi-structured interviews and correspondence with people with hidden disabilities, as well as participant-led experiences through three case study sites in Northern England, to understand the barriers they face. Their experiences help me expose the importance of passive accessibility – accessibility measures built directly into an exhibition design, such as adequate lighting and personal interpretation boards. Additionally, this thesis aims to understand the cultural forces that prevent or support accessibility-related improvements to such sites from taking place. By studying the cultural make-up of each case study organisation through ethnographic observations of the staff at these sites, institutional roadblocks to enacting accessibility-related adjustments are revealed. Specifically, the lack of communication at these sites presents a significant barrier to enacting accessibility suggestions from disabled visitors. Tying together the themes of active/passive accessibility and lack of communication is the theme of gaps in disability awareness, by which I mean that heritage organisations do not wilfully create these barriers to inclusion, and yet they create them still because they simply do not realise these things. Filling these gaps opens up countless possibilities for improving accessibility not only for people with hidden disabilities but for all visitors and staff at museums and heritage sites

    24th Nordic Conference on Computational Linguistics (NoDaLiDa)

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    Transitions in Motion: Accelerating Active Travel Infrastructure in London through Grassroots Groups and Activist Researchers

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    Active transport plans and infrastructure transition plays a key role in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and various health issues faced in London, yet has not occurred at a speed required for mitigation or even achieving stated targets and goals. While socio-technical transition research has often focused on the historical perspective and the technical aspects of a transition, it has dwelt less on the process of transition in motion. In particular, the role of grassroots movements in accelerating transitions and the social aspects of creating transitions. Utilising participatory action research and an adapted bridging methodology, this research aims to analyse mechanisms for speeding up active transport policy and infrastructure transitions. It intertwines three layers of bridging methodologies across policy and practice, namely the initiative-based learning (e.g. cycling campaigns), socio-technical analysis, and quantitative modelling. The initiative-based learning was enacted as participatory action research, with myself as an activist researcher, working in partnership with grassroots movements campaigning for active transport infrastructure and policy changes. The ‘Framework for Change’ is a template trialed in this research provided the practical connection to the theoretical socio-technical transition literature. This research project highlight the opportunities and obstacles to accelerate transitions in motion specifically for grassroots movements. The empirical findings suggest that by coupling grassroots and activist researchers, it is possible to create micro-accelerations and influence urban changes towards sustainability. Further, that using the ‘Framework for Change’ can upskill activists and form a template for other campaigns. The findings also suggest that the most important parts of the Framework for Change are building coalitions, creating measurable goals and visions, and understanding who can change policy and infrastructure. My research highlights how actions and events that unfolded represent micro-accelerations or microdecelerations and can lead to better understanding of potential transition pathways and transition goals. It further highlights that grassroots’ movements have much to offer in understanding the social and political changes required for sustainable socio-technical transitions. More research into the social rather than the technical factors could speed up the pace and expand the scale of the transition required for climate change adaptation and healthy built environment outcomes

    LIPIcs, Volume 274, ESA 2023, Complete Volume

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    LIPIcs, Volume 274, ESA 2023, Complete Volum

    DIY Methods 2023 Conference Proceedings

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    The act of circulating research through zines invites participants into the “gift economy” of zine culture, where knowledge is shared within a system of reciprocal generosity and pleasure in opposition to hierarchical and capitalist forms of knowledge exchange. As zines cut through the often strict and inaccessible boundaries of traditional, peer-reviewed publications, they also allow for the circulation of research to broader audiences, making knowledge more accessible. As such, academic zines transform research into a gift to be shared amongst unknown peers, while also situating the mobilization of knowledge as care work. And so, while we are excited to receive abstracts around diverse themes and across disciplines, we ask participants to think about knowledge as a gift and research as care work during their zine-making process. How do these visions of knowledge and research mobilization affect how you view your research, others’ research, and/or yourself

    Between Two Messiahs: An Ethnography of Settler-Colonizers in the West Bank

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    This dissertation is a study of settler-colonialism. Based on fieldwork among Jewish settlers in the West Bank, it analyzes from an anthropological perspective how a settler-colonial process takes place. Officially, since the signing of the Oslo Accords, with few exceptions, Israel ceased to build new settlements in the West Bank. But, on the ground, from the 1990s onwards, the West Bank hinterland was scattered with over 150 illegal outposts, strategically constructed to appropriate as much land as possible. Often established on remote hilltops, the illegal outposts are the central tool today in appropriating Palestinian land, and the “outpost people” who reside in them, are considered the most radical settlers of all. For this research, I moved to one of these frontier outposts which I pseudonymously refer to as Ma’ale Eliya. Located at the edge of the Judean Desert, I stayed in the community for an overall period of almost two years. On one level, at the center of this research is an investigation of how a settler-colonial project expands: I explicate the settler-colonial know-how by which settlers appropriate land against indigenous resistance, the different challenges they face, and the internal conflicts and desires that shape their colonial endeavor. I make the case that these days, at the heart of the advancement of the West Bank settlement project is a sense of crisis and a set of contradictions that paradoxically propel the colonial process forward. On a second level, by focusing on a particular strand of what I discovered to be “post-messianic” settlers, this dissertation investigates the conditions of political action in the aftermath of ideological and religious rupture. My main argument is that rather than wholehearted beliefs, the generation of outpost settlers is animated to colonial action precisely from a sense of ideological retreat. In analyzing this dynamic of post-ideological radicalism, in addition to being about settler-colonialism, this research is also about political action in an age when master narratives lose their mastery

    Masstige marketing:ten essays

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