Non-Visual Representation of Complex Documents for Use in Digital Talking Books

Essential written information such as text books, bills, and catalogues needs to be accessible by everyone. However, access is not always available to vision-impaired people. As they require electronic documents to be available in specific formats. In order to address the accessibility issues of electronic documents, this research aims to design an affordable, portable, standalone and simple to use complete reading system that will convert and describe complex components in electronic documents to print disabled users

Experiences of students with visual impairments in adoption of digital talking textbooks: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

2013 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Assistive technology devices have become essential tools for students with visual impairments. In 2009, the Malaysian Ministry of Education introduced Digital Talking Textbooks (DTTs) for selected subjects to facilitate learning. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore, describe, and interpret the experiences of students with visual impairments in using DTTs to assist their learning. The study looked at what factors influence students with visual impairments to adopt or to reject DTTs. Data were obtained from 12 students' in-depth interviews. Tentative themes emerged, were refined, and became the six emergent super-ordinate themes for this research: (1) functionality of the innovation, (2) support to use the innovation, (3) knowledge of the innovation, (4) challenges for effective use of the innovation, (5) alternatives to the innovation, and (6) adaptation of the innovation. Providing in-house training for teachers and students, affordable tools, and sufficient trial and usage time for students are recommended to ensure DTTs are efficiently adopted

Using Information Communications Technologies to Implement Universal Design for Learning

The purpose of this paper is to assist Ministries of Education, their donors and partners, Disabled Persons Organizations (DPOs), and the practitioner community funded by and working with USAID to select, pilot, and (as appropriate) scale up ICT4E solutions to facilitate the implementation of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), with a particular emphasis on supporting students with disabilities to acquire literacy and numeracy skills. The paper focuses primarily on how technology can support foundational skills acquisition for students with disabilities, while also explaining when, why, and how technologies that assist students with disabilities can, in some applications, have positive impacts on all students’ basic skills development. In 2018, USAID released the Toolkit for Universal Design for Learning to Help All Children Read, section 3.1 of which provides basic information on the role of technologies to support UDL principles and classroom learning. This paper expands upon that work and offers more extensive advice on using ICT4E1 to advance equitable access to high quality learning. Like the UDL toolkit, the audience for this guide is mainly Ministries of Education and development agencies working in the area of education, but this resource can also be helpful for DPOs and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) wishing to pilot or spearhead ICT initiatives. Content for this paper was informed by expert interviews and reviews of field reports during 2018. These included programs associated with United Nations, Zero Project, World Innovation Summit, UNESCO Mobile Learning Awards, and USAID’s All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development. Relevant case studies of select education programs integrating technology to improve learning outcomes for students with disabilities were summarized for this document

Non-visual representation of complex documents for use in digital talking books

According to a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) estimation, only 5% of the world's one million print titles that are published every year are accessible to the approximately 340 million blind, visually impaired or print disabled people. Equal access to information is a basic right of all people. Essen- tial information such as flyers, brochures, event calendars, programs, catalogues and booking information needs to be accessible by everyone. Information helps people to make decisions, be involved in society and live independent lives. Ar- ticle 21, Section 4.2. of the United Nation's Convention on the rights of people with disabilities advocates the right of blind and partially sighted people to take control of their own lives. However, this entitlement is not always available to them without access to information. Today, electronic documents have become pervasive. For vision-impaired people electronic documents need to be available in specific formats to be accessible. If these formats are not made available, vision-impaired people are greatly disadvantaged when compared to the general population. Therefore, addressing electronic document accessibility for them is an extremely important concern. In order to address the accessibility issues of electronic documents, this research aims to design an affordable, portable, stand-alone and simple to use "Complete Reading System" to provide accessible electronic documents to vision impaired

Ανάπτυξη Διαδικτυακής Συλλογής Κωδικοποίησης Προσβάσιμων Μαθηματικών Συμβόλων με βάση το σύστημα Nemeth

Στην εργασία αυτή ασχοληθήκαμε με το συστηματοποίηση της αναπαράστασης των μαθηματικών συμβόλων σε προσβάσιμες μορφές οι οποίες είναι κατάλληλες για άτομα με τύφλωση ή μειωμένη όραση. Συγκεκριμένα μας ενδιαφέρουν οι κωδικοποιήσεις των μαθηματικών συμβόλων που μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν για την ακουστική ή/και απτική απόδοση των μαθηματικών συμβόλων μέσω κατάλληλης Υποστηρικτικής Τεχνολογίας, όπως οθόνες braille, εκτυπωτές braille ή συστήματα μετατροπής μαθηματικών σε συνθετική ομιλία . Ως βάση της εργασίας μας χρησιμοποιήσαμε τον κώδικα Nemeth που αποτελεί μία επέκταση του συστήματος braille για τα μαθηματικά, ο οποίος υποστηρίζει συμβολογραφία όλων των επιπέδων (δηλαδή από το δημοτικό σχολείο ως και ανώτερων μαθηματικών πανεπιστημιακού επιπέδου) και ο οποίος είναι ο επίσημος κώδικας μαθηματικής κωδικοποίησης braille για την Ελλάδα και τις ΗΠΑ. Οι ομάδες χρηστών που μας ενδιαφέρουν περιλαμβάνουν: α) τους δασκάλους, καθηγητές και εκπαιδευτικούς όλων των βαθμίδων που χρησιμοποιούν εκπαιδευτικό περιεχόμενο με μαθηματικά σύμβολα, β) τους μαθητές, φοιτητές θετικών επιστημών με απώλεια όρασης ή και άλλους χρήστες τους (π.χ. τυφλούς καθηγητές μαθηματικών) και γ) του επαγγελματίες που ασχολούνται με την παραγωγή προσβάσιμων βιβλίων και συγγραμμάτων θετικών επιστημών. Ύστερα από ανάλυση των αναγκών των χρηστών, σχεδιάσαμε και αναπτύξαμε μια web-based εφαρμογή η οποία αποτελεί συλλογή κωδικοποίησης των προσβάσιμων μαθηματικών συμβόλων με βάση το σύστημα Nemeth. Η εφαρμογή υποστηρίζει εκτός από το σύστημα Nemeth και τις κωδικοποιήσεις LaTeX, MathML και Unicode και περιλαμβάνει το όνομα του κάθε μαθηματικού συμβόλου (στα Ελληνικά και Αγγλικά), την περιγραφή του (στα Ελληνικά και Αγγλικά), την κατηγοριοποίησή καθώς και την εικόνα του. Επίσης έχει τη δυνατότητα παράθεσης παραδειγμάτων χρήσης του μαθηματικού συμβόλου. Η εφαρμογή λειτουργεί στη διεύθυνση http://access.uoa.gr/MATH/ της Μονάδας Προσβασιμότητας του Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών.In this project, we dealt with the systemization of representing mathematical symbols in accessible forms suitable for blind and people with reduced vision accuracy. In particular, we are interested in coding the mathematical symbols that can be used for acoustic and / or tactile rendering of mathematical symbols through appropriate Assistive Technology, such as braille displays, braille printers, or math conversion systems in synthetic speech. As foundation of our project, we used the Nemeth code, an extension of the braille system for mathematics, which supports symbology of all levels (from elementary school to higher university mathematics) and which is the official code of mathematical coding braille for Greece and the USA. The groups of users we are interested in, include: a) teachers, professors, educators of all levels using mathematical educational content, b) students, visually impaired students or other users (e.g. blind teachers of Mathematics) and c) professionals engaged in the production of books and science mannuals. After the analysis of users’ needs, we designed and developed a web-based application which is a collection of accessible mathematical symbols based on the Nemeth system. This application supports not only Nemeth, but also LaTeX, MathML and Unicode and the name of each mathematical symbol (in Greek and English), its description (in Greek and English), its categorization as well as its image. It is also possible to give examples of use of the mathematical symbol. The application works at http://access.uoa.gr/MATH/ of the Accessibility Unit of the University of Athens

A comparative study of D2L's Performance with a purpose built E-learning user interface for visual- and hearing-Impaired students

An e-learning system in an academic setting is an efficient tool for all students especially for students with physical impairments. This thesis discusses an e-learning system through the design and development of an e-learning user interface for students with visual- and hearing- impairment. In this thesis the tools and features in the user interface required to make the learning process easy and effective for students with such disabilities have been presented. Further, an integration framework is proposed to integrate the new tools and features into the existing e-learning system Desire-To-Learn (D2L). The tools and features added to the user interface were tested by the selected participants with visually-and hearing- impaired students from Laurentian University’s population. Two questionnaires were filled out to assess the usability methods for both the D2L e-learning user interface at Laurentian University and the new e-learning user interface designed for students with visual and hearing impairment. After collecting and analyzing the data, the results from different usability factors such as effectiveness, ease of use, and accessibility showed that the participants were not completely satisfied with the existing D2L e-learning system, but were satisfied with the proposed new user interface. Based on the new interface, the results showed also that the tools and features proposed for students with visual and hearing impairment can be integrated into the existing D2L e-learning system.Master of Science (MSc) in Computational Science

Where the inchoate seeks form: Autobiographical curriculum inquiry in women\u27s rowing

In 1976, four years after the Title IX act was passed by the Federal Government, a group of female rowers at Yale University attempted to reveal the university\u27s discriminatory practices toward their team. On March 3, 1976, team captain, Chris Ernst, secured an appointment with the assistant athletic director Joni Barnett. Members of the Yale Women\u27s Crew filed silently into the athletic director\u27s office wearing sweats that said Yale Women\u27s Crew, then stripped to the waist, revealing the words Title IX written on their bare chests and backs. Chris Ernst read a 300-word statement (New York Times, 3/4/76) while a New York Times reporter took notes. Using archival data and the 1999 film, A Hero For Daisy , by Mary Mazzio which documents the Title IX protest at Yale University, I explore the rhetorical moves these women used when the conventional modes of address failed them. I identify and analyze the rhetorical tactics they used in order to contest the dominant ideologies about female athletes and to make a claim about the ways the university was discriminating against them by exploiting their bodies (Ernst in Mazzio, 1999). Through this study, I draw on feminist studies, philosophy, composition studies and curriculum theory to pursue a set of concerns related to my work as an educator. What lessons does an exploration of the rhetorical tactics used by the women in this event offer educators committed to educational equity? How can we return subjectivity to curriculum studies, to research in education and to history? In particular, I am concerned with situations where issues of injustice go unrecognized and unaddressed because of the way that oppression is embedded into the available language and forms. I explore the ways historical and present power structures maintain narratives that preclude a genuine public discussion that might advance the cause of justice (Kastely, 1997). This dissertation is not an argument in the rational empiricist tradition; the trajectory of the work may not be clearly linear, nor clearly located in a disciplinary or theoretical territory. Like the rower, this research takes a path that is defined, but not definite

A phenomenological study of leadership: Developmental pathways of leaders with disabilities

Research on leaders with disabilities is largely limited in scope to civil rights and disability rights leadership. This qualitative research investigated how individuals with disabilities transformed themselves into leaders in the disability field. This research focuses on the leaders’ perceptions of critical experiences and relationships that influenced them as leaders. A phenomenological approach was used to understand the lived experiences of six leaders with disabilities. Open-ended interviews with recognized leaders who had disabilities were analyzed by examining their narrative statements, resulting in a combined description of their lived experience. The results of the analysis revealed that these leaders with disabilities made personal connections with others and found groups that were the right fit for them during their college years or immediately subsequent years. Furthermore, the results found the following essential themes: 1) childhood as an influential life experience, 2) commitment, confidence, resilience, and passion in leadership style, and 3) enjoyment of helping others. These themes were not independent of one another, but were intertwined throughout the lives of the six leaders with disabilities. Through a deeper understanding of leadership development experienced by these leaders with disabilities, this study has implications for practice and further investigation. Higher education and elementary and secondary education can improve leadership skills training and opportunities for students with disabilities. I also recommend several future research topics, including exploring identity development among leaders with disabilities. This dissertation concludes with the recommendation that disabled people should be specifically included in leadership research

Disciplinary Literacy in Practice: Examining How English Teachers Read Literary Texts

This study investigates the viability of disciplinary literacy by (1) examining whether English teachers can use disciplinary methods to read a disciplinary text and (2) identifying possible relationships between teacher training and the use of disciplinary approaches. In total, 21 English instructors thought-aloud as they read an unfamiliar poem, and two independent raters evaluated each transcribed response as either “Disciplinary” or “General” depending on the types of reading strategies demonstrated using a rubric generated from previous expert-novice studies in literary reading. This study found that ten (10) of the 21 participants used at least one disciplinary method to make sense of the text, while the remaining eleven (11) participants relied solely on general literacy strategies. This study also found a relationship between participants’ use of disciplinary methods and (1) master’s degrees in English and (2) experience as a scorer for the AP English Literature exam. These findings suggest that not all English instructors are prepared to teach within a disciplinary literacy framework that relies on the teachers’ proficiency in their discipline’s methods of reading and thinking. It also suggests areas for additional research including teacher education and professional development