Disabled people and the Internet: experiences, barriers and opportunities

The UK government aims to make all its information and transactions available electronically by 2005. General use of the Internet also continues to grow. This report investigates the Internet's barriers and benefits for disabled people, and considers whether it acts as a means to reduce their social exclusion. The study surveys the views and experiences of disabled people, both Internet users and non-users. Topics covered include: what the Internet is used for; use of and difficulties with assistive devices (special equipment and adaptations needed by some disabled people in order to use computers); how people learn to use the Internet; views of website accessibility; advantages and disadvantages of Internet usage. It also explores participants' restrictions on using the Internet, and people's reasons for not using it. There has been little previous research in this area, but the authors review the existing literature. The report finds that many practical problems - such as the cost of training, finding appropriate assistive devices, website accessibility - all inhibit Internet opportunities for many disabled people

Health promotion co-existing in a high-security prison context : a documentary analysis

Purpose: There is interest in promoting health in prison from governmental levels, but, to date, understanding how best to do this is unclear. This paper argues that nuanced understanding of context is required in order to understand health promotion in prison and examines the potential for empowerment, a cornerstone of health promotion practice, in high-security prison establishments. Design/methodology/approach: Independent prison inspections, conducted by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons for England and Wales (HMIP), form a critical element in how prisons are assessed. Documentary analysis was undertaken on all eight high-security prison reports using framework analysis. Findings: Analysis revealed elements of prison life which were disempowering and antithetical to health promotion. While security imperatives were paramount, there were examples where this was disproportionate and disempowered individuals. The data shows examples where, even in these high-security contexts, empowerment can be fostered. These were exemplified in relation to peer approaches designed to improve health and where prisoners felt part of democratic processes where they could influence change. Practical implications: Both in the UK and internationally, there is a growing rhetoric for delivering effective health promotion interventions in prison, but limited understanding about how to operationalise this. This paper gives insight into how this could be done in a high-security prison environment. Originality/value: This is the first paper which looks at the potential for health promotion to be embedded in high-security prisons. It demonstrates features of prison life which act to disempower and also support individuals to take greater control over their health

A positive choice: young people who drink little or no alcohol

This study examined the lives and choices of young people (aged 16-25) living in the UK who drink little or no alcohol. Current policy is directed at young people who drink alcohol with little attention paid to the insights of those who drink lightly or not at all. The influences that shape young people’s decisions and how their choices and patterns of consumption affect their lives were explored through interviews. The report: • examines current drinking patterns and identifies five ‘drinking types’; • highlights that choosing not to drink alcohol or to drink lightly is a commonplace and positive choice; • explores the influences and experiences that led young people to their choices and identifies three ‘narratives’ encapsulating their journeys; • considers the strategies and responses young people employ to manage not drinking or drinking lightly; and • critically examines the widely held assumption that drinking is part of‘growing up’ and discusses how ‘not drinking’ could be supported as a valid choice

The Geography of Scientific Productivity: Scaling in U.S. Computer Science

Here we extract the geographical addresses of authors in the Citeseer database of computer science papers. We show that the productivity of research centres in the United States follows a power-law regime, apart from the most productive centres for which we do not have enough data to reach definite conclusions. To investigate the spatial distribution of computer science research centres in the United States, we compute the two-point correlation function of the spatial point process and show that the observed power-laws do not disappear even when we change the physical representation from geographical space to cartogram space. Our work suggests that the effect of physical location poses a challenge to ongoing efforts to develop realistic models of scientific productivity. We propose that the introduction of a fine scale geography may lead to more sophisticated indicators of scientific output.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; minor change

インドにおけるオープンアクセスと機関リポジトリ

DRFIC2008 Session 1. Open Access and Institutional Repository in Asia-PacificDRFIC2008 セッション1:アジア・環太平洋地域におけるオープンアクセスと機関リポジトリ 報告