Accessibility of Cypriot University websites in Cyprus

Abstract: Access and equity in higher education is a complicated discipline related to social, economical, technological and political developments in a country. This paper is a work in progress and it aims to discuss issues of accessibility in Higher education regarding equal opportunities in the use of technology for students with disabilities. Accessibility to technology and with technology, especially in the internet era, includes different types of physical and digital design. These not only refer to specialised interface devices often referred to as assistive technology, but also to the accessibility of the web itself (Zaphiris & Zacharia, 2001). Examining access in higher education from the point of view of technology, this paper aims to: 1. briefly present and discuss the provisions of the current Cyprus and European legislation regarding the use of accessible technology and access to technology (and the use of the web) in higher education for students with disabilities. 2. investigate the ways universities respond to the needs of their students with disabilities regarding the use of accessible technology and access to technology 3. analyze the accessibility of the Cyprus universities’ web sites Data collection involves: (a) analysis of Cyprus and European documentation, (b) interviews with officers of the student affairs and welfare departments of each university and (c) expert accessibility evaluation of the websites of all universities in Cyprus. The educational system in Cyprus is highly centralised and policies of funding, administration and pedagogy are centrally developed by the government (Symeonidou, 2002). Education is compulsory until the age of 15, and almost 100% of the students continue their education in the lyceum or technical school, and the majority continue in further and higher education, in Cyprus and abroad. With the establishment of 3 public and 4 private universities in the country the numbers of student continuing in higher education are highly increase in the last 4 years, including an important number of students with disabilities. Provision for the education of students with disabilities is traditionally called by the 1999 Education Act for the Education of Children with Special Needs (MOEC, 1999), which was formally implemented in 2001. Preliminary data and information from previous studies evidenced that among others, the legislation is covering general issues of accessibility (cognitive, physical and communication), which also may imply technology, without though providing any specific guidelines (Mavrou, 2011). In addition, it provides relevant directions for higher education, but mainly poses the responsibility to the higher educational institutions. Hence, issues of accessibility and technology do not seem to be officially directed by legislation or regulations and guidelines by the Cyprus government, at any level of education or other sectors, even if the country have signed relevant EU conventions and documentation. Accessibility for information on the Web has been well regulated in the United States (U.S.) and the European Commission (DRC, 2004; Section508, 2011). The European approach to ensuring the availability of accessible information on public Web sites is encapsulated in the eEurope Action Plan 2002 which emphasises that, “Public sector web sites […] must be designed to be accessible to ensure that citizens with disabilities can access information and take full advantage of the potential for e-government” (EU Commission, 2000). Unfortunately the Cypriot legislature is not yet in line with the European action plan on the issue of web accessibility. There are no specific legislative or regulatory measures regarding eAccessibility for public or private websites in Cyprus (eInclusion). However, Article 16 of the new EU Structural Funds regulations is expected to have an impact on eAccessibility and as Cyprus has signed the Convention, now Article 9 sets forth the obligation of the country to ensure accessibility to the Internet (but it is not a legislation). As per eInclusion in Cyprus, it was planned that within 2010, these sites would be further enhanced based on WCAG 2.0, level AA (EU. 2010). To our knowledge, only one previous study has analyzed Cypriot web sites with respect to accessibility via automated testing on WCAG1.0 (Zaphiris & Zacharia, 2001). The results showed that the Cyprus websites, including academic websites, were ranked very low in terms of accessibility (only 20% of them were Bobby approved). The present study, aims to investigate the accessibility of new technologies, especially the web, of universities, 10 years after the first study, as well as after Cyprus joined the EU where signed relevant conventions and documents

Emotional intelligence, working memory, and emotional vocabulary in L1 and L2: Interactions and dissociations

Cognition and emotion are interrelated concepts. However, very little is known about the relation between working memory capacity (WMC) and emotional intelligence (EI) and their effect on the retrieval and generation of emotional vocabulary. This study aimed to explore correlation patterns between WMC and four factors of trait EI (well-being, self-control, emotionality, sociability). It also sought to examine whether WMC and trait EI are significant determinants of the number and perceived pleasantness of emotion words freely retrieved and produced in a non-emotionally charged context and the extent to which language of retrieval had an effect on this association. The results showed negative correlations between WMC and two factors of trait EI (well-being and emotionality). Trait EI was the sole predictor variable of the perceived pleasantness of the words retrieved, whereas trait EI, language of retrieval, and gender explained a statistically significant amount of the variance in the number of emotion words generated. Qualitative analysis of the emotional vocabulary revealed a slight predominance of positive words and common patterns in the most highly activated words in both first and second languages

A Study of the Greek-Cypriot Public Education System, 1974-1994

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DX201665 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

SRPK1 inhibition in prostate cancer:a novel anti-angiogenic treatment through modulation of VEGF alternative splicing

AbstractProstate cancer remains one of the leading causes of cancer death in men around the world, regardless of intense research and development of novel therapies in the last 10 years. One of the new avenues that has been tested ⿿ inhibition of angiogenesis ⿿ has been disappointing so far in clinical studies in spite of strong evidence that determinants of angiogenesis (e.g. vascular endothelial growth factor) are strongly associated with disease progression. One of the reasons for these outcomes may be our poor understanding of the biology of angiogenesis in prostate cancer (and probably other cancers as well) resulting in inhibition of both detrimental and favourable molecules. We discuss here novel targeted and more specific approaches to inhibit angiogenesis in prostate cancer as well as a completely new therapeutic modality to do this ⿿ modulation of alternative splicing ⿿ that may be applicable to other molecules/biological processes as well

What Does Linguistic Distance Predict When It Comes to L2 Writing of Adult Immigrant Learners of Spanish?

This study examined whether the linguistic distance between the first (L1) and second (L2) language is a significant determinant of L2 writing skills of 292 adult immigrants from 39 different source countries, who were beginner learners of Spanish L2. Gender, age, length of residence in Spain, education level as a proxy for literacy skills in L1, enrolment in Spanish language courses, and overall communicative competence in Spanish were also considered. Using both standard procedures for assessing L2 writing and performance-based psycholinguistic measures of accuracy and text-production fluency, the findings highlight the important role of linguistic proximity in achieving greater accuracy, text-production fluency, and overall L2 writing scores. Other significant predictors were age, enrolment in Spanish courses, and education level for accuracy; and length of residence in Spain and education level for text-production fluency. Although length of residence in Spain was negatively associated with text-production fluency in L2 writing, mediation analyses revealed that the effect of age on text-production fluency was mediated by length of residence in Spain and that L2 proficiency level mediated the link between linguistic distance and text-production fluency. Furthermore, most of the errors that these immigrants made were morphosyntactic and spelling errors, while vocabulary errors were rare

Moral judgements in a foreign language: Expressing emotions and justifying decisions

Aim: Previous evidence suggests that language influences bilinguals’ moral judgements. One explanation for this phenomenon is that using a second language (L2) attenuates emotional arousal, thus leading to more rational decisions. This study examined whether bilinguals’ moral arguments and emotional vocabulary are influenced by the language – first language (L1) or L2 – in which a moral dilemma is presented. / Methodology and data analysis: A mixed-methods design was employed. We analysed the emotional vocabulary used by 204 Spanish-English bilinguals when making moral judgements and expressing their emotions in response to a highly emotional moral dilemma, as well as the type of arguments they employed to justify their moral decisions in L1 and L2. / Findings: The participants were more emotional in their L1, as reflected in the arguments they used to justify their decisions. This finding was supported by a significantly lower number of emotional words in their L2. Moreover, the effect of language on moral judgements was mediated by the participants’ emotions. / Originality: This study is the first to qualitatively examine the types of arguments underlying bilinguals’ moral decision-making in their L1 and in their L2. Moreover, the analysis of verbal emotional expressions in relation to moral decisions adds to the findings of previous research that was based almost exclusively on forced-choice measures and further supports the hypothesis that the reduction of emotional arousal in an L2 modulates individuals’ moral judgements. / Implications: The results have implications for L2 teaching and pedagogy. The L2 curriculum should include instruction in emotional vocabulary and should engage learners in discussions that require argumentation and critical thinking about strong emotional content. This may assist bilinguals not only to express their internal affective states more efficiently, but also to experience the intensity of L2 emotionally charged words in a similar way as they do in their L1

Complejidad, precisión, fluidez y léxico: Una revisión

El objetivo de este artículo es presentar y valorar el alcance de algunas aportaciones relevantes en el ámbito de Adquisición de Segundas Lenguas sobre los constructos de complejidad sintáctica y léxica, precisión lingüística y fluidez. Después de analizar brevemente su conceptualización en la bibliografía especializada, se presentan algunas de las medidas más frecuentemente empleadas en la operacionalización de estos constructos y se discuten las fortalezas y debilidades de la aplicación de dichas medidas en la evaluación de la actuación y del desarrollo interlingüístico de los aprendientes de lengua extranjera, con énfasis en el discurso escrito

Exploratory Factor Analysis: Conceptual and methodological issues

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of several important contributions regarding Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). After briefly addressing the differences between the two main methods of EFA, i.e. Principal Component Analysis and Common Factor Analysis, the standards that have to be met for its implementation, as well as certain methods of factor extraction and rotation are discussed in detail. Furthermore, the criteria for defining the number of factors to retain when conducting EFA are presented and some guidelines for evaluating the significance of factor loadings based on the sample size are offered