Utilising mobile technologies for students with disabilities

This paper proposes a model of inclusive technical capital, and its use in the evaluation of technology and education designed to include students with disabilities. This paper also examines the role of mainstream mobile technologies and m-learning in the inclusion of students with disabilities. A recent research project on the inclusivity of native settings and apps on Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android mobile operating systems is reviewed, and a model of evaluation is proposed as a starting point for future evaluations. The paper concludes that mobile technology has advantages over traditional assistive technologies as a tool of inclusive technical capital. However, more needs to be done to develop tablets and smartphones’ native settings and apps to include students with disabilities. It is also found that mobile devices as a whole need to become cheaper in order to make them more socially inclusive

Participatory Co-Design, Grounded Methodology and the Development of Post-Inclusion

The presentation discusses two post-inclusive arts projects. These projects use participatory co-design to create artworks and technology, and grounded methodology as a means of developing learning and evaluation. The first project is a community education project on flooding in Bath, UK, and features co-created interactive installations, music and sculptures. The second project is a community design project, which features the development of co-designed breakdance choreography, performance and a multi-sensory dance beat technology in Yorkshire, UK

Inclusive capital and human value

Human value seemed to be an effective way of understanding our personal knowledge, activity, and skills, and how these elements shape our personality, memory, and character traits. The observation that human skills and knowledge had value was first understood in the eighteenth century, and became a driving force of the Enlightenment and the British industrial revolution. Karl Marx argued that a consequence of the industrial revolution was that it changed the nature of human labor value psychologically. Pierre Bourdieu’s idea of social and cultural capital values were not just useful to the sociologists and social philosophers that subsequently used it to discuss social divisions by like groups. French people do not need to be resident in their homeland to be members of their imagined institution, members of other nationalities often live easily in France. Cultural institutions can be state of mind or theoretical space, with a physical though not geographical “center” or “centers,” and cultural objects scattered throughout other spaces

Reflexive strategies developed during part-time fieldwork in an English school for the blind, Worcester, 2000-2001

In 1999, I planned a part-time PhD study to examine the effects of early art education on cultural development in English schools for the blind. This study formed part of a larger grounded theory on the understanding and creation of what are thought to be the visual arts by blind adults and children. The main fieldwork for this study was conducted at RNIB New College, Worcester, and included participant observations, interviews, and participant diaries. This case examines strategies involved in developing fieldwork as a full-time teacher in a different school, and focuses on the issues involved in collecting the participant diaries. The case also examines the development, creation, and maintenance of relationships within fieldwork, and strategies of reflexive work patterns. In particular, the case examines the nature of the Intimate Journal and the use of Informers to develop part of a grounded theory

Why Do We Think That People who are Visually Impaired Don’t Want to Know About the Visual Arts II?

Many influential contemporary studies focus on the perception of objects and “real things,” such as perception and visual imagery. They do not examine: - the nature of cultural practice - the motivation for creative and imaginative activity - why art is important to people who are blind This presentation examines two people with visual impairment and their teacher at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and their experiences of viewing paintings. Hayhoe, S. (2017) Blind Visitor Experiences at Art Museums. New York: Rowman & Littlefield