Assistive Devices for Students with Disabilities

Wisniewski, Lech; Sedlak, Robert A.

doi:10.1086/461694

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The White paper for Post-School Education and Training has mandated the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET 2013) to recognize the right of people with disabilities and their participation or access to higher education as part of the transformation process in South Africa. Universities provide a range of support such as assistive technology laboratories with screen readers, dictating software to enable normality and enabling them to be in mainstream education (Wisniewski & Sedlak 1992). Mudau, Netshisaulu and Ncube (2019) contend that students experience challenges at higher learning institutions; however, students with disabilities experience another layer of challenges such as learning support, infrastructure, and social life.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learner and Subject at the Dawn of Digital REsearch-LEd Teaching and LEarning in the Time of Covid-19

Ja¹

2020

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is currently a contract staff member in Accounting Education within the Social Science Cluster of the School of Education in the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). Prior to joining academia in 2014, she spent over fifteen years in the corporate world in diverse fields of Accounting in both Nigeria and South Africa. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1991 in Nigeria, she has worked in various industries performing key accounting roles such as Financial Accounting, Management Accounting and Audit. She rose to the position of the divisional Finance Director in 2001 overseeing the finance arm of a Packaging business. She also experienced the South African business world while working with Sifax South Africa between 2007 and 2009. In quest of a career in education, she commenced a certificate course in teaching in 2013 after which she started lecturing in the UKZN School of Education in 2014. At the same time, she embarked on her doctoral journey in 2014 for the next five years ending September 2018. Her research pursuit which basically draws on her doctoral studies, focuses on the fields of assessment, cognitive demand and textbooks within the domain of Accounting education. More recently, her research focus has expanded, and now includes curriculum preparedness for the 4 th industrial revolution classroom and virtual learning in the South African context.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learner and Subject at the Dawn of Digital REsearch-LEd Teaching and LEarning in the Time of Covid-19

Ja¹

2020

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“…By using technology, students with vision impairments are provided with "the best possible sight enhancement or sight substitution mechanism" that allows them to perform visual tasks (Söderström & Ytterhus, 2010, p. 305) and can increase their functional independence in the context of the educational environment (Stumbo, Martin, & Hedrick, 2009). Assistive technologies such as electronic Braille and screen magnification software have supported the tertiary experience of students with vision impairments in terms of improving environmental orientation, mobility and reading (Wisniewski & Sedlak, 1992). In the 1980s these tools were expensive and often lacked technical support (Hollier & Murray, 2006) or they simply did not respond to the particular needs of each student, who were unable to fully benefit from them or decided not to use them.…”

Section: Vision Compensationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the 1980s these tools were expensive and often lacked technical support (Hollier & Murray, 2006) or they simply did not respond to the particular needs of each student, who were unable to fully benefit from them or decided not to use them. Despite these barriers, assistive technologies were well regarded for potentially facilitating normalcy or augmenting current functioning of students with disabilities (Wisniewski & Sedlak, 1992). As previously mentioned, there is a large range of new technologies designed to mitigate the visual challenges of people with vision impairments from personal digital assistants with speech and Braille output to screen magnification systems, speech synthesisers and more recently mobility-aid solutions for mobile phones which support trip planning.…”

Section: Vision Compensationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vision impairment and the transition to university education: The role of ICTs

Pacheco¹

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<p>The transition to university is a crucial process in the lives of young people who pursue tertiary education. It can be a stressful experience for all students in general but it is especially challenging for those with disabilities. In recent years the number of students with disabilities enrolled in tertiary institutions has grown steadily. Also, the transition to university has become a topic of interest for policy makers and scholars around the world. However, there is still limited research about the transition to university for students with disabilities and the issues they face when they start their university journey. Additionally, very little research has examined the role of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in supporting their transition experience. This research focuses on students with vision impairments, one of the disability groups who have been less studied in academia, and seeks to answer two research questions. First, what are the factors that influence students with vision impairments’experiences of the transition process to university education? Second, how are ICTs used to support this process? The research participants, aged 18 to 24 years old, were all undergraduate students enrolled at Victoria University of Wellington. Data was collected over a year and a half through observations, a researcher diary, individual interviews, social media and focus group meetings. Action research (AR) was the research method used in this qualitative and inductive study. The AR intervention included organising informal face-to-face support group discussions with the participants at different periods of their first trimester at university and setting up a website and a social media group page. The research findings have significant contributions for knowledge and practice. It was found that students with vision impairments are able to develop self-determination skills as they are using and adapting ICTs creatively and innovatively in order to make sense of their transition. This group of students not only use these tools in compensating for their vision impairment but also to interact and collaborate with their peers. This research has also identified five overlapping transition stages: Exploring, Discovering, Coping with, Readjusting and Settling in. Similarly, it includes a description of different transition issues (e.g. academic system, social connections, and financial matters) that have a positive and/or negative impact on the transition experience. Likewise, the findings show that ICTs play a role in the transition to university and that this role varies depending on the transition stage, the transition issues the students with vision impairments deal with and their personal needs. To a large extent, ICTs are embedded in the everyday activities of the students with vision impairments. In addition to using adaptive technologies, they have already incorporated other tools, such as Web 2.0 (e.g. Facebook), and portable devices (e.g. smartphones), and use them for their university activities and transition experience. In this respect, this research suggests rethinking transition in terms of the idea of Transition 2.0, a concept that describes the current escenario of transition to university for students with vision impairments. This study represents a significant contribution from the field of information systems (IS) to research areas such as disability and tertiary education.</p>

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Successful Strategies for Inclusion at the Middle Level

Waldron

Allen

1999

Middle School Journal

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Assistive Devices for Students with Disabilities

Cited by 5 publications

References 41 publications

Learner and Subject at the Dawn of Digital REsearch-LEd Teaching and LEarning in the Time of Covid-19

Learner and Subject at the Dawn of Digital REsearch-LEd Teaching and LEarning in the Time of Covid-19

Vision impairment and the transition to university education: The role of ICTs

Successful Strategies for Inclusion at the Middle Level

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