scholarly journals 22. UDL - From Disabilities Office to Mainstream Class: How the Tools of a Minority are Addressing the Aspirations of the Student Body at Large

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederic Fovet ◽  
Heather Mole

Confronted by the increasingly changing and varied nature of disabilities in Higher Education (Bowe, 2000; McGuire & Scott, 2002), Disability Service providers across North America are progressively moving away from targeted remedial assistance focusing on the disabilities of students, to a less frontline role involving the sensitization of faculty around strategies that seek to widen access and develop awareness (Sopko, 2008).  Universal Design is hence often the model of choice (Rose, Harbour, Johnston, Daley & Abarbanell, 2006).  It incorporates extensive use of technology and seeks the implementation of winning conditions in the classroom space that reduce or eliminate the need for later remedial work with students (Burgstahler, 2006).  The hypothesis of this paper is that Universal Design, though conceived as a tool for a specific clientele, may quickly transpire to be the model best suited to serve the needs of the student body at large.The paper attempts to demonstrate how the core values underlying the Universal Design approach in fact meet wider educational aspirations of the 21st century.  Not only do its strategies and goals allow wider access to students with Disabilities, but they allow the integration of the ‘millennium learners’, encourage higher student retention, guarantee higher rates of graduation and establish greater equity and respect for diversity.  A model, designed to assist the minority, is quickly becoming a tool that has the capacity to open the class and the lecture hall to the diversity of the emerging and metamorphosing High Education learner, even if his/ her idiosyncrasies are still barely known (Howard, 2004).

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Abreu-Ellis ◽  
Jason Brent Ellis

This paper provides an overview of adaptive technologies currently being used in Ontario Universities. Results of this study may help disability service providers in Ontario in understanding the current challenges of training students with disabilities in using adaptive technologies as well as improving service delivery methods. Participants were recruited through a listserv and asked to answer an online survey. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and anecdotal narratives. Results indicated that students with learning disabilities are not familiar with adaptive technologies that would best suit their academic needs and that training in adaptive technology occurred on an individual basis or in small group settings as opposed to large groups. Participants indicated that they use low-cost equivalents and adaptive technologies housed in open laboratories in order to serve students with financial needs. Challenges faced by Assistive technologists included: consistency in assistive technology use by the students they serve, effective training while semester coursework is in progress, and fitting individuals with very unique needs to the available technology. A series of best practices and accomplishments were identified by the participants.


Author(s):  
Catherine S. Fichten ◽  
Jennison V. Asuncion ◽  
Chantal Robillard ◽  
Myrtis E. Fossey ◽  
Maria Barile

Two studies explored how well English and French speaking colleges and universities in Canada address availability and access to new computer and information technologies for individuals with disabilities. In Study 1, 156 professionals who provide disability-related supports on campus responded to structured interview questions. In Study 2, 40 professionals who work in Quebec's Francophone junior/community college system (CEGEP) participated. Results showed that most institutions had specialized adaptive computer equipment, though colleges were less likely than universities, and loan programs providing adaptive computer equipment were seen as very effective. Respondents believed they were not very knowledgeable about adaptive computer technologies and those from Francophone institutions scored lower than from Anglophone institutions. The needs of students were seen as moderately well met, with Francophone respondents more favorable than Anglophone. Respondents from Anglophone universities expressed different needs than those from Anglophone colleges or Francophone institutions. Disability service providers wished students were better equipped and prepared for the postsecondary experience, computer based teaching materials used by professors were more accessible, and more extensive support services for adaptive hardware and software available. We provide recommendations based on universal design principles that are targeted at those involved in technology integration in postsecondary education.


Author(s):  
Anthony D Feig ◽  
Christopher Atchison ◽  
Alison Stokes ◽  
Brett Gilley

Learners with disabilities are often denied field-based learning experiences in naturalistic disciplines. Geology can present substantial barriers due to rugged terrain in difficult-to-reach locations. In 2014, a field trip was executed with the dual purpose of 1) designing inclusion in field learning and 2) demonstrating to college faculty an accessible field experience. Direct observations of participants on the trip, as well as pre- and post-trip focus groups, illuminate the student and faculty field learning experience. Geoscience faculty have little guidance or support in understanding what disability is, how to reconcile accommodation with field-geology learning goals, and they cited instances where disability service providers acted as gatekeepers. The net effect of these ontologies is to reduce faculty empathy with, and thus their ability to be inclusive of, students with disabilities in field settings. Recommendations for teachers include taking campus disability-services administrators on field trips, opening and maintaining communications with disability service providers, and designing pedagogically sound field trips that align as much as possible to principles of universal design. An advocacy approach is described, which focuses on the students and the educational process, instead of on institutional compliance. Finally, geoscience faculty should conceptualize disability service providers as accessibility service providers.


Author(s):  
Oliver Werth ◽  
Marc-Oliver Sonneberg ◽  
Max Leyerer ◽  
Michael H. Breitner

Ridepooling is a new mobility service mainly for people in cities and urban areas. By matching the routes of customers with similar start and end points while driving in an optimally pooled manner, meaningful reductions in road traffic and related emissions can be achieved. Such services must meet customers’ demands appropriately to achieve sustainable customer acceptance. Service providers face diverse customer expectations and prejudices that differ from those toward existing transportation modes. Today, most ridepooling trips are conducted with only one customer, confirming impressions of non-optimal operation. Using a survey-based approach, possible relevant constructs for the acceptance of and intention to use ridepooling services are analyzed. Testing constructs from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 and environmental awareness, partial least squares analysis was performed with the software SmartPLS to investigate a dataset of 224 respondents. Results suggest that attitude toward use, perceived usefulness, and performance expectancy have an influence on the behavioral intention to use ridepooling services. In contrast, environmental awareness, price value, and effort expectancy do not have such an influence. The study expands the literature about customer acceptance of ridepooling service as well as new mobility services in general. Further, the paper provides research implications and recommendations for the development and implementation of the ridepooling concept for service providers.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002205742110319
Author(s):  
Sandra Levey

This review presents the Universal Design Learning (UDL) approach to education. Classrooms have become increasingly diverse, with second language learners, students with disabilities, and students with differences in their perception and understanding information. Some students learn best through listening, while others learn best when presented with visual information. Given the increased number of new language learners across the world, the UDL approach allows successful learning for all students. UDL has allowed students to acquire information more effectively. UDL provides guidance to educators that is especially valuable for the diversity of classrooms and the diversity in modalities in learning,


2021 ◽  
pp. 178359172110553
Author(s):  
Ishani Patharia ◽  
Anjana Pandey ◽  
Sanjay Gupta

Technological developments have a major impact on user behavior. The rapidly evolving communication system and technology have provided numerous choices for people. The ever-shifting changes in the generation of communication networks have posed challenges for mobile network service providers to attract and retain customers. This study aims to prioritize the determinants of the adoption of mobile network service providers using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT-2). In this study, data were collected from 660 mobile phone users in Haryana, India. A fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (F-AHP) was applied to arrange the priority or rank the factors based on the significance of the factors in explaining the adoption of mobile network service providers. Results of the study reveal that efforts expectancy is the highest-ranked and prioritized factor for the adoption of mobile network service providers followed by performance expectancy and facilitating conditions. However, social influence emerged as the least important factor. The present study provides theoretical implications for future researchers by synthesizing and prioritizing the important factors affecting technology acceptance. The practical implications offer a clearer insight to marketers for developing focused pragmatic strategies to retain customer loyalty. The study has considered only UTAUT-2 model constructs and used the F-AHP technique. Other factors may be considered in future studies. Other priority analysis techniques can also be used such as ISM and MICMAC analysis for further study. The research has been conducted in Haryana, India, and therefore, it needs to be tested in other areas/countries for generalizability. JEL Classification: O1, O2, O4


2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Doolittle Wilson

In 1975, Congress enacted a law eventually known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which ensures that children with disabilities receive a free, appropriate, public education. Since then, scholarly and popular debates about the effectiveness of inclusive education have proliferated and typically focus on the ability or inability of students with disabilities to succeed in so-called regular classrooms. These debates reflect widespread assumptions that the regular classroom is rightly the province of nondisabled students and a neutral, value-free space that students with disabilities invade and disrupt via their very presence and their costly needs for adaptation. But as many scholars in the field of Disability Studies in Education (DSE) have argued, these discussions often fail to recognize that the space of the regular classroom, far from neutral, is constructed for a nondisabled, neurotypical, white, male, middle-class "norm" that neither reflects nor accommodates the wide range of diverse learners within it, regardless of whether these learners have been diagnosed with a disability. A DSE perspective sees the educational environment, not students with disabilities, as the "problem" and calls for a Universal Design for Learning approach to education, or the design of instructional materials and activities that allows the learning goals to be achievable by individuals with wide differences in their abilities and backgrounds. Agreeing with this DSE perspective, this article uses an autoethnographic approach to reexamine inclusive education and to consider how university classrooms, pedagogy, and curricular materials can be improved in order to accommodate all students, not just those with disabilities. Ultimately, the article argues that Universal Design for Learning has the potential to radically transform the meaning of inclusive education and the very concept of disability.


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