Coping with Accessibility and Usability Challenges of Online Technologies by Blind Students in Higher Education

Author(s):  
Samuel Muwanguzi ◽  
Lin Lin

This study examined the usability challenges and emotional reactions blind college students experienced in accessing educational materials and communicating with professors and colleagues through online technologies. A case study approach was adopted. Five students were interviewed regarding their online learning experiences using Blackboard, a popular Course Management System. Analysis of the interviews revealed that the blind students found Blackboard poorly accessible, which affected their academic achievements. However, despite their frustrations and feelings of marginalization, the study also showed that the blind students were motivated and optimistic of their successes. The research suggests that academic administrators and CMS designers work jointly with adaptive software developers to create enhanced user interfaces, ensure universal access and usability of online technologies, and reduce educational inequities and frustrations encountered by blind students.

2013 ◽  
pp. 1227-1244
Author(s):  
Samuel Muwanguzi ◽  
Lin Lin

This study examined the usability challenges and emotional reactions blind college students experienced in accessing educational materials and communicating with professors and colleagues through online technologies. A case study approach was adopted. Five students were interviewed regarding their online learning experiences using Blackboard, a popular Course Management System. Analysis of the interviews revealed that the blind students found Blackboard poorly accessible, which affected their academic achievements. However, despite their frustrations and feelings of marginalization, the study also showed that the blind students were motivated and optimistic of their successes. The research suggests that academic administrators and CMS designers work jointly with adaptive software developers to create enhanced user interfaces, ensure universal access and usability of online technologies, and reduce educational inequities and frustrations encountered by blind students.


2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Muwanguzi ◽  
Lin Lin

This study examines the usability challenges and emotional reactions of blind college students in their attempts to access online educational materials and to communicate with colleagues through online technologies. A case study approach was adopted. Five students were interviewed regarding their online learning experiences using Blackboard, a popular Course Management System. Analysis of the interviews revealed that Blackboard was poorly accessible to the blind students, which affected achieving their academic goals. The study also showed that the blind students were motivated and optimistic of their successes despite their frustrations and feelings of marginalization. The study suggests that academic administrators and database designers work jointly with adaptive software developers in developing enhanced user interfaces to ensure universal access and usability of online technologies and to reduce educational inequities and frustrations encountered by blind students.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 3053 ◽  
Author(s):  
Younjoo Cho ◽  
Anseop Choi

Smart homes improve quality of life by providing various services based on information and communication technologies. However, smart home systems are complicated and user interfaces for the interaction between smart home and user are often not user-friendly, causing potential difficulties and inconvenience for the user. Therefore, in order for smart homes to become user-centered, usability needs to be improved. This study aims to present guidelines for improving the usability of smart homes based on the concept of affordance, which is highly meaningful in user-centered design. To do this, firstly, the affordance factors that could be applied to improve the usability of active devices and user interfaces in smart homes were extracted, secondly, a case study was conducted to analyze the application of affordance factors, focusing on active devices (e.g., control devices and smart appliances) and user interfaces that directly interact with users in smart homes. Lastly, guidelines on the application of affordance factors were presented by combining case analysis results with relevant guidelines. Active devices and user interfaces should provide users with appropriate cognitive, physical, functional, and sensory affordances so that users can use the smart home services easily and conveniently.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Salma Kaneez

Loss of a loved one is a very painful and often a traumatic experience for most of the people. The burden of the loss can be carried over a life time or laid down. Grief is a profound and complex response for those who have been left behind. There found different gender reactions in grief and traumatic event. Women tend to experience more intense emotional reactions such as shock, denial, anger, depression that may linger on for quite some time, especially when they were widow and mother. Individuals grieve differently, yet coping with bereavement depends upon the personal characteristics, available support, coping mechanism, faith and self concept of sufferers. Using the case study approach, this article explores the grief, trauma (psychological response) and coping pattern among bereaved women while struggling with the loss. The cases of three Muslim women widowed during the last one year were analyzed. Findings highlight the importance of social support, religious or spiritual beliefs, traumatic growth in bereavement and coping with the loss of a family member.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Hugh McFaul ◽  
Liz Hardie ◽  
Francine Ryan ◽  
Keren Lloyd Bright ◽  
Neil Graffin

<p>In common with the wider higher education sector, clinical legal education practitioners are facing the challenge of how to adapt their teaching practices to accommodate the restrictions imposed by governmental responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. Facilitating distance learning via online technologies has unsurprisingly become an area of increasing interest in the hope that it may offer a potential solution to the problem of how to continue teaching undergraduates in a socially distanced environment.</p><p><br />This paper seeks to provide clinical legal education practitioners with evidence-based insights into the challenges and opportunities afforded by using digital technologies to deliver clinical legal education. It adopts a case study approach by reflecting on the Open Justice Centre’s four-year experience of experimenting with online technologies to provide meaningful and socially useful legal pro bono projects for students studying a credit bearing undergraduate law module. It will analyse how a number of different types of pro bono activity were translated into an online environment, identify common obstacles and posit possible solutions. In doing so, this paper aims to provide a timely contribution to the literature on clinical legal education and offer a means to support colleagues in law schools in the UK and internationally, who are grappling with the challenges presented by taking clinical legal education online.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 6-38
Author(s):  
Hugh McFaul ◽  
Liz Hardie ◽  
Francine Ryan ◽  
Keren Lloyd Bright ◽  
Neil Graffin

In common with the wider higher education sector, clinical legal education practitioners are facing the challenge of how to adapt their teaching practices to accommodate the restrictions imposed by governmental responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. Facilitating distance learning via online technologies has unsurprisingly become an area of increasing interest in the hope that it may offer a potential solution to the problem of how to continue teaching undergraduates in a socially distanced environment.This paper seeks to provide clinical legal education practitioners with evidence-based insights into the challenges and opportunities afforded by using digital technologies to deliver clinical legal education. It adopts a case study approach by reflecting on the Open Justice Centre’s four-year experience of experimenting with online technologies to provide meaningful and socially useful legal pro bono projects for students studying a credit bearing undergraduate law module. It will analyse how a number of different types of pro bono activity were translated into an online environment, identify common obstacles and posit possible solutions. In doing so, this paper aims to provide a timely contribution to the literature on clinical legal education and offer a means to support colleagues in law schools in the UK and internationally, who are grappling with the challenges presented by taking clinical legal education online.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-57
Author(s):  
Muhamad Arif ◽  
Mei Kalimatusyaroh ◽  
Nur Rahayu Setyawati

ABSTRAKPendidikan menjadi hak dari setiap warga negara sebagaimana amanat Undang-undang Dasar 1945, Pasal 31 Ayat 1, sejalan dengan amanat di atas pendidikan  untuk anak kebutuhan khusus juga di berlakukan di negara Indonesia[G1] [a2] , maka diperlukan sebuah proses pembelajaran yang maksimal mulai dari sumberdaya manusianya yaitu guru. tujuan penelitian [G3] [a4] ini adalah tentang bagaimana optimalisasi guru dalam menumbuhkan minat membaca huruf braille pada siswa tunanetra. Apa saja media yang di gunakan guru dalam  menumbuhkan minat membaca huruf braille pada siswa tunanetra, serta apa saja kendala guru dalam  menumbuhkan minat membaca huruf braille pada siswa tunanetra. Penelitian dilakukan pada Sekolah Luar Biasa Cerme Gresik, melalui riset kualitatif dengan pendekatan studi kasus, sumber data primer dalam penelitian ini adalah guru pengajar siswa tunanetra, analisis data yang di pakai adalah analisis data Miles dan Huberman dengan perpaduan Triangulasi data. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan optimalisasi penumbuhan minat membaca huruf braille yang di lakukan guru, dengan memperkuat proses pembelajaran mulai dari perencanaan, pelaksanaan dan evaluasi belajar membaca, selain itu beberapa media pembelajaran yang digunakan seperti, braille kasar, halus, peta braille dan beberapa media lainnya. Terlepas dari beberapa media di atas masih ditemukannya kendala dalam penumbuhan minat membaca huruf braille, seperti naik turunya motivasi pada diri siswa, IQ siswa tunanetra yang cenderung rendah dari pada siswa normal, perlunya peningkatan kompetensi pada guru tunanetra, serta perlu adanya media pembelajaran yang sesuai kebutuhan siswa, seperti buku pelajaran braille.Kata Kunci : Guru, Tunanetra, Media BelajarABSTRACTEducation is the right of every citizen as mandated by the 1945 Constitution, Article 31 Paragraph 1, in line with the above mandate that education for children with special needs is also implemented in the state of Indonesia, so a maximum learning process is needed starting from human resources, namely teachers. . so in this study discusses how to optimize the teacher in fostering interest in reading Braille in blind students. What media are used by the teacher in fostering interest in reading braille in blind students, as well as what are the obstacles for teachers in growing interest in reading braille in blind students. The research was conducted at the Cerme Gresik Special School, through qualitative research with a case study approach, the primary data source in this study was teachers of blind students, the data analysis used was data analysis by Miles and Huberman with a combination of data triangulation. The results showed the optimization of the growth of interest in reading braille by the teacher, by strengthening the learning process starting from planning, implementing and evaluating learning to read, besides that some learning media were used, such as coarse, fine braille, braille maps and several other media. Apart from some of the media above, there are still obstacles in growing interest in reading braille, such as the ups and downs of motivation in students, the IQ of blind students who tend to be lower than normal students, the need to increase competence in blind teachers, and the need for learning media that suits their needs. students, such as braille textbooks.Keywords: Teacher, Blind, Learning Media


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 2049-2067
Author(s):  
Karmen L. Porter ◽  
Janna B. Oetting ◽  
Loretta Pecchioni

Purpose This study examined caregiver perceptions of their child's language and literacy disorder as influenced by communications with their speech-language pathologist. Method The participants were 12 caregivers of 10 school-aged children with language and literacy disorders. Employing qualitative methods, a collective case study approach was utilized in which the caregiver(s) of each child represented one case. The data came from semistructured interviews, codes emerged directly from the caregivers' responses during the interviews, and multiple coding passes using ATLAS.ti software were made until themes were evident. These themes were then further validated by conducting clinical file reviews and follow-up interviews with the caregivers. Results Caregivers' comments focused on the types of information received or not received, as well as the clarity of the information. This included information regarding their child's diagnosis, the long-term consequences of their child's disorder, and the connection between language and reading. Although caregivers were adept at describing their child's difficulties and therapy goals/objectives, their comments indicated that they struggled to understand their child's disorder in a way that was meaningful to them and their child. Conclusions The findings showed the value caregivers place on receiving clear and timely diagnostic information, as well as the complexity associated with caregivers' understanding of language and literacy disorders. The findings are discussed in terms of changes that could be made in clinical practice to better support children with language and literacy disorders and their families.


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