People with some types of motor disabilities who wish to generate text using a computer can find the process both fatiguing and time-consuming. These problems can be alleviated by reducing the quantity of keystrokes they must make, and one approach is to allow the user to enter shortened, abbreviated input, which is then re-expanded for them, by a program ‘filling in the gaps’. Word Prediction is one approach, but comes with drawbacks, one of which is the requirement that generally the user must type the first letters of their intended word, regardless of how unrepresentative they may consider those letters to be. Abbreviation Expansion allows the user to type reduced forms of many words in a way they feel represents them more effectively. This can be done by the omission of one or more letters, or the replacement of letter sequences with other, usually shorter, sequences. For instance, the word ‘hyphenate might be shortened to ‘yfn8’, by leaving out some letters and replacing the ‘ph’ and ‘ate’ with the shorter but phonetically similar ‘f’ and ‘8’. ‘Fixed Abbreviation Expansion’ requires the user to memorise a set of correspondences between abbreviations and the full words which they represent. While this enables useful keystroke savings to be made, these come alongside an increased cognitive load and potential for error. Where a word is encountered for which there is no preset abbreviation, or for which the user cannot remember one, keystroke savings may be lost. ‘Flexible Abbreviation Expansion’ allows the user to leave out whichever letters they feel to be ‘less differentiating' and jump straight ahead to type those they feel are most ‘salient’ and most characterise the word, choosing abbreviations ‘on the fly’. The need to memorise sets of correspondences is removed, as the user can be offered all candidates for which the abbreviation might be a representation, usually in small sets on screen. For useful savings to be made, the intended word must regularly be in the first or second set for quick selection, or the system might attempt to place the intended word at the very top of its list as frequently as possible. Thus it is important to generate and rank the candidates effectively, so that high probability words can be offered in a shortlist. Lower-ranking candidates can be offered in secondary lists which are not immediately displayed. This can reduce both the cognitive load and keystrokes needed for selection. The thesis addresses the task of reducing the number of keystrokes needed for text creation with a large, expressive vocabulary, using a new approach to flexible abbreviation expansion. To inform the solution, two empirical studies were run to gather letter-level statistics on the abbreviation methods of twenty-nine people, under different degrees of constriction (that is, different restrictions on the numbers of characters by which to reduce). These studies showed that with a small amount of priming, people would abbreviate in regular ways, both shared between users, and repeated through the data from an individual. Analysis showed the most common strategies to be vowel deletion, phonetic replacement, loss of double letters, and word truncation. Participants reduced the number of letters in their texts by between 25% (judged to maintain a high degree of comprehensibility) up to 40% (judged to be a maximum degree of brevity whilst still retaining comprehensibility). Informed by these results, an individual-word-level algorithm was developed. For each input abbreviation, a set of candidates is produced, ranked in such a way as to potentially save substantial keystrokes when used across a whole text. A variety of statistical and linguistic techniques, often also used in spelling checking and correction, are used to rank them so that the most probable will be easiest to select, and with fewest keystrokes. The algorithm works at the level of the individual word, without looking at surrounding context. Evaluation of the algorithm demonstrated that it outperforms its nearest comparable alternative, of ranking word lists exclusively by word frequency. The evaluation was performed on the data from the second empirical study, using vocabulary sizes of 2-, 10-, 20- and 30-thousand words. The results show the algorithm to be of potential benefit for use as a component of a flexible abbreviation expansion system. Even with the overhead of selection of the intended word, useful keystroke savings could still be attained. It is envisaged that such a system could be implemented on many platforms, including as part of an AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) device, and an email system on a standard PC, thus making typed communication for the user group more comfortable and expansive.

Background: UK welfare reform endeavours to reduce out-of-work health-related benefit receipt and support people into employment. Such reforms assume that work is good for health and that targeting welfare-to-work interventions at individuals will result in moves from benefit receipt to employment. The research in this thesis tackles two questions associated with UK welfare reforms: (1) Is work always good for health? And, (2) Is the focus on motivating individual Incapacity Benefit (IB) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) recipients appropriate, or are there barriers to return to work that this approach cannot address? Methods: Three approaches were taken to address the aims: 1) Longitudinal analysis, using Generalised Estimating Equations, of the West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study (Twenty-07), to explore transitions from worklessness to employment. The analyses looked at both employment and health outcomes (self-rated and anxiety or depression) and took account of the psychosocial quality of the jobs obtained. 2) A systematic review of qualitative studies that explored the barriers and/or facilitators to employment from the perspective of people out of work because of health conditions or disabilities. A qualitative synthesis, using meta-ethnography, of the included studies was conducted. 3) A primary study utilising in-depth interviews with IB and ESA recipients, General Practitioners (GPs), and Employment Advisors (EAs) in Glasgow, to gain more understanding about barriers and facilitators to work and to fill the gaps identified in the qualitative synthesis. The interviews were analysed using Framework Analysis methods. Findings: Findings from Twenty-07 data showed that only 6.6% of those out of work because of ill health returned to work within the follow-up period. After a transition from worklessness to employment those in low-quality jobs had higher odds of poor health than those who moved to high-quality jobs, even after taking account of prior health. Those who remained workless had higher or similar odds of poor health as those who had moved to low-quality jobs. Nine studies were synthesised in the systematic review. Participants in the studies identified similar barriers and/or facilitators to return to work. Barriers and facilitators were related to health, workplace factors, the need to change job, financial issues, life stage and social circumstance, support, and self-construct. Synthesis and interpretation of the studies led to themes that were then further explored. These themes were: the complex pathway of return to work; competing participant and author narratives, and a difficulty of interpretation; the distinction between expected and experienced barriers to work; differences in barriers and facilitators by participant characteristics; job quality; and work-role centrality, adaptation, and financial risk. Seventeen IB or ESA recipients, six GPs, and six EAs participated in the qualitative study. Their barriers and facilitators to work confirmed the findings of the systematic review. All IB/ESA recipients had multiple and interacting barriers that were not limited to their motivation but also related to wider labour-market and social-context issues. Those with complex social situations and mental health conditions had lower expectation that they would successfully return to work. All participant groups were concerned that the policies of the welfare system did not match up with the labour-market or the social context. Conclusions: A very low proportion of those out of work because of ill health transitioned into employment. This is concerning because current policy is to reduce the number of people receiving IB and ESA. The research showed that there is a significant challenge to support this group into employment and that policies focusing on motivating individuals may miss important barriers to return to work. There appear to be health benefits from return to work; however, job quality is important, and the potential for health improvement is limited if the job is of poor quality. Supporting people into work has the potential to improve health, but more effort is required to determine how to improve support and target where it is most needed. Further research is necessary to explore the results of the current welfare reform i.e. whether IB/ESA recipients move into work, what helps them do so, and whether they experience a change in health.

The social model of disability, which provides the ideological basis for the recent UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, emphasizes the need for society to change, in order to remove all forms of disability discrimination and allow for full participation. However, literature debates have raised questions over the relevance of this ideology to the majority world context. This thesis aims to explore this dilemma, by examining the influence of the social model on a range of current approaches to promoting economic empowerment within Kenya and India - two countries that have signed and ratified the Convention. The methodology is based on a comparative analysis of 26 case studies, conducted between June 2010 and February 2011, which were focused mainly on three particular routes to economic empowerment: vocational training, formal sector employment and self-directed employment. The study concludes that, while inclusive strategies that were firmly based on social model principles tended to be among the most successful, a total reliance on this ideology would run the risk of excluding a large section of the disability population altogether. In particular, some of the segregated services were found to be continuing to play an important role in disability service provision.

No description available.

This thesis presents the research carried out to investigate and achieve highly reliable and accurate navigation system of guidance for visually impaired pedestrians. The main aim with this PhD project has been to identify the limits and insufficiencies in utilising Network Real-Time Kinematic Global Navigation Satellite Systems (NRTK GNSS) and its augmentation techniques within the frame of pedestrian applications in a variety of environments and circumstances. Moreover, the system can be used in many other applications, including unmanned vehicles, military applications, police, etc. NRTK GNSS positioning is considered to be a superior solution in comparison to the conventional standalone Global Positioning System (GPS) technique whose accuracy is highly affected by the distance dependent errors such as satellite orbital and atmospheric biases. Nevertheless, NRTK GNSS positioning is particularly constrained by wireless data link coverage, delays of correction and transmission and completeness, GPS and GLONASS signal availability, etc., which could downgrade the positioning quality of the NRTK results. This research is based on the dual frequency NRTK GNSS (GPS and GLONASS). Additionally, it is incorporated into several positioning and communication methods responsible for data correction while providing the position solutions, in which all identified contextual factors and application requirements are accounted. The positioning model operates through client-server based architecture consisted of a Navigation Service Centre (NSC) and a Mobile Navigation Unit (MNU). Hybrid functional approaches were consisting of several processing procedures allowing the positioning model to operate in position determination modes. NRTK GNSS and augmentation service is used if enough navigation information was available at the MNU using its local positioning device (GPS/GLONASS receiver).The positioning model at MNU was experimentally evaluated and centimetric accuracy was generally attained during both static and kinematic tests in various environments (urban, suburban and rural). This high accuracy was merely affected by some level of unavailability mainly caused by GPS and GLONASS signal blockage. Additionally, the influence of the number of satellites in view, dilution of precision (DOP) and age corrections (AoC) over the accuracy and stability of the NRTK GNSS solution was also investigated during this research and presented in the thesis. This positioning performance has outperformed the existing GPS service. In addition, utilising a simulation evaluation facility the positioning model at MNU performance was quantified with reference to a hybrid positioning service that will be offered by future Galileo Open Service (OS) along with GPS. However, a significant difference in terms of the service availability for the advantage of the hybrid system was experienced in all remaining scenarios and environments more especially the urban areas due to surrounding obstacles and conditions. As an outcome of this research a new and precise positioning model was proposed. The adaptive framework is understood as approaching an integration of the available positioning technology into the context of surrounding wireless communication for a maintainable performance. The positioning model has the capability of delivering indeed accurate, precise and consistent position solutions, and thus is fulfilling the requirements of visually impaired people navigation application, as identified in the adaptive framework.

Disability is a common phenomenon in the UK and year on year there are more disabled graduates graduating and entering the labour market. Despite the relevance of disability to contemporary society, research that focuses on disabled graduates is notability absent in the wider equality and diversity literature. In order to address this lacuna, the research focuses on how disabled graduates manage and navigate the UK labour market. Five key stages in the graduates’ journey into the labour market are addressed in the research, the process of job searching, how disabled graduates negotiate the workplace environment, which includes management relations, how reasonable adjustments are secured, and engagement with external bodies for advice and support and welfare. The wide range of topics covered in the thesis allowed the totality of the experience of disability to be addressed. The thesis used an inductive, qualitative methodology to uncover the lived experience of the disabled graduates. Several key themes emerged from the thesis, firstly disabled graduates were active agents in managing their situation. They often had plan ‘A’ along with various alternative plans to allow them to achieve their desired career path. In addition the graduates were excellent at executing coping strategies to deal with the negative situations in which they found themselves; they did not allow their suffering to negatively deter them. Thirdly, the data showed it was very important to consider issues around impairment because impairment impacted many of the disabled graduates’ experiences. If issues around impairment are ignored then only a partial understanding of disability is achieved. Finally, the data indicated that disabled graduates still experienced unfairness and discrimination in the workplace. This discrimination manifested itself in numerous ways from failure to be recruited to employers failing to make reasonable adjustments.

Technologies such as automobiles or mobile phones allow us to perform beyond our physical capabilities and travel faster or communicate over long distances. Technologies such as computers and calculators can also help us perform beyond our mental capabilities by storing and manipulating information that we would be unable to process or remember. In recent years there has been a growing interest in assistive technology for cognition (ATC) which can help people compensate for cognitive impairments. The aim of this thesis was to investigate ATC for memory to help people with memory difficulties which impacts independent functioning during everyday life. Chapter one argues that using both neuropsychological and human computing interaction theory and approaches is crucial when developing and researching ATC. Chapter two describes a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies which tested technology to aid memory for groups with ABI, stroke or degenerative disease. Good evidence was found supporting the efficacy of prompting devices which remind the user about a future intention at a set time. Chapter three looks at the prevalence of technologies and memory aids in current use by people with ABI and dementia and the factors that predicted this use. Pre-morbid use of technology, current use of non-tech aids and strategies and age (ABI group only) were the best predictors of this use. Based on the results, chapter four focuses on mobile phone based reminders for people with ABI. Focus groups were held with people with memory impairments after ABI and ABI caregivers (N=12) which discussed the barriers to uptake of mobile phone based reminding. Thematic analysis revealed six key themes that impact uptake of reminder apps; Perceived Need, Social Acceptability, Experience/Expectation, Desired Content and Functions, Cognitive Accessibility and Sensory/Motor Accessibility. The Perceived need theme described the difficulties with insight, motivation and memory which can prevent people from initially setting reminders on a smartphone. Chapter five investigates the efficacy and acceptability of unsolicited prompts (UPs) from a smartphone app (ForgetMeNot) to encourage people with ABI to set reminders. A single-case experimental design study evaluated use of the app over four weeks by three people with severe ABI living in a post-acute rehabilitation hospital. When six UPs were presented through the day from ForgetMeNot, daily reminder-setting and daily memory task completion increased compared to when using the app without the UPs. Chapter six investigates another barrier from chapter 4 – cognitive and sensory accessibility. A study is reported which shows that an app with ‘decision tree’ interface design (ApplTree) leads to more accurate reminder setting performance with no compromise of speed or independence (amount of guidance required) for people with ABI (n=14) compared to a calendar based interface. Chapter seven investigates the efficacy of a wearable reminding device (smartwatch) as a tool for delivering reminders set on a smartphone. Four community dwelling participants with memory difficulties following ABI were included in an ABA single case experimental design study. Three of the participants successfully used the smartwatch throughout the intervention weeks and these participants gave positive usability ratings. Two participants showed improved memory performance when using the smartwatch and all participants had marked decline in memory performance when the technology was removed. Chapter eight is a discussion which highlights the implications of these results for clinicians, researchers and designers.

The research has set out to examine the motives that contribute towards the decision to adopt a disabled child. Increased knowledge about placing disabled children for adoption is particularly important as they are regarded as the category hardest to place (Adoption Register 2009). Despite the wide gaps in knowledge, the negativity associated with the social construction of disability has been seen as a cause of disabled children’s disadvantage (Cousins 2009). Synthesising a Critical Realist framework with Grounded Theory methods; to examine both the efforts of local authorities to place a disabled child for adoption, as well as the narratives of those adopters who take on disabled child. The findings reveal that social workers often take a tentative approach to placing a disabled child, which impacts upon adoption outcomes, both in the way they represent disabled children and in the way they recruit and assess adopters. The Rationalistic Habitus is a concept used to reflect the way social workers reason their way through particular issues before arriving at a practice judgement. The study, also examines the narratives of adopters and their journey through the process of adopting a child with a significant impairment. Instances where adopters embark on adopting a disabled child are significant because they are making a decision in opposition to a prevailing discourse where disabled children are conceptualised as a burden to their families (Jordan and Sales 2007). An examination of these adopter’s motives requires one to think more deeply about how motives are processed. By focusing on the Habitus and reflexivity this research has attempted to bring new insights into how people process the prospect of becoming a parent to a disabled child. However, while the decision to adopt a disabled child might appear unconventional it is not so abnormal that we cannot make sense of their motives. The lifelong nature of the adoption role demonstrates that commitment is at the heart of these adoptions. The notion of a Commitment Habitus is reflected when adopters express an innate drive to nurture. In effect, this research contends that the motive to adopt a disabled child is wrapped in an orientation to invest in social relationships.

This study aimed to investigate public attitudes towards the sexuality of people with learning disabilities within a UK residing sample, and compare such attitudes between people from White Western and South Asian backgrounds. A mixed-method approach using an online questionnaire was employed. Three-hundred and thirty-one UK residing adults were recruited. Participants provided demographic details, completed five attitudes towards sexuality scales, in addition to measures of recognition and prior contact of a person with a mild learning disability. One of the sexual attitudes scales measured attitudes towards sexual openness in the typically developing men or women. The other four measured attitudes towards the sexuality of men or women with learning disabilities. These included four different aspects of sexuality (sexual rights, non-reproductive sexual behaviour, parenting and self-control). Participants completed either a male or female version of these scales. One open-ended question that asked about the sexuality of either men or women with learning disabilities was also included and responses to this question were analysed via a thematic analysis. Mean scores indicated that compared to White Westerners, South Asians had significantly more negative attitudes towards the sexual openness of men and women in the developing population and also towards the sexual rights of men and women with learning disabilities. Recognition was found to be poor in both ethnic groups, although White Westerners were found to be significantly more likely to be able to recognise mild learning disabilities compared to South Asians. These findings implicate the need to develop culturally sensitive interventions in improving knowledge and awareness of learning disabilities in addition to being aware of the differences in attitudes towards the sexuality of people with learning disabilities that may exist between different ethnic groups. These implications, the limitations of the study and suggested directions for future research are discussed.

The body is the fleshy substance of citizenship. However, analyses of the body and of citizenship have remained largely disconnected, with limited intersection between the two. Traditionally, citizenship has been associated with the ‘public’ sphere and the body with the ‘private’ sphere resulting in the distancing of the body from citizenship in popular and scholarly discourses. This demarcation has resulted in the exclusion of particular groups of people from being able to achieve full citizenship based on corporeal difference. This thesis argues that the separation of the ‘public’ and ‘private’ spheres perpetuates the marginalisation of disabled people. Through developing the concept of embodied citizenship, this thesis offers a useful lens through which to view the experiences of disabled young people’s everyday lives and to bring into focus the comingling of the ‘private’ and public’ spheres. Using data gathered from interviews with 18 disabled young people, with physical impairments, in Scotland, it explores the ways in which disabled young people negotiate their everyday lives. Thematic analysis of the data identified that participants’ inclusion and participation in the ‘public’ sphere were explicitly bound to their experiences of the ‘private’ sphere. Participants’ greatest feelings of exclusion were felt around everyday experiences often associated with the ‘private’ sphere such as intimate relationships, sexuality and toileting. Exclusion from these purportedly ‘private’ areas of social life resulted in negative impacts for participants’ sense of self and psycho-emotional wellbeing, impacting on their engagement with the ‘public’ sphere, and thus their sense of full citizenship.