In the democratic process, of discussion and decision making, there is a need of reliable and authentic information. Archives are authentic and reliable information and also provides long term accessibility. But the public archives potential isn´t utilized enough at a societal level. The public archives are organized in a decentralised manner, and there are no common accesspoint at a national level. In the thesis this issue of accessibility and use at a societal level, is discussed in terms of collective memory. In a digital environment, these organizational limits could probably be overcome, but there is a need for new goals, perspectives and frameworks for the management of public archives. In an e-government context, interoperability is often mentioned in the discussion of accessibility. Interoperability could be understood as the ability of diverse organizations to interact together towards common goals, and include technological, semantic, organizational, legal and political aspects. The hypothesis like assumption of the thesis is that interoperability could contribute to making the archives a more significant part of the collective memory.The thesis uses a case study methodology, and a critical discourse textual analyses. Records Continuum Model and archival perspective about collective memory, particularly Jimersons distinction of collective memory from other types of memory, is used as a theoretical frame for the analyses. The case is the project e-archives and e-diarium, which is a Swedish E-delegation project, driven by the National Archives. Central documents from the project is analysed, as is important documents for the work on e-government for the contextual understanding.The results indicate that interoperability may contribute to making the archives a more significant part of the collective memory, practically and discursively. Practically, it provides conditions to share information and remove barriers for interaction. Discursively, it contributes to an overall perspective of public administration, and switch the view from each single organization to the citizens and the society as a whole where the information is seen as a common societal resource. Interoperability is also an important factor in the development of a common information architecture for the whole of the public administration. This change in perspective could make the archives, when included in the e-government, change perspective from the archives creators to the end users and society at large, and give more effort in making the archives accessible in the collective dimension.

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to present a comparison of housing standards between Sweden and China, in terms of the development of design codes and regulations during the last fifteen years. The study focuses mainly on dwelling sizes and accessibility. The Swedish Building Regulations, BBR7:1999 and BBR18:2011-2013, and the Chinese code Design Code for Residential buildings GB1999:2003 and GB2011 were used as a reference frame. It showed that China has improved its regulations on accessibility greatly, whereas standards on dwelling sizes decreased during the last fifteen years. The study also shows Sweden has reached a sufficient level in terms of dwelling size and accessibility, as only minor difference are found between the codes during the last fifteen years. The comparison between Sweden and China shows that Sweden’s regulations are more developed and user-friendly for the disabled. Sweden can be used as an example for China, in the purpose of carry on improving their requirements covering accessibility. On the other hand, Sweden can improve the accessibility by considering certain measures taken in China, e.g. the design of ramps.

Projektets syfte har varit att utveckla ett dataprogram för design och konstruktion av så kallade funktionscontainrar. En funktionscontainer är en stor container som inrymmer utrustning såsom arbetsbänkar, svetsar och dokumentskåp och som ska kunna användas under militära operationer. Datorstödd design är vanligt förekommande och företaget som har efterfrågat det utvecklade dataprogrammet ville gå över från papper och penna till datorstödd design. För att styra projektet framåt har den så kallade ccd-metoden använts. Dataprogrammet heter Fojejjo och det har skrivits i C# .NET. Grafikmotorn som används är Ogre 3D med Mogre som C#-wrapper. Data sparas mellan programkörningarna i en MS Access-databas. Fojejjo är uppdelat i flera delar: databas, grafik, användargränssnitt och logik. Databasdelen hanterar all data om moduler och containrar och trafiken till och från databasen. Grafikdelen hanterar visualisering av containern och dess innehåll. Användargräns-snittsdelen hanterar programmets användargränssnitt, men även filhantering. Logikdelen hanterar kontroll att containerns innehåll är placerat på ett giltigt sätt. It-etiska aspekter redogörs för och gjorda ställningstaganden och bedömningar beskrivs. Sju av kravspecifikation-ens arton punkter har blivit helt implementerade och ytterligare två har blivit delvis implementerade. Största anledningen till att inte fler krav blev uppfyllda var tidsbrist. Projektets syfte har inte uppnåtts fullt ut. Mer arbete behövs för att Fojejjo ska vara riktigt användbart. En viktig aspekt av programutveckling är tillgänglighet för personer med funkt-ionsnedsättning, något som inte diskuterats i detta projekt. Nivån av tillgänglighet har utvärderats och tydliga tillgänglighetsbrister har hittats, främst för personer som har svårt att använda en datormus. Vidareutvecklingsmöjligheterna är stora. Förslag på områden är grafik, användargränssnitt, logik och tillgänglighet. / The purpose of this project has been to develop software for designing and constructing so called functional containers. A functional container is a large container that holds equipment such as workbenches, welds and file cabinets, and that could be used for military operations. Com-puter aided design is common-practice and the company that requested this software wanted to transition from pen and paper to computer aided design. For the planning of this project, a method called CCD was used. The application is called Fojejjo and it's written in C# .NET. The graphics engine used is Ogre 3D with Mogre as wrapper for C#. Data is stored between sessions in a MS Access database. Fojejjo is built around several parts: database, graphics, user interface and logics. The database part handles all data about containers with equipment as well as the traffic to and from the software. The graphics part handles the visualiza-tion of the container and its equipment. The user interface part handles the user interface, but also file management. The logics part handles controlling that all the equipment is placed correctly. Seven of the eighteen points in the requirements specification has been fully imple-mented, and two more has been partially implemented. The main reason for not implementing more requirements was shortage of time. The purpose of this project hasn't been fully met. There has to be more work for Fojejjo to be really useful. One important aspect of software development is accessibility for people with disabilities, something that wasn't discussed for this project. The level of accessibility has been evaluated and obvious accessibility issues were found, most notably for people that have difficulties using a computer mouse. Opportunities for further development are plenty. Suggested areas are graphics, user interface, logics and accessibility.

Older adults in residential care often lead sedentary lifestyles despite physical and cognitive activities being crucial for their well-being. Care facilities face the challenge of encouraging their residents to participate in leisure activities, but as the impact of age-related changes grows, few activities remain accessible. Video games in general – and motion-based games in particular – hold the promise of providing mental, physical and social stimulation for older adults. However, the accessibility of commercially available games for older adults is not considered during the development process. Therefore, many older adults are unable to obtain any of the benefits. In my dissertation, this issue is addressed through the development of motion-based game controls that specifically address the needs of older adults. The first part of this thesis lays the foundation by providing an overview of motion-based game interaction for older adults. The second part demonstrates the general feasibility of motion-based game controls for older adults, develops full-body motion-based and wheelchair-based game controls, and provides guidelines for accessible motion-based game interaction for institutionalized older adults. The third part of this thesis builds on these results and presents two case studies. Motion-based controls are applied and further evaluated in game design projects addressing the special needs of older adults in long-term care, with the first case study focusing on long-term player engagement and the role of volunteers in care homes, and the second case study focusing on connecting older adults and caregivers through play. The results of this dissertation show that motion-based game controls can be designed to be accessible to institutionalized older adults. My work also shows that older adults enjoy engaging with motion-based games, and that such games have the potential of positively influencing them by providing a physically and mentally stimulating leisure activity. Furthermore, results from the case studies reveal the benefits and limitations of computer games in long-term care. Fostering inclusive efforts in game design and ensuring that motion-based video games are accessible to broad audiences is an important step toward allowing all players to obtain the full benefits of games, thereby contributing to the quality of life of diverse audiences.

Viešosios teisės magistro studijų programos studento Armino Mockevičiaus buvo parašytas magistro baigiamasis darbas „Alkoholio ir tabako pasiūlos ir paklausos teisinio reguliavimo raida Lietuvos Respublikoje: problemos ir sprendimai“. Šis darbas parašytas Vilniuje, 2014 metais, Mykolo Romerio universiteto Teisės fakulteto Konstitucinės ir administracinės teisės institute, vadovaujant dr. Gintautui Vilkeliui, apimtis 98 p. Darbo tikslas yra atskleisti alkoholio ir tabako pasiūlos ir paklausos teisino reguliavimo kitimą Lietuvos Respublikoje, taip pat atskleisti efektyviausias teisinio reguliavimo priemones alkoholio ir tabako pasiūlai bei paklausai sumažinti, kad pasiekti šį tikslą buvo išsikelti uždaviniai išanalizuoti alkoholio ir tabako paklausos ir pasiūlos teisinio reguliavimo kitimą bei rasti ryšį tarp alkoholio ir tabako teisinio reguliavimo įvairiais Lietuvos laikotarpiais, nustatyti priežastinį ryšį tarp alkoholio ir tabako pasiūlos ir paklausos teisinio reguliavimo pokyčių kitimo bei realaus alkoholio ir tabako vartojimo pokyčio, išanalizuoti AKĮ ir TKĮ teisinę praktiką, išanalizuoti sociologinius, statistinius ir mokslinius tyrimus atliktus alkoholio ir tabako kontrolės srityje ir pateikti atitinkamas rekomendacijas. Siekiant darbo tikslo bei nagrinėjant išsikeltus uždavinius buvo naudoti Lyginamasis istorinis, Apibendrinimo, Kritinės analizės, Teleologinis, Loginis-analitinis, Alternatyvų, Daugiamatės analizės, Priežastingumo analizės, Sisteminės analizės... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Arminas Mockevičius, student of Public Law Master Degree programme, has written Master Degree final work named “The evolution of legal regulation of demand and supply of alcohol and tobacco in the Republic of Lithuania: problems and solutions”. The work was written in Vilnius, Faculty of Law, Institute of Constitutional and Administrative Law at Mykolas Romeris University, p. 98, under the leadership of Gintautas Vilkelis. The purpose of this work is to disclose the evolution of legal regulation of demand and supply of alcohol and tobacco in the Republic of Lithuania, furthermore to disclose the most effective legal measures to reduce the supply and demand of alcohol and tobacco, to achieve this purpose there were raised goals: to analyse the evolution of legal regulation of demand and supply of alcohol and tobacco and to discover the relation between legal regulation of alcohol and tobacco throw various times of Lithuania, set up a connection between variance of legal regulation of supply and demand of alcohol and tobacco, and the change of consumption of alcohol and tobacco, to analyse legal practice of Law on Alcohol Control and Law on Tobacco Control, analyse social, statistical and scientific researches which were accomplished in scope of alcohol and tobacco control and to make appropriate recommendations. In order to achieve the purpose of work and to analyse tasks were used comparative historical, Summarizing, Critical Analysis, Teleological, Logical-analytical... [to full text]

Research conducted in the readability of texts shows that there is an extensive problem with learners' of all phases academic skills in terms of reading comprehension and insight into writing texts in accordance with generally accepted academic standards. It is important that sufficient attention and research are devoted to possible solutions to this problem, since various theorists have found that effective reading and writing skills are of great importance for learners' academic progress and achievement. A reason for this is that most academic material that is made available to learners appear in written format, and that learners have to report on their knowledge in the same format. Although educational institutions formulate academic texts (of which study guides form part) with a high readability level, the current study investigates some problems and shortcomings that appear in study guides. If the readability of the mentioned study material is increased in light of text linguistic insights, learners should have greater accessibility to the textual content, which could impact positively on academic achievement. With the above mentioned in mind, this study focuses on a text linguistic approach to investigating the readability of study guides which are written for first-year learners at a tertiary institution. The main problem addresses how lexical cohesive devices and conjunction markers can be included as part of a text linguistic approach to writing study guides, and how this can be used by authors of study guides in practice as a tool to increase the efficiency of the writing process. The research is conducted on the basis of various theories, which include Systemic Functional Linguistics, Halliday and Hasan's Cohesion theory and Stotsky's adaptation thereof for written academic texts, as well as Hyland's theory about academic metadiscourse. Applicable insights regarding text linguistic criteria for writing academic texts, which are identified through this literature study, are converted into a framework for text analysis and then implemented to investigate the effective use of specific textual markers in the obtained study guides. This will be done in a descriptive and primarily qualitative manner. Ten Afrikaans study guides, pertaining to diverse subject groups, and which were recently used at a tertiary institution as introductory study guides for first-year learners, form the data of this study. In order to conduct a reliable investigation, the data is analised procedurally (with reference to the mentioned text analytical model) by hand and also using WordSmith Tools. Based on both the literature study and the text analysis, guidelines that can be used when writing Afrikaans study guides are formulated from a text linguistic point of view. These guidelines may be used to supplement the existing guide used by writers of study guides at the particular institution. The possibility also exists that these guidelines can be used to improve and standardise the quality and readability of the mentioned learning material. / Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.

Research conducted in the readability of texts shows that there is an extensive problem with learners' of all phases academic skills in terms of reading comprehension and insight into writing texts in accordance with generally accepted academic standards. It is important that sufficient attention and research are devoted to possible solutions to this problem, since various theorists have found that effective reading and writing skills are of great importance for learners' academic progress and achievement. A reason for this is that most academic material that is made available to learners appear in written format, and that learners have to report on their knowledge in the same format. Although educational institutions formulate academic texts (of which study guides form part) with a high readability level, the current study investigates some problems and shortcomings that appear in study guides. If the readability of the mentioned study material is increased in light of text linguistic insights, learners should have greater accessibility to the textual content, which could impact positively on academic achievement. With the above mentioned in mind, this study focuses on a text linguistic approach to investigating the readability of study guides which are written for first-year learners at a tertiary institution. The main problem addresses how lexical cohesive devices and conjunction markers can be included as part of a text linguistic approach to writing study guides, and how this can be used by authors of study guides in practice as a tool to increase the efficiency of the writing process. The research is conducted on the basis of various theories, which include Systemic Functional Linguistics, Halliday and Hasan's Cohesion theory and Stotsky's adaptation thereof for written academic texts, as well as Hyland's theory about academic metadiscourse. Applicable insights regarding text linguistic criteria for writing academic texts, which are identified through this literature study, are converted into a framework for text analysis and then implemented to investigate the effective use of specific textual markers in the obtained study guides. This will be done in a descriptive and primarily qualitative manner. Ten Afrikaans study guides, pertaining to diverse subject groups, and which were recently used at a tertiary institution as introductory study guides for first-year learners, form the data of this study. In order to conduct a reliable investigation, the data is analised procedurally (with reference to the mentioned text analytical model) by hand and also using WordSmith Tools. Based on both the literature study and the text analysis, guidelines that can be used when writing Afrikaans study guides are formulated from a text linguistic point of view. These guidelines may be used to supplement the existing guide used by writers of study guides at the particular institution. The possibility also exists that these guidelines can be used to improve and standardise the quality and readability of the mentioned learning material. / Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.

Bakgrund: Med en växande andel äldre i befolkningen i Norden följer ett ökat intresse för vad som ger ett gott åldrande och vad äldre själva anser skapar god livskvalitet. Forskningen inom området i Sverige har i stort varit riktad mot individens yttre livsvillkor för att indirekt ge en bildav livskvali-teten. Bostaden är en viktig kontextuell faktor särskilt mot bakgrund av att ca hälften av alla personer som är 80 år och äldre bori en bostad med bristande tillgänglighet. Syfte: Att undersöka synen på den egna livskvaliteten hos personer i den tredje åldern och identifiera vad som är viktigt för deras upplevda livskvalitet.Studien syftar till att öka förståelsen för enskildas uppfattningar om vad som är viktigt för upplevd livskvalitet under åldrandeprocessen. Den avser också att belysa om bostaden anses viktig för livskvaliteten och i så fall på vilket sätt, samt ge ökad kunskap om hur äldre personer, som fortfarande befinner sig i den tredje åldern, resonerar kring sitt boende. Metod: En intervjuundersökning genomfördes med 16 personer som var 75 år och äldre i en större stadi södra Sverige. Informanterna, tio kvinnor och sex män, befann sig alla i ”den tredje åldern” som omfattar den aktiva period i livet som inträder efter avslutat yrkesliv. De anmälde sig frivilligt att delta i studien efter att en förfrågan ställts till tre lokala pensionärsföreningar. Resultat: Resultaten visar att det för personer i den tredje åldern är de upplevelsemässiga värdena som är avgörande för den subjektiva livskvaliteten. Upplevd hälsa, genom rörlighet och förmåga att klara vardagslivet, Trivsel i boendet samt meningsfulla sociala relationer &amp; aktivitetär avgörande för hur man upplever sin livskvalitet. Bostadens tillgänglighet har ingen betydelse för den upplevda livskvaliteten och är ointressant innan man får egna erfarenheter av konsekvenserna. Att kunna bo kvar i sin bostad är viktigt för livskvaliteten och man är inte beredd att byta bostad för att få bättre tillgänglighet. Slutsatser: På kort sikt behöver äldre i tredje åldern bättre kunskaper och större medvetenhet om vilka fördelar det kan medföra att ta ansvar för och planera sitt boende inför de funktionsned-sättningar som kan följa av hög ålder. Eftersom möjligheten att bo kvar i sin bostad är så väsentlig för livskvaliteten är det på längre sikt viktigt med fler tillgängliga bostäder, föratt äldre inte ska behöva byta bostad när funktionsnedsättningar inträder. Bostadsbeståndet som helhet behöver således bli mer tillgängligt. Det finns anledning att i större utsträckning koppla ihop bostadspolitik och folkhälsopolitik avseende äldre / Background: The rapidly ageing population in the Nordic countries warrants research on factors that older adults self-report as contributing to healthy ageing and enhanced quality of life. In Sweden,previous research focused mainly on structural factors related to living conditions. Housing is important because almost 50 % of all people 80 years or older live in homes that lack adequate accessibility. Aim:This study aimed to nvestigate how older adults experience quality of life and identify related key factors.We also aimed to increase understanding of what older adults consider important to quality of life, and how home accessibility contributes to such quality and how they view their living situation. Methods: We interviewed 16 adults aged 75 years or older,residing in a larger city in southern Sweden. All informants were in “the third age”(i.e., the period of active and healthy ageing that usually follows retirement).The informants, ten females and six males, volunteered to an interview after an inquiry was directed to three local pensioners associations. Results: Our results demonstrate that perception outweighs structure for quality of life among active and healthy older people. We identified three key factors that influence quality of life, (i) experienced health status (i.e., mobility and ability to cope with everyday life); (ii) residential comfort; and (iii) meaningful social relationships and activity. Interviewees reported that factors related to residential accessibility are not as important, at least as long as the consequences of limited access do not interfere with everyday life. Conclusions: For the near future, older people in the third age need better understanding and awareness of the benefits that result from taking responsibility for and planning their living arrangements before disabilities affect quality of life. Because remainingin one'sown home is so essential to quality of life, Sweden ́s housing stock must become more accessible.Long-termplanning(i.e.,national and local government building regulations)should ensureav ailability of accessible homes for the elderly, to avoid forcing them to move when disability occurs. Achieving these goals will require stronger links between housing and public health policies regarding the elderly / <p>ISBN 978-91-86739-87-4</p>

The art and science of creating effective mobile software has become significantly more important since on-the-go computing has taken centre stage in users’ daily lives. This area of application development introduces many new constraints not commonly found in mainstream desktop computing. Misunderstood user requirements, limited hardware resources and reduced software services all contribute to an environment foreign to many developers. In its infancy, accessible desktop computing faced many of these same constraints. Individuals with disabilities generated unconventional user requirements, hardware specific to accommodating the disabled had yet to be developed, and third-party assistive services were not implemented. As such, developers were forced to create unique programs and user interfaces to deliver effective solutions. In this thesis I propose that the creation of mobile software should draw from that which was learned from the creation of its accessible desktop predecessors. To support this claim, I present four case studies. These examples include a system to automate the lookup of transit scheduling information, a music collection browser, a framework for presenting flowchart-like data structures, and a language learning tool. In each case study, an accessibility-related problem is solved on the desktop without the reliance of third-party assistive support. Therefore, it follows that these applications translate to mobile platforms much more cleanly than applications dependant upon adaptive services. This claim is validated by evaluating a prototypical mobile implementation of each example. This evaluation implied a positive correlation between accessibility-minded desktop applications and their general-purpose mobile counterparts. Based on these results, I believe it is in developers’ best interest to consider accessible desktop applications as reference implementations when designing effective mobile software.

In the context of a society were the Web is present in many aspects, there is asignificant amount of visually impaired users whose experience is far from beingsatisfactory. There are technologies aiming this problem but still with no full suc-cess. The problem addressed in this project is the existing gap between the visuallyimpaired users and the solutions being offered to them. As a solution to this problem,a middleware prototype is developed. It acts as a web application so the user doesnot need to install anything. The middleware also offers different adaptations to theuser such as amplifying lens, text narrator, and others. The solution was tested byvisually impaired users and it received an overall positive result. Some features likethe amplifying lens received a good value and some of them need further improve-ment.