This study ́ s main purpose is to examine how digital tools can help students with dyslexia in science education. The two questions this study aims to answer are: (I) During what elements of science education do the students feel that they need digital tools? (II) What opportunities and obstacles do students see with digital tools in the science education? This survey used a qualitative method, where students diagnosed with dyslexia were observed and interviewed during a normal school week. The data was analyzed using socio-cultural theories on speaking, learning and writing. The results from the interviews showed that the majority of the students felt the need for digital tools in science education when they were doing independent work or group assignments like laboratory work. The students find obstacles like social media small in comparison to what they learn from using the digital tools. All of the students see the digital tools as motivational tools. For further studies, it would be interesting to measure students' results before and after using digital tools for a period in science class including control groups with dyslexic students and non dyslexic students who did not have access to digital tools, to see if there is any difference between their results. Another aspect that would be relevant, is to test and evaluate what apps are available in science education for students with dyslexia, to work on concepts. These results could then be shared with other schools science educators.

Assistive technology is an important field that has gained a lot of attention and has developed rapidly in recent years. This thesis identified what kind of assistive technologies are currently used within elderly care and further examined the professionals’ attitude towards the assistive technology. A qualitative study with semi-structured interviews was conducted with a total of four professionals and the empirical findings were analyzed with the use of Technology Acceptance Model. The empirical findings showed that professionals have generally positive attitudes towards the assistive technology, however, the study showed that different types or versions of the same assistive technology affected the perception of using it. Additionally, the study examined the barriers and opportunities of using the technologies. There were concerns identified and potential improvements that could be made; however, the overall benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

Bakgrund: Diagnosen demens förekommer världen över och i framtiden förutses antalet drabbade stiga i takt med att livslängden ökar. Demens är en diagnos som innefattar olika symptom. Symptom uppkommer i samband med sjukdomar eller skador i olika delar av hjärnan och den drabbade kan uppleva problem med att hantera sin tillvaro. Några av symptomen vid demenssjukdom kan vara glömska, svårigheter med fysiken och motoriken, svårigheter att orientera sig samt rastlöshet och irritabilitet. Sjuksköterskan skall kunna arbeta ensam eller tillsammans med andra för att bedöma, diagnostisera, planera, genomföra, och utvärdera omvårdnadsarbetet. Utvecklingen av teknik inom vården ställer sjuksköterskor inför nya krav och uppgifter. Syfte: Litteraturstudiens syfte var att beskriva sjuksköterskors erfarenheter av tekniska hjälpmedel inom demenssjukvården. Metod: Beskrivande litteraturstudie där kvalitativa artiklar användes. Totalt inkluderades 11 artiklar. Databasen MEDLINE via PubMed användes för att söka upp samtliga artiklar. Resultat: Sjuksköterskor hade både positiva och negativa erfarenheter. Det ansågs vara viktigt med ett gott samarbete tillsammans med rutiner för implementering och användning av tekniska hjälpmedel. Kunskap om teknologin och ett personcentrerat förhållningssätt var en grundläggande del av omvårdnaden med tekniska hjälpmedel. Sjuksköterskornas erfarenheter visade även att etiken var ett viktigt område att ha i åtanke vid arbetet med tekniska hjälpmedel. Slutsats: Rutiner, teamarbete, kunskap och utbildning är grunden för att arbeta kvalitetssäkert med tekniska hjälpmedel. Den tekniska utvecklingen går hela tiden framåt och teknik i vården är något alla sjuksköterskor någon gång kommer att möta. Det är viktigt att vi tar vara på de erfarenheter som redan finns för att sjuksköterskeyrket och omvårdnadsarbetet skall kunna växa i takt med tekniken. / Background: The diagnosis dementia exists all over the world and the occurrence is expected to rise in the future, as the life span increases. Dementia is a diagnosis that includes different symptoms. Symptoms occurrences is associated with diseases or damages in different parts of the brain and the affected can experience difficulties with handling their existence. Some of the symptoms of dementia can be forgetfulness, difficulties with physics and motor skills, difficulties in finding their way, restlessness and irritability. Nurses shall be able to work alone or with others to assess, diagnose, plan, implement and evaluate the nursing work. The development of technology in health care settings introduces nurses to new demands and tasks. Aim: The aim of the literature study was to describe nurses’ experiences with assistive technology when caring for people with dementia. Method: Descriptive literature study using qualitative articles. A total of 11 articles was included. The database MEDLINE through PubMed was used when searching for articles. Main results: Nurses experiences with assistive technology was both positive and negative. It was crucial that all the professions were working together with routines for the implementation and application of assistive technology. Knowledge of the technology and a person-centered approach was a key-point in the work with assistive technology. The nurses experiences showed that the ethics was an important subject to consider when talking about and using the technology. Conclusion: Routines, teamwork, knowledge and education is the foundation of quality assured care with assistive technology. The technical development is constantly moving forward and technology in health care is something every nurse is eventually going to face. That is why it is important to take care of the existing experiences so that the nursing profession and work can grow alongside the technology.

December 2007" A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Occupational Therapy. Typescript Project Advisor : Max A. Ito The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act of 2004 requires individualized education program (IEP) teams to consider the intervention of assistive technology (AT); however, the Act allows IEP teams to provide or forego AT, without direction for implementation. Little evidence exists regarding the effectiveness of AT in a public school setting. This study investigated the effect of AT provided by a multidisciplinary AT team in a public school setting. Thirteen participant units each consisted of a special education case manager and student who had recently received AT to address unmet IEP goals and objectives. The students ranged from preschool to 8th grade, had varying special education classifications, and used AT for oral or written communication or computer or curriculum access. In a quasi-experimental pretest, posttest repeated-measures design, this study used the Student Performance Profile (SPP) and the School Function Assessment with the AT supplement (SFA-AT) to assess the effect of AT on performance and participation. Case managers completed both assessments soon after students received their AT and again 4 months later. The results of the SPP, which measures changes in ability on AT-relevant IEP goal-and-objectives, indicated significant improvement in performance, t(12) = 5.54, p = .00. The results of SFA-AT Part III (Activity Performance) were not significant for performance or participation over time, t(12) = 0.82, p = .21, and t(12) = 0.70, p = .50, respectively. AT provided by a multidisciplinary team may help students improve school performance in the form of improvement on goals and objectives; however, participation did not appear to be positively affected. Further study is needed for measuring performance and participation of larger populations of students who use AT and for improvement in instrumentation.

Occupational therapy focuses on complex dynamic relationships between people, occupations and environments. For clients with spinal cord injuries (SCI), a way of improving the connection between these three aspects is by providing assistive technology (AT). A fundamental issue identified by consumers regarding AT provision was abandonment, which is caused by a mismatch between aspects of the person, the assistive product, and characteristics of the environment. One solution is engaging collaboratively with clients and recognizing individual needs, thereby allowing therapists to meet clients’ occupational expectations and provide clients with increased functional independence. During this capstone project, barriers to AT provision were identified through an extensive review of the literature, an online survey sent to 82 therapists, and a 90-hour residency with AT specialists. Respondents reported a need for further education on AT, that confidence with high-tech AT was lower than with low-tech AT, and a need for a simplified AT resource tool. This resulted in creation of an educational resource AT tool, in website format, called the Assistive Technology Prescription Tool for Occupational therapists (ATPT-OT). The ATPT-OT is a tool designed to enhance occupational therapists’ ability to identify and recommend AT for individuals with SCI during the prescription process.

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Introduction: Handcycling is an excellent exercise for people with spinal cord injuries. However, some users experience barriers to transferring to the handcycle. The most common barriers are the height difference between the handcycle and sitting surface and dependence on others. Purpose: This thesis aims to develop an assistive technology to help users independently transfer in and out of a handcycle. Methods: The framework for the thesis is the double-diamond, guiding the designing of the products concepts. Users, professionals, and manufacturers were interviewed regarding the facilitators and barriers while transferring in and out of the handcycle and the product needs to help prevent the barriers. A content analysis was performed to find the facilitators and barriers, and a need analysis was performed to find the needs for the product. The needs were translated into target specifications to have measurable characteristics. Benchmarking was performed, and the products were evaluated in regard to the target specifications. The market segment, personas, mood board, and design brief served to inspire and inform the specifications for the product. Brainstorming and sketching were performed to generate four concepts. The participants evaluated these concepts, and the top-ranked concept was further developed. A computer-aided model was created and rendered to better illustrate the product. A guide on how to use the product was developed based on TAI 4.0, which also was used to find limitations in the transfer technique of the new product. An evaluation regarding the target specifications was also performed. Result: The final product concept allows height transfer and can be used independently. It fulfills seven out of the seventeen target specifications in the current state. However, six target specifications cannot be defined yet as they should be developed further in other iterations. Conclusion: A lifting device concept for transferring was developed. It would still need further iterations to keep improving the product before it would be able to be released for users.

The purpose of this study was to compare postsecondary institutions in North Carolina including state universities, private colleges and universities, and community colleges in regard to the number of students with disabilities, assistive technology availability, funding ratios for assistive technology, frequency of professional development training, legislative understanding, and other support factors for students with disabilities. This comparison was accomplished through quantitative and case summarization and analysis research methodologies. Data were collected through case summarizations and the administration of surveys sent to 110 coordinators of students with disabilities services at the 15 state universities, 37 private colleges and universities, and 58 community colleges within North Carolina. The response rate was 65.5% (N =72). Findings suggest there were no significant differences among coordinators' perceptions of legislative issues, student responsibility, institutional responsibility, consideration of context in which accommodations are used, and the impact of accommodations on other faculty and students and the institution. However, there were significant differences between the three types of institutions regarding assistive technology, funding for assistive technology, and services available to students who have disabilities. The findings also included that students who self-report disabilities attend private colleges and universities at a greater percentage than attend state universities or community colleges in North Carolina.

The purpose of this thesis was to utilize existing technologies to create a development environment suitable for creating context-aware applications and systems specific to home and family living conditions. After outlining the history of context-aware applications and the challenges that face family-centric systems in this field, a development environment was implemented that solves the unique challenges that face application development for family-centric, context-aware applications. In particular, research cited in this document indicates that a browser-based user interface is the most appropriate interface for a family environment. The flexibility of the interface, as well as the familiarity of the application structure allows family members of varying levels of comprehension to use a given application. The use of a browser interface for a context-aware system creates unique challenges such as the ability to integrate with external applications and external devices. In addition to overcoming the restrictions of web browsers, the development environment was designed to support the unique user environment presented by a family structure. This includes mechanisms for the long-term adaptability of the system to the changing lifestyles of the family members, as well as the infrequent, but necessary ability to adjust the structure of the family unit due to the addition or prolonged absence of family members. Another problem that the development environment was required to solve was the varying levels of computer comprehension that exist among different family members. An application that targets an entire family unit must meet the usability needs of all levels of comprehension. The development environment was created to account for this wide array of usability requirements. The resulting development environment was implemented on a Windows XP Professional environment, utilizing existing technologies and software that were mostly cross-browser compatible. Although a new technology was not designed and created, existing technologies were combined to solve the aforementioned problems that are unique to developing systems and applications for a family-centric, context-aware environment. Recommendations are made for future research and development in the area of family-assistive application development.

Navigation can prove a real challenge for a person suffering from dementia, even in well known environments. In order to relieve some of this burden, companies around the world are developing assistive technologies. However, getting accustomed to such technologies could still be challenging since people with dementia often perceive new technologies as difficult to use. Among the new technologies though, Augmented Reality (AR) technology has been reported as both intuitive and easily adopted. Therefore, this study aims to investigate how this particular technology could be implemented, i.e. how the AR interface could be designed, in a mobile navigation application so people with mild dementia can use the application without assistance. This qualitative study is based on a pilot study followed by two usability tests, where people diagnosed with mild dementia tested a mobile navigation application and a navigation mockup, both implementing augmented reality technology but with two different interface designs: i) one included an animated figure and ii) one used arrows with a filter that could be turned on or off. Five persons participated in each usability test. The collected interview and observational data was analyzed using a phenomenological hermeneutical method. Overall the participants found the suggested AR technology to be usable while navigating. The results also showed that the respondents were rather neutral to which of the two AR interfaces were used. The majority expressed that it was easier to navigate with the navigation mockup when the filter was off. Finally, the study presents five design implication suggestions to be considered while developing this type of assistive technologies for people with mild dementia. The AR interface should: use an unfiltered camera view, be intuitive, be adapted to outdoor conditions, not prevent the user from focusing on the surrounding environment, be precise and trustworthy. / Navigering kan innebära en stor utmaning för personer som lider av en demenssjukdom, även i för dem bekanta miljöer. Företag runtom i världen utvecklar idag assisterande hjälpmedel för denna målgrupp. Men att ta hjälp av och bli bekväm med att använda den här typen av teknologier kan fortfarande upplevas som problematiskt, då personer med demens vanligen kan uppleva ny teknologi som svår att använda. Bland dessa nya teknologier finns dock en teknologi som har skrivits om som både intuitiv och lätt att ta till sig, nämligen Augmented Reality (AR). Därför ämnar denna studie att undersöka hur denna specifika teknologi skulle kunna implementeras, med andra ord, hur ett AR-gränssnitt skulle kunna designas för en mobilnavigeringsapplikation så att personer med mild demens kan använda den självständigt. Denna kvalitativa studie baseras på en pilotstudie följt av två användbarhetstester, där personer som diagnostiserats med mild demens fått testa en navigeringsapplikation och en navigationsmockup för smartphone. Båda implementerar AR-teknik men med två olika gränssnittsdesigner: i) en som innehåller en animerad figur och ii) en som använder pilar samt ett filter som kan sättas på och av. Fem personer deltog i varje användbarhetstest. Den insamlade datan från intervjuerna och observationerna analyserades sedan med hjälp av en fenomenologisk–hermeneutisk metod. Överlag så tyckte deltagarna att AR-tekniken var användbar vid navigeringen. Resultatet visade också att respondenterna var relativt neutrala till vilken av AR-gränssnitten som användes. Majoriteten uttryckte att det var enklare att navigera med navigationsmockupen när filtret var av. Slutligen så presenterar denna studie fem designimplikationsförslag att ha med sig vid utvecklandet av den här typen av assisterande tekniska hjälpmedel för personer med mild demens. AR-gränssnittet bör: använda en ofiltrerad kameravy, vara intuitivt, vara anpassat till utomhusmiljöer, inte hindra användaren från att fokusera på omgivningen, vara precist och trovärdigt.