Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

It has been hypothesized that a disproportionate percentage of the blind population are learning disabled. In the past, norms and technology were not available to assess in a cost effective manner the blind client's neuropsychological functioning. Norms for the Wide Range Achievement Test - Revised (WRAT-R2) are now available for a blind population without any neuropsychological dysfunctioning. This study utilized the adapted WRAT-R2 and the Comprehensive Vocational Evaluation System (CVES), a neuropsychological test battery adapted for the blind, to investigate the possibility that learning disabilities are present in the adult blind population. Suspected learning disabled, blind subjects were compared with normal blind subjects. There were significant neuropsychological differences between the two groups.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Anxiety levels of partially sighted were compared with totally blind people. Using the Anxiety Scale for the Blind, the primary hypothesis tested was that the partially sighted would manifest more anxiety than would the totally blind. The study was designed to ascertain whether the primary hypothesis would hold within the structure of this study, and to obtain information useful in future anxiety studies of the visually handicapped. A residential center for the blind furnished subjects, facilities, and biographical data. The primary hypothesis lacked statistical significance at the .05 level as did comparisons of anxiety levels by age, sex, economic need, and age at onset. The use of a different instrument may be indicated for future studies.

The loss of sight is usually associated with the loss of the visual outer world. Traditionally, total blindness has been defined by sighted people in a negative way. The stereotypical belief is that the totally blind inhabit a dark world in which mental images of the outer world no longer exist. However, gaining insight into an experience of blindness may help the sighted to understand more accurately what Michael Monbeck (1973) terms ‘the true meaning of blindness’. (Monbeck, 1973, p. 157) Blind Insight provides an insight into what is named ‘imagined blind seeing’ by exploring the systematic processes of sensing, selecting and perceiving. Through tracing and mapping two auditory experiences photographically, the resulting work, Blind Insight, seeks to give a visual voice to moments of perception and imagined images as described by the blind author and scholar John Hull who describes sound as equating with light: “This is my way of turning on the light. Sound is the equation to light. Rain has turned the light on.” (Hull, 2001, p. 10) Abstract black and white photography has been employed to convey a sensory experience and photo collage to make visible the dimensional complexity of imagined blind seeing. The design work argues for a fresh insight into the sensory and imagined world of the blind. By fostering a dialogue between the blind and the sighted, the research project aims at celebrating the many rich and diverse ways the senses, and in particular the sense of sound, are used in experiencing the phenomena of the physical world.

No description available.

O objetivo principal da presente dissertação é mostrar a brilhante solução dada por Diderot à questão de Molyneux que foi proposta à Locke por Molyneux e tinha o seguinte enunciado: um cego de nascença que aprendeu a identificar uma esfera e um cubo pelo tato, quando curado e puder enxergar, poderá distinguir estes objetos apenas pela visão? Esta questão leva a discussões filosóficas a respeito de percepções táteis e visuais. Ampliando a abordagem do problema podemos questionar outros pontos, tais como: 1) O cego que recupera a visão pode transferir para o domínio visual o conhecimento adquirido pelo tato?; 2) Pode este homem perceber a tridimensionalidade do espaço?; 3) A percepção do espaço é inata ou adquirida? Diderot vai além desta investigação e questiona: 1) Como o cego recém-operado relataria suas novas sensações?; 2) Por esta investigação específica não seria possível descobrir como o indivíduo adquire seu conhecimento do mundo?; 3) Pode-se afirmar que a moral e a religião dependem da percepção?; 4) Existe alguma relação entre a percepção e a linguagem?; 5) No caso desta relação de fato existir, quais são suas implicações epistemológicas? As considerações de Diderot sobre o tema encontram-se na Carta sobre os cegos para o uso dos que veem (1749). Nesta obra, o filósofo francês mostra como as nossas ideias dependem dos nossos sentidos e conduz um estudo muito interessante sobre a origem do conhecimento e de que maneira a falta de um dos cinco sentidos modifica as noções adquiridas com relação aos conceitos de visão, moralidade e a existência de Deus. Diderot empenha-se em compreender como a abstração de certas percepções pode conduzir um indivíduo a determinados conceitos. Ele retoma várias vezes o problema de Molyneux para analisar como o cego de nascença pode representar o espaço e em todas suas afirmações encontra a solução no conhecimento da geometria. O texto possui três momentos fundamentais. No primeiro, Diderot interroga o cego de nascença Puiseaux e relata como esse cego vive em seu mundo e como ele define objetos dos quais não pode possuir nenhum conhecimento sensível devido à falta de visão. Na segunda parte do texto, Diderot descreve como o matemático Saunderson, cego desde um ano de idade, adquiriu conhecimentos pelo tato como se não fosse privado da visão. Em seguida, Diderot atribui a Saunderson, em um diálogo com o reverendo Holmes, um discurso no qual especula os conceitos de Deus, do bem e do mal em um indivíduo privado de um dos sentidos. Dessa forma, ele mostra como nossas ideias concernentes à existência de Deus e à moral não são absolutas e sim relativas à nossa condição física e à conformação de nossos órgãos. No terceiro momento da Carta, Diderot expõe o problema de Molyneux e reponde à questão, comparando suas considerações com as de Locke e Condillac. / The main objective of this thesis is to show the brilliant solution given by Diderot to Molyneuxs question which was proposed to Locke by Molyneux. It said: a born blind man who learnt to identify a globe and a cube by his touch, when having his sight restored and being able to see, will he be able to distinguish these objects just looking at them? This question leads to philosophical discussions regarding to tactile and visual perceptions. Extending the approach to the problem we can ask other points, such as: 1) Can the blind man who recovers his sight transfer to the visual domain the knowledge acquired by touch?; 2) Can this man perceive the three dimensions of the space?; 3) The perception of space is innate or acquired? Diderot goes further and asks: 1) How would the new-sighted man present his new sensations?; 2) Through this scientific investigation, could it not be possible to discover how an individual acquires his knowledge of the world? ; 3) Can one say that moral and religion depend on perception?; 4) Is there any relation between perception and language?; 5) If this relation really exists, what are its epistemological implications? Diderots accounts on the subject can be found in the Letter on the blind (1749). In this text, the French philosopher shows how our ideas depend on our senses and he guides a very interesting study on the origin of knowledge and how the lack of one of our five senses can modify the acquired notions regarding to the concepts of sight, morality and the existence of God. Diderot strives to understand how the abstraction of some perceptions can lead the individual to certain concepts. He retakes Molyenuxs problem many times to analyse how the born blind man can represent the space and in all his assertions he finds out the solution for the problem in geometry. The text has three fundamental moments. In the first one, Diderot questions the born blind Puiseaux and reports how that blind man lives in his world and how he defines objects of which he cannot have any sensible knowledge due to his lack of vision. In the second part of the text, Diderot describes how the mathematician Saunderson, blind since one year old, acquired knowledge by touch as he was not deprived of sight. After that, Diderot attributes to Saunderson, in a dialogue with Reverend Holmes, a speech in which he speculates the concepts of God, of good and evil in an individual deprived of one of the senses Thus, he demonstrates how our ideas related to the existence of God and to the moral are not absolute, but relative to our physical condition and to the conformation of our organs. In the third moment of the Letter, Diderot exposes Molyneuxs problem and answers to the question, comparing his considerations to Lockes and Condillacs.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:42:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Roseli Behaker Garcia.pdf: 728373 bytes, checksum: 2a30e9baaa2644178c270ad6715586c5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-28 / Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa / This work had the objective of expanding the knowledge about the blind people perception of works of art, in this specific case, sculptures. It was proposed to investigate the peculiar universe and details of blind people´s perceptive experience by recording the sensorial ways they use. The conceptions and ideas of authors as Kastrup, Almeida and Carijó (2010), Masini (2007), Sacks (1995), Vigotski (1997) constituted the foundation and reference for this work. Three blind people separately touched, manipulated and commented on two figurative sculptures in the museum Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo. The issues concerning the contact of blind people with the sculptures were collected by interview and written report. The interviews were done with each blind person who took part of the research while they explored the sculptures, recording what occurred and was manifested in the situation. Their expressed sensations, perceptions and feelings were recorded and registered. The written report was made and elaborated by the subjects of the investigation one month after their experience in the museum and this report was sent to the researcher. The analysis was made in two stages. Firstly, was made an individual analysis of each person and their contact with the sculptures, considering both the objective issues and their expressed feelings and what each one could have experienced, and what they referred in the interviews. Secondly, the convergences and divergences were organized, according to the objective issues and feelings, considering each person who took part in the research and the experiences which they referred to in the interview. Reflecting of these issues showed convergences and agreements among three persons both in the interview and in written report only in the category called Perception of the Elements of the Sculptures showing a denotative recognition of the parts of the artistic objects. There was common focus by three blind subjects in these categories: Personal Experience , Feelings , Emotions , Personal Expression of the Sculpture Meaning , Esthetic Evaluation of Sculptures Elements but the sculptures did not evoke the same experiences in each subject because of their individualities and singularities. / Este trabalho teve como objetivo ampliar o conhecimento sobre a percepção da obra de arte pela pessoa cega, no caso específico a percepção de esculturas. O que se propôs desvelar foi o universo peculiar e detalhes da experiência perceptiva de pessoas cegas, pelas vias sensoriais de que fazem uso. Concepções e ideias de autores como Kastrup, Almeida e Carijó (2010), Masini (2007), Sacks (1995), Vigotski (1997) constituíram fundamentação e referencial para a elaboração deste trabalho. Foi realizada uma pesquisa com três pessoas cegas congênitas, na Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, onde realizaram a exploração tátil de duas esculturas figurativas. Os dados sobre o contato das pessoas cegas com as esculturas foram coletados por meio de entrevista e de depoimentos escritos de cada um dos sujeitos. A entrevista foi realizada no momento da exploração, de cada um dos sujeitos da pesquisa, gravando o que ocorria e era manifestado na situação, referente às sensações, às percepções e aos sentimentos. Os depoimentos escritos foram realizados pelos sujeitos da pesquisa, após um mês de contato com os objetos de arte, e enviados à pesquisadora. A análise foi realizada em duas etapas. Na primeira foi feita a análise individual de cada sujeito, no contato com a escultura, tanto dos dados objetivos, como dos sentimentos e do experienciado a que a pessoa entrevistada se referiu. Na segunda etapa foi feita a análise das convergências e divergências entre os dados objetivos, os sentimentos expressos e o que podem ter experienciado a que os três sujeitos entrevistados se referiram. A reflexão sobre esses dados evidenciou convergência e concordância entre os três sujeitos, tanto na exploração da escultura como no depoimento escrito, somente na categoria elementos percebidos das esculturas , evidenciando identificação denotativa referente aos objetos artísticos. Houve convergência entre os três sujeitos nas categorias experiência pessoal , sentimentos , emoções , expressão pessoal do sentido da escultura , avaliação estética dos elementos da escultura , em virtude de se tratarem de singularidades vivenciadas diferentemente pelos sujeitos.

O objetivo principal da presente dissertação é mostrar a brilhante solução dada por Diderot à questão de Molyneux que foi proposta à Locke por Molyneux e tinha o seguinte enunciado: um cego de nascença que aprendeu a identificar uma esfera e um cubo pelo tato, quando curado e puder enxergar, poderá distinguir estes objetos apenas pela visão? Esta questão leva a discussões filosóficas a respeito de percepções táteis e visuais. Ampliando a abordagem do problema podemos questionar outros pontos, tais como: 1) O cego que recupera a visão pode transferir para o domínio visual o conhecimento adquirido pelo tato?; 2) Pode este homem perceber a tridimensionalidade do espaço?; 3) A percepção do espaço é inata ou adquirida? Diderot vai além desta investigação e questiona: 1) Como o cego recém-operado relataria suas novas sensações?; 2) Por esta investigação específica não seria possível descobrir como o indivíduo adquire seu conhecimento do mundo?; 3) Pode-se afirmar que a moral e a religião dependem da percepção?; 4) Existe alguma relação entre a percepção e a linguagem?; 5) No caso desta relação de fato existir, quais são suas implicações epistemológicas? As considerações de Diderot sobre o tema encontram-se na Carta sobre os cegos para o uso dos que veem (1749). Nesta obra, o filósofo francês mostra como as nossas ideias dependem dos nossos sentidos e conduz um estudo muito interessante sobre a origem do conhecimento e de que maneira a falta de um dos cinco sentidos modifica as noções adquiridas com relação aos conceitos de visão, moralidade e a existência de Deus. Diderot empenha-se em compreender como a abstração de certas percepções pode conduzir um indivíduo a determinados conceitos. Ele retoma várias vezes o problema de Molyneux para analisar como o cego de nascença pode representar o espaço e em todas suas afirmações encontra a solução no conhecimento da geometria. O texto possui três momentos fundamentais. No primeiro, Diderot interroga o cego de nascença Puiseaux e relata como esse cego vive em seu mundo e como ele define objetos dos quais não pode possuir nenhum conhecimento sensível devido à falta de visão. Na segunda parte do texto, Diderot descreve como o matemático Saunderson, cego desde um ano de idade, adquiriu conhecimentos pelo tato como se não fosse privado da visão. Em seguida, Diderot atribui a Saunderson, em um diálogo com o reverendo Holmes, um discurso no qual especula os conceitos de Deus, do bem e do mal em um indivíduo privado de um dos sentidos. Dessa forma, ele mostra como nossas ideias concernentes à existência de Deus e à moral não são absolutas e sim relativas à nossa condição física e à conformação de nossos órgãos. No terceiro momento da Carta, Diderot expõe o problema de Molyneux e reponde à questão, comparando suas considerações com as de Locke e Condillac. / The main objective of this thesis is to show the brilliant solution given by Diderot to Molyneuxs question which was proposed to Locke by Molyneux. It said: a born blind man who learnt to identify a globe and a cube by his touch, when having his sight restored and being able to see, will he be able to distinguish these objects just looking at them? This question leads to philosophical discussions regarding to tactile and visual perceptions. Extending the approach to the problem we can ask other points, such as: 1) Can the blind man who recovers his sight transfer to the visual domain the knowledge acquired by touch?; 2) Can this man perceive the three dimensions of the space?; 3) The perception of space is innate or acquired? Diderot goes further and asks: 1) How would the new-sighted man present his new sensations?; 2) Through this scientific investigation, could it not be possible to discover how an individual acquires his knowledge of the world? ; 3) Can one say that moral and religion depend on perception?; 4) Is there any relation between perception and language?; 5) If this relation really exists, what are its epistemological implications? Diderots accounts on the subject can be found in the Letter on the blind (1749). In this text, the French philosopher shows how our ideas depend on our senses and he guides a very interesting study on the origin of knowledge and how the lack of one of our five senses can modify the acquired notions regarding to the concepts of sight, morality and the existence of God. Diderot strives to understand how the abstraction of some perceptions can lead the individual to certain concepts. He retakes Molyenuxs problem many times to analyse how the born blind man can represent the space and in all his assertions he finds out the solution for the problem in geometry. The text has three fundamental moments. In the first one, Diderot questions the born blind Puiseaux and reports how that blind man lives in his world and how he defines objects of which he cannot have any sensible knowledge due to his lack of vision. In the second part of the text, Diderot describes how the mathematician Saunderson, blind since one year old, acquired knowledge by touch as he was not deprived of sight. After that, Diderot attributes to Saunderson, in a dialogue with Reverend Holmes, a speech in which he speculates the concepts of God, of good and evil in an individual deprived of one of the senses Thus, he demonstrates how our ideas related to the existence of God and to the moral are not absolute, but relative to our physical condition and to the conformation of our organs. In the third moment of the Letter, Diderot exposes Molyneuxs problem and answers to the question, comparing his considerations to Lockes and Condillacs.

There is an increased use of block-based programming environments in K-12 education and computing outreach activities to introduce novices to programming and computational thinking skills. However, despite their appealing design that allows students to focus on concepts rather than syntax, block-based programming by design is inaccessible to people with visual impairments and people who cannot use the mouse. In addition to this inaccessibility, little is known about the instructional experiences of students with visual impairments on current block-based programming environments. This dissertation addresses this gap by (1) investigating the challenges that students with visual impairments face on current block-based programming environments and (2) exploring ways in which we can use the keyboard and the screen reader to create block-based code. Through formal survey and interview studies with teachers of students with visual impairments and students with visual impairments, we identify several challenges faced by students with visual impairments on block-based programming environments. Using the knowledge of these challenges and building on prior work, we explore how to leverage the keyboard and the screen reader to improve the accessibility of block-based programming environments through a prototype of an accessible block-based programming library. In this dissertation, our empirical evaluations demonstrate that people with visual impairments can effectively and efficiently create, edit, and navigate block-based code using the keyboard and screen reader alone. Addressing the inaccessibility of block-based programming environments would allow students with visual impairments to participate in programming and computing activities where these systems are used, thus fostering inclusion and promoting diversity.