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This thesis discusses the challenges and opportunities facing the field of accessibility, particularly as computing becomes ubiquitous. It is argued that a new approach is needed that centres around adaptations (specific, atomic changes) to user interfaces and content in order to improve their accessibility for a wider range of people than targeted by present Assistive Technologies (ATs). Further, the approach must take into consideration the capabilities of people at the human level and facilitate collaboration, in planned and ad-hoc environments. There are two main areas of focus: (1) helping people experiencing minor-to-moderate, transient and potentially-overlapping impairments, as may be brought about by the ageing process and (2) supporting collaboration between people by reasoning about the consequences, from different users perspectives, of the adaptations they may require. A theoretical basis for describing these problems and a reasoning process for the semi-automatic application of adaptations is developed. Impairments caused by the environment in which a device is being used are considered. Adaptations are drawn from other research and industry artefacts. Mechanical testing is carried out on key areas of the reasoning process, demonstrating fitness for purpose. Several fundamental techniques to extend the reasoning process in order to take temporal factors (such as fluctuating user and device capabilities) into account are broadly described. These are proposed to be feasible, though inherently bring compromises (which are defined) in interaction stability and the needs of different actors (user, device, target level of accessibility). This technical work forms the basis of the contribution of one work-package of the Sustaining ICT use to promote autonomy (Sus-IT) project, under the New Dynamics of Ageing (NDA) programme of research in the UK. Test designs for larger-scale assessment of the system with real-world participants are given. The wider Sus-IT project provides social motivations and informed design decisions for this work and is carrying out longitudinal acceptance testing of the processes developed here.

The aim of this essay is to examine parents and teachers perception of parental participation in a Swedish preschool. The aim was further to find variations in teachers and parents view of the matter, to find similarities and/or differences in the statements. The method used in this essay is a qualitative research method with surveys to collect data. The questions in the survey had a low degree of structuring to get extensive answers. For the results and analysis a phenomenographic approach was used to find variations in the data. The results show that there are variations in the views on parental participation between teachers and parents. Teachers to a higher extent emphasises the whole group, and pedagogical documentation as a way to reach higher parental participation, while parents emphasises information about their own child and the daily contact with the teachers to feel as participants in the preschool. The results have similarities to previous research of teachers and parents views on parental participation in the Swedish preschool. Conclusions that can be drawn from this paper is that parents and teachers in certain areas have a different view of what makes parents feel as participants in the preschool.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur olika svenska destinationer genom intern samverkan marknadsför sig gentemot internationella besökare och vilka eventuella utvecklingsområdet som finns på denna front. Detta kommer göras genom en jämförelse av hur olika svenska destinationer arbetar för att marknadsföra sig till internationella besökare och hur olika turistrelaterade företag samarbetar inom den lokala destinationen. I denna undersökning har en kvalitativ metod med en induktiv ansats för att få en ökad förståelse över hur tio olika destinationer i Sverige arbetar för att marknadsföra sig internationell, hur de inom destinationen samverkar för att uppnå målen inom turistindustrin och på vilket sätt sociala medier används i detta arbete. Denna studie fokusera på samverkan och internationellt marknadsföringsarbete. Denna studie indikerar att Visit Sweden har en betydande roll för den internationella marknadsföringen av de svenska destinationer som medverkat i denna studie. Större delen av de tillfrågade respondenterna samarbetar på olika sätt med Visit Sweden för att nå ut till bestämda internationella marknader. Studien konstaterar fortsättningsvis att det regionala destinationsbolaget, Tourism in Skåne har stor betydelse för marknadsföringen av de skånska destinationerna som medverkat i denna studie. Studien indikerar att den nationella strategin 2020 är central för att skapa samarbeten mellan olika aktörer inom de tio undersökta destinationerna och att denna strategi visat sig framgångsrik för att samtliga aktörer på destinationerna ska arbeta mot gemensamma mål och utveckla turismen på ett lönsamt och hållbart sätt. Vid denna undersökning hittades även ett antal utvecklingsområden gällande marknadsföringen på dessa destinationer, den största utmaningen består av att ta ställning till den snabba globaliserings- och digitaliseringsprocessen som definierar det moderna samhället. Undersökningen har dessutom visat att samtliga tio destinationer lägger sitt fokus på den digitala marknadsföringen och att sociala medier i form av Facebook, Twitter och Instagram används för att skapa långsiktiga relationer med kunderna och finnas tillgänglig på kundens plattformar. Fortsättningsvis används sociala medier som kanaler för att skapa ett engagemang bland de potentiella kunderna samt för att länka potentiella besökare vidare till destinationernas egna hemsidor och sprida marknadsföringskampanjer. / The purpose of this study is to examine how different Swedish destinations is marketing themselves to international visitors through internal collaboration and cooperation. We also seek to investigate what potential development areas that might exist in this field. To fulfill the purpose of this study, we will make a comparison of how different Swedish destinations work to marketing themselves to international visitors. We will also look into how various tourism related companies collaborate within the local destination. The result of this study has indicated that Visit Sweden has a crucial role in the international marketing process of the Swedish destinations involved in this study and the majority of the respondents have a collaboration of some kind with Visit Sweden to reach out to established international markets. Furthermore the study shows that the regional destination company Tourism in Skåne has a crucial role in marketing the southern parts of Sweden. The study also indicates that the national strategy 2020 is central for creating collaboration between different actors within the ten studied destinations and that this strategy is shown useful to make all actors work after the same ambitions and develop the tourism in a profitable and sustainable way. This study also shows several development areas when it comes to marketing these destinations. The major challenge is the fast globalization- and digitalization process that defines the modern society. The study also shows that all the studied destinations puts the most efforts into the digital marketing. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is used to create long-term relationships with the customers and to be available on the customers platforms. Social media is also used as a channel to create commitment among potential customers, to link potential visitors to the destinations own website and to spread marketing campaigns.

Collaborating with communities has become an increasingly popular practice in archaeological projects all over the world. However, the strategies used for engaging communities have broad applications that are greatly determined by the social, economic and political climates of each region. How, then, are archaeologists supposed to ethically and professionally engage the communities their research impacts across these various contexts? Should there be a universal scale in which to measure and gauge community collaboration, and how can we assess that impact? My research uses strategies for assessing collaboration from various regions and disciplines, and applies them to an international context. Two archaeological projects in Greece and Jordan serve as the case study subjects for a formal assessment that measures levels of collaboration in five different categories and in two separate community groups. In conjunction with self-assessments taken by the archaeologists and students associated with each project, the results form a tool that comprehensively represents the needs and goals of all stakeholders associated. Ideally, this tool can be utilized to enhance our understandings on how the communities we work with perceive our projects and what must be done in order to understand how the goals of archaeologists and communities intersect each other.

Working with others within an organization can have a variety of positive effects, and the benefits of collaboration have been discussed in various disciplines. In information science, interest in collaborative information seeking, including collaborative information seeking by students in an online learning environment is expanding. This study was aimed at understanding graduate students' collaborative information seeking behaviors through the process of a group project, including factors that affected students' perceptions of collaborative work and their difficulties during the collaborative process. The research was based on Yue and He's model, which describes information users' collaborative communication and information behaviors, and Kuhlthau's model, which describes users' individual information seeking behaviors. The participants were 43 students enrolled in a master's level course delivered primarily online. The students were required to work together in groups to complete a research project. Data were collected through a background survey, behavior survey, and online communication texts and analyzed using descriptive statistics, statistical tests, and content analyses. The results showed significant changes in collaborative and information seeking behaviors and perceptions across three stages of the project during the semester. Theoretical, practical, and methodological implications for future research are discussed.

By engaging in collaborative arts-based and arts-informed narrative inquiry with my six-year-old daughter, we explored self-guided materials in art museums in the North Texas area. Though the field of art museum education is becoming increasingly participatory, most academic research related to self-guided materials has fallen short of exploring visitors' experiences with these materials. Furthermore, the perspectives of children have been long overlooked in academic and, at times, institutional research about family experiences in museums. Over the course of nine months, my daughter and I visited art museums and engaged with their self-guided materials, ranging from audio tours to interactive galleries. During this time we created collaborative works of art based on our experiences, which acted as both data collection and analysis in preparation for writing narratives. Our narrative explorations allowed us each to better understand our collective experiences. Though this research specifically targets self-guided materials in art museums, any educator interested in intergenerational or collaborative family learning may find both our methodologies and our conclusions to be helpful in better understanding how narratives are essential to this type of learning.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.