This study examined two aspects of the use of paraprofessionals with students with visual impairments: 1) the effect of paraprofessional proximity on the students' interactions with peers and teachers in the regular education classroom, and 2) factors that may influence a paraprofessional's decision to interact or not interact with a student with a visual impairment. The four student/paraprofessional case studies included data collected by means of classroom observations, demographic forms, and semi-structured interviews. The classroom observation data were analyzed using the chi-square statistics to determine relationships between paraprofessional proximity and classroom activity setting, interaction participants, interaction initiators, and type of interaction that occurred. The data collected through the interviews were coded to determine themes. The data from all the case studies were cross analyzed to determine relationships and themes across cases.Proximity of paraprofessionals to students with visual impairments in the regular education classroom appears to have an effect on the interactions that occur between students with visual impairments, peers, and teachers. More interactions occurred between students and peers and between students and teachers when paraprofessionals were at a distance. Also, when paraprofessionals were at a distance, peers and teachers were more likely to initiate interactions with students with visual impairments.The decision making process for paraprofessionals is complicated. Factors that may influence how paraprofessionals make decisions concerning students with visual impairments were professional experience, personal experience, education level and type, and how roles and responsibilities were defined. All the paraprofessionals in the study indicated at some point during data collection the need to promote independence in their students.

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The purpose of this study was to examine factors that relate to successful adult outcomes for 28 individuals with visual impairment ages 23-30. The primary dependent variable was current employment. Independent living and completion of postsecondary educational program were secondary, related outcome measures. A secondary goal of this research was to explore self-perceived aptitude in specific skills that are related to adult outcomes and to understand how and how well participants learned these skills.A mixed-methods design was implemented and quantitative and qualitative data were collected using a highly structured 151-item telephone survey. A series of Fisher's Exact and Mann Whitney-U tests were run to explore statistically significant relationships between variables. Past employment experience was positively related to current employment. Receipt of Social Security benefits and profound vision loss were negatively related to current employment. The longer a participant had been out of high school, the more likely he/she was to have a postsecondary educational degree.Eight essential skills were examined: daily living, college preparation, social, self-advocacy, technology, transportation management, and job seeking. Overall on a scale of 1-10, participants rated their aptitude and training in essential skills areas high. Job seeking was scored the lowest and those who had worked in the past five years rated their job seeking skills higher than those without past work experience. Adults who had completed a postsecondary educational degree rated their college preparation skills higher than those who had not completed a degree program. Those who were living independently rated their overall daily living skills higher than those who were living with a parent or parents.Qualitative data suggest that some skills, such as transportation management and technology, were taught primarily by professionals in the field of visual impairment. In contrast, daily living, social and self-advocacy skills were often learned from the support of family or friends. Many adults reported that they did not receive direct instruction in social and self-advocacy skills; instead they learned them on their own. Further empirical research is needed to understand best practices for integrating effective instruction in compensatory training and their relationship to successful adult outcomes.

In South Africa, approximately 600 000 individuals are visually impaired. Approximately onethird of genetic disorders and syndromes involves the eye, including conditions such as congenital cataracts, glaucoma, albinism, and retinal degenerative disorders. The transition into adulthood of visually disabled individuals is a crucial time, as it lays the foundation for their future. The aim of this research was to explore the level of understanding, perceptions and lived experiences of young adults aged eighteen to twenty-three who are visually impaired due to a genetic cause. A qualitative design, utilizing a phenomenological approach was used for this study. Fifteen participants were recruited through Athlone School for the Blind, the League of Friends of the Blind and Retina SA. In-depth interviews were conducted and data obtained was analysed using thematic analysis. Five themes were identified through this approach indicating the implications of having a genetic visual condition as perceived and experienced by these young adults. Most of the young adults experienced difficulty in understanding their condition and the genetic bases thereof and they had a strong desire to obtain clarity and knowledge via genetic counselling. The community was thought not to understand their situation either. They were unsure of the inheritance risks to future offspring and some indicated that they felt that this was a gamble they were unwilling to take, whilst others would have children. In some instances, their own visual impairment might create obstacles to raising children. Social interactions were greatly impacted and they felt isolated and tried to avoid unpleasant treatment, stigmatization and pity from the community. Intimate relationships were also noted as a challenge. Mobility is a major obstacle due to the incapacity to drive, as well as the lack of disability user-friendly public transportation and a daunting environment. They want to and feel that they can be independent and achieve the same things as sighted individuals, but society and life circumstances often create barriers to this. This research could assist in providing information to create more efficient, patient-centred genetic services and might be informative to various organizations about targeted support to provide these individuals and methods to assist their transition to adulthood.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / This study was designed to examine dependency in a permanently and totally blind adult male population. This necessitated the use of measures of overt and covert dependency which examined (a) the differences in dependency levels for blind adults compared with a sighted adult comparison group, and (b) the dependency levels varying within the blind groups is a function of length of blindness. A distinction between Instrumental Dependency (ID) and Emotional Dependency {ED) was proposed. ID was defined as the activity of seeking support or overt help, and ED referred to behavior exhibited in gaining satisfaction of some covert need. It is generally accepted that blindness creates a state of helplessness and dependency. A physical disability, by its very nature, necessitates the disabled person to both seek out and accept help from others. Often times the assistance he receives is in areas of performance where he was formerly able to function independently. Generally, the more severe the disability, in this case, the degree of blindness, the higher the amount of dependent behavior required to function adequately. It is possible that generalization effects of this dependency result in a transfer of this behavior to new and different situations. Not only is there the possibility of ID transfer, but there also may be a transfer effect which would increase covert ED behavior. The following four hypotheses were tested: 1. Blind adults are higher in Instrumental Dependency than are sighted adults. 2. Instrumental Dependency is related to length of blindness among blind adults. 3. Blind adults are higher in Emotional Dependency than are sighted adults. 4. Emotional Dependencx is related to length of blindess among blind adults. Instrumental Dependency was reflected through the frequency with which Ss required the assistance of repeated anchor value sounds in the judgment of "slow" and "fast" audible stimuli. Emotional Dependency was measured through responses to the Rohde Sentence Completion Test. Subjects' ages ranged from 20-54 years, intelligence quotients were between "dull normal" and "bright normal". Seventy subjects were studied, fifty-six blind and a comparison group of fourteen sighted. The blind Ss were divided into four groups according to length of blindness, which ranged from four months to almost eleven years. Results indicated that blind adults are higher in ID, and that ID is related to length of blindness (r=.47). While the blind adults scored higher in ED than did sighted adults, results indicated that, contrary to the proposed hypothesis, ED decreases as the length of blindness increases (r= -.35). There is evidence that help-seeking ("dependency") is a concomitant of the condition of blindness that is generalized to behavior which would not ordinarily elicit differential responses. As noted in the results , this help seeking was significantly greater for blind adults. However, the lessening of ED over time seems to indicate the learning of coping behavior following the initial heightened dependency. The separate dynamics of ID and ED, and their relationship to length of blindness, were discussed within the framework of learning and ego psychology. / 2031-01-01

Accessibility is a very important criterion to make online learning inclusive to students with different abilities. According to Burgstahler, Corrigan and McCarter (2004) unless design of the courses are accessible to all students, including those with disabilities, the ultimate goal of distance learning to make education available to everyone cannot be accomplished. However, accessibility is rarely a priority for online course developers and students with disabilities are not considered as a large group (Treviranus and Roberts, 2006). This exploratory case study investigated the experiences of the students with visual impairment in online learning environments with regards to media used in their courses with the intent of providing suggestions for accessible media design. Media included text, visuals (pictures, diagrams, charts, and graphs), audio, and multimedia (video and animation) used in online learning environments. This study used a purposive sampling technique and participants who are visually impaired, who had an online course experience, and who are older than 18 years old were included in the study. A semi-structured interview protocol was developed and participants were asked about challenges they experienced and what worked well for them in terms of media in online learning environment. Because of the lack of scientific research examining design of online learning for students with visual impairment, this dissertation fills an important research gap and also makes contributions to the field of Instructional Design and Technology by providing students' perspectives and suggestions for accessible design. Suggestions provided in this study is valuable in terms of designing accessible online courses and that there is a lack of information and guidance for answering the needs of students with visual impairment in online learning environments. / Ph. D.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University

Currently, students who read tactually must learn specific braille indicators that correspond to typeset changes such as bold, italic, and underline. These symbols do not stand out like printed attributes. To learn emphasis indicators, students must understand the concepts of print and memorize corresponding braille coding, which requires explicit training. Because tactile readers can only "see" that which is under his/her fingers, scanning and locating indicators is difficult. One must scan the passage word by word to find the emphasis indicator. In contrast, a sighted child can quickly glance at a page and recognize attributes instantly. The difficulty in tactually recognizing typeset, leads to slower recognition of important information and potentially affects reading fluency for beginning readers.This research study compared the use of the current braille code (CBC) with two alternate ways of presenting typeset. The research questions were: (a) Is there a difference in speed in finding the emphasis indicators when presented in three different formats? (b) Is there a difference in accuracy of recognizing the emphasis indicator when presented in three different formats? (c) What are the students' perceptions and opinions about the various indicators?A quasi-experimental design was implemented and three types of data were collected: (a) measurement of speed - in seconds, (b) measurement of accuracy - in number of correctly identified words and indicators, and (c) the perceptions of students before and after the data were collected. The independent variables were the three ways of presenting typeset (CBC, Ua, and Ub), and the dependent variables were speed and accuracy. Quantitative data were analyzed using ANOVA for speed and accuracy and correlational data were conducted to determine if relationships existed between speed and accuracy. Qualitative data were categorized and reported.Results showed a statistical difference between the speed at which students located words with emphasis, but no difference was found in their accuracy. Interview data showed that most students did not have a grasp of print concepts or understand the purposes of using the indicators. Students also indicated that they preferred the alternate formats (Ua or Ub), rather than the current braille code (CBC).

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<p>Falls and fallinjuries are very common in peoples own homes in various institutions. Hospital inpatients often fall during daytime in connection with their visit to the toilet. Visual impairment such as cataract, glaucoma, macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy can cause falls. The purpose of this study was to examine patient´s records where falls and fallinjuries were documented at an emergency clinic and to examine if they were registered to visual impairment. The records from 68 hospital inpatients from the age of 65 years and older who did fall during the year of 2004, were examined. In spite of different preventive actions that were taken, falls and fallinjuries often happened when the patients were on the move and left on their own. The number of patients who have any visual impairment and a record at an eye clinic, were 41. Thirtytwo of the patients who have any visual impairment did fall between 18:00 - 06:00. In the emergency clinics records, there were no records about how the patients experienced their visual ability. Objective and subjective visual impairment were only registered in the eye clinics records. When risk assessments are made, visual impairment should be considered as a riskfactor for falling. It should be considered as an independent riskfactor as well as in addition with other riskfactors. When the patient gets to the ward, the nurse should ask the patient and register if he or she has any visual impairment. The nurse can therefore use strategies to plan the caring and prevent falls and fallinjuries during the patients stay at the emergency clinic. Visual impairment as well as the natural ageing affects the visual ability and therefore the wards environment should contain sharp colours and bright lightening.</p>