Students with visual impairments represent less than one-tenth of one percent of the total student population (Ferrell, 2005) yet require skills in self-determination that are prerequisite to accessing the core academic curriculum. Self-determination reflects "a combination of skills, knowledge, and beliefs that enable a person to engage in goal-directed, self-regulated, autonomous behavior" (Field, Martin, Miller, Ward, & Wehmeyer, 1998, p. 2) and "involves knowledge of self and the environment, decision-making, problem solving, goal setting, personal advocacy, communication skills, self-control, and knowledge of how to interact with the environment to achieve desired outcomes" (Cleveland et al., 2007, p. xi). Unfortunately, students with visual impairments are often denied the opportunities to learn these fundamental skills, thus denying them an appropriate education as outlined via federal initiatives such as The Rehabilitation Act Amendments and IDEA 2004. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Empowered Curriculum, a comprehensive, experiential program designed to improve the self-determination skills of adolescents with visual impairments. Thirty secondary students with visual impairments participated in the study. Pre-intervention and post-intervention measures that addressed self-determination skill acquisition, self-esteem, and self-concept were provided to the students. Students were assigned to either an experimental group or a control group. The results suggested that the students who received the intervention did not improve their self-determination skills, self-esteem, or self-concept. Future directions are discussed. / School Psychology

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 488 million people worldwide suffer from a visual impairment and of these about 327 million have severe visual impairments. Some individuals with severe visual impairments can navigate and orient independently in well-known surroundings, but even for these people independent navigation and orientation are likely to be a challenge in unfamiliar places. To overcome these challenges, assistive technologies have been developed to support independent wayfinding tasks; however, those with severe visual impairments often experience frustration when they try to use assistive technologies since these technologies lack address the environmental factors that influence their independent wayfinding. This research developed and evaluated the efficacy of a framework called an environmental user interface (EUI). In particular, this research explored whether or not the proposed EUI framework was effective when used with user-centered design (UCD) to design a wayfinding system to capture environmental requirements, thus aiding those with severe visual impairments. Two studies, the first of which consisted of a requirements elicitation and the second usability testing, were conducted. The studies revealed that the EUI framework was indeed more effective than the conventional UCD design method alone in identifying environmental factors, and participants with severe visual impairments preferred to use the prototype designed using UCD and the EUI framework. The proposed EUI framework was found to be an effective way to enhance the design process as it played an important role in eliciting a greater number of environmental factors, and hence produced a device that was preferred by the users with visual impairments. Both prototypes influenced how well the wayfinding tasks were performed by the five participants with severe visual impairments, but the prototype implemented based on the requirements elicited by UCD and the EUI framework was much preferred by the participants. / Ph. D.

Yes / Purpose Refractive blur is associated with decreased hazard perception and impairments in driving performance, but little is known about why people who have spectacles to correct their distance vision drive with uncorrected vision. Methods We conducted six focus groups. Participants were 30 drivers (mean age 45) who reported having driven uncorrected at least twice in the past six months despite having spectacles to correct their distance vision. Focus groups were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically. Results We identified three themes. 1. Responsibility: participants did not feel obliged to drive with optimal vision and believed that others have a responsibility to ensure drivers maintain clear vision. 2. Safe Enough: participants felt safe to drive uncorrected, did not believe they need to wear spectacles to see sufficiently clearly and that they would know if their uncorrected eyesight fails to meet minimum standards. 3. Situations: participants discussed how they would drive uncorrected for short and familiar journeys, when they feel alert, in daylight and in good weather. Conclusions Beliefs about the importance of driving with clear vision compete with the benefits of not wearing spectacles. Eyecare professionals should provide more direct advice to patients regarding the need to wear their visual correction for driving.

Yes / Purpose: To determine presenting visual acuity levels and explore the factors associated with failing vision screening in a multi-ethnic population of UK children aged 4–5 years. Methods: Visual acuity (VA) using the logMAR Crowded Test was measured in 16,541 children in a population-based vision screening programme. Referral for cycloplegic examination was based on national recommendations (>0.20logMAR in one or both eyes). Presenting visual impairment (PVI) was defined as VA >0.3logMAR in the better eye. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess the association of ethnicity, maternal, and early-life factors with failing vision screening and PVI in participants of the Born in Bradford birth cohort. Results: In total, 2467/16,541 (15%) failed vision screening, 732 (4.4%) had PVI. Children of Pakistani (OR: 2.49; 95% CI: 1.74–3.60) and other ethnicities (OR: 2.00; 95% CI: 1.28–3.12) showed increased odds of PVI compared to white children. Children born to older mothers (OR: 1.63; 95% CI: 1.19–2.24) and of low birth weight (OR: 1.52; 95% CI: 1.00–2.34) also showed increased odds. Follow-up results were available for 1068 (43.3%) children, 993 (93%) were true positives; 932 (94%) of these had significant refractive error. Astigmatism (>1DC) (44%) was more common in children of Pakistani ethnicity and hypermetropia (>3.0DS) (27%) in white children (Fisher’s exact, p < 0.001). Conclusions: A high prevalence of PVI is reported. Failing vision screening and PVI were highly associated with ethnicity. The positive predictive value of the vision screening programme was good, with only 7% of children followed up confirmed as false positives. / National Institute for Health Research Post-Doctoral Fellowship Award (PDF-2013-06-050); The Born in Bradford study presents independent research commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Applied Health Research and Care (NIHR CLAHRC) and the Programme Grants for Applied Research funding scheme (RP-PG-0407-10044).

In my work, I deal with motherhood from the perspective of mothers with severe visual impairment. I focused especially on parenthood planning, on the period of pregnancy, childbirth and stay in the maternity ward and on the care for the child from birth to the age of three. I was interested to find out, whether visually impaired mothers encounter prejudices on part of the well-sighted people, whether they were worried that they could give birth to a handicapped child, what are the difficulties that severely visually impaired mothers come across most often in the individual period of development of the child, if and how education of children is different from the perspective of visually impaired parents from the perspective of well-sighted parents and also whether the child growing up in a family with at least one visually impaired parent is deprived of something or whether, on the contrary, this family situation has any advantages for such child. The objective of my diploma thesis is to map out various aspects of life of visually impaired mothers with small children in the greatest detail, directly from the point of view of those women. I attempted to achieve this objective by means of a qualitative method research, in particular in the form of a structured interview with six visually impaired mothers.

o processo de inclusão social do aluno portador de deficiência visual é facilitado pela adoção de estratégias pedagógicas, e pela utilização de materiais didáticos adequados. Neste trabalho, com o objetivo de facilitar a compreensão de conceitos químicos básicos, desenvolvemos um material didático, constituído de bolas texturizadas, que representam elementos qUlmlcos freqüentemente citados em aulas de Química de nível introdutório. Este material permite que o aluno, por meio do toque, e com o uso de uma legenda escrita em Braille, reconheça os elementos químicos em uma Tabela Periódica, especialmente montada para tal fim. Utilizando este modelo texturizado, o aluno pode, também, estabelecer ligações entre átomos, montar moléculas e cadeias de compostos orgânicos. Desta forma, a tridimensionalidade molecular pode ser melhor compreendida. O material instrucional foi testado com alunos de classes variadas, pertencentes à oitava série do ensino fundamental ou a uma das séries do ensino médio, sendo demonstrada sua eficiência. Além disso, em paralelo, procurou-se conhecer as idéias de professores, diretamente envolvidos com a educação especial, com relação à inclusão social de alunos deficiente visuais . / Special educational strategies and specific instructional material are needed in order to promote School and Social inclusion of students with visual impairment. In this work, we present our results on the development and testing of a new instructional material , composed of a specially designed Periodic Table of elements in which the na me of each element is written according to the Braille system, and some elements are represented by texturized balls. The tactile recognition of elements and names were very helpful in developing basic concept on chemical bonding and chemical properties of elements and compounds. Using texturized ball and stick models, High School students with visual impairment were also able to construct physical representations of organic and inorganic molecules, as well as of some hydrocarbon molecular chains. These three dimension structural models allowed for a proper insight on the space orientation of simple molecules. Some teachers\' ideas on the process of Social inclusion of students with visual impairment are also presented and discussed.

Esta dissertação apresenta um panorama geral do livro e a leitura em braille no Brasil. Através, de um levantamento documental e bibliográfico, identifica e descreve as mudanças editorias que ocorreram ao longo da história, as políticas de acessibilidade e os paradigmas relativos à edição e produção de livros em braille. O foco da pesquisa recai na descrição e analise das escolhas editoriais da produção de livros braille, tanto: em grande escala, na Fundação Dorina Nowill, e em pequena escala (cópia única), na Biblioteca Louis Braille do Centro Cultural São Paulo. Não tem como objetivo discutir a qualidade e diferenças dos livros produzidos, mas descrever as etapas de ambas as rotinas editorias e as funções dos profissionais envolvidos. / This dissertation presents a general overview of the book and braille literature in Brazil. Through a biographical and documentary survey, it identifies and describes editorial changes that occurred throughout history, the politics surrounding accessibility and the paradigms related to the edition and production of braille books. The center of this investigation lays on the description and analysis of the editorial options in the production of Braille books, therefore: on a larger scale, in the Fundação Dorina Nowill para Cegos and on a lower scale (unique copy), in the Biblioteca Louis Braille of the Centro Cultural São Paulo. It is futile to argue the quality and the differences of the books produced, better yet, we must describe the phases of both editorial routines and the roles of the professionals involved.

O movimento de inclusão se caracteriza por uma responsabilização da sociedade nas adaptações necessárias para que as pessoas com deficiência possam experimentar o modo de vida característico do recorte espacial e temporal em que vivem. O ambiente escolar é um dos locais onde devem ser feitas essas adaptações, tanto na estrutura física, quanto dentro das aulas. A Geografia encontra nos estudantes com deficiência visual o público com maior dificuldade de aprendizado, já que, além de conceitos contidos em textos, recorre frequentemente a representações gráficas, como gráficos e mapas. A Cartografia Tátil é a ciência que se desdobra sobre essas adaptações táteis e pode dar às pessoas com deficiência visual o acesso a um agigantado mundo de possibilidades que desenvolvam sua cognição, facilitem o acesso aos lugares e permitam o conhecimento dos inúmeros fatores sócio econômicos que ajudam entender a realidade que vivemos. Dentro do contexto da Geografia, o recorte aqui escolhido foi a Geografia da População Brasileira. Na primeira etapa, essa pesquisa reflete sobre a questão populacional, observando como o olhar da Geografia renovada pede à Geografia da População discussões mais críticas, que devem ir além da Demografia. Na segunda etapa são analisados mapas impressos e táteis sobre a Geografia da População e construídas representações gráficas com essa abordagem. Estas apoiaram uma sequência didática que foi aplicada na ADEVIRP (Associação de Amparo ao Deficiente Visual de Ribeirão Preto) e se mostraram eficientes no processo de ensino-aprendizagem de estudantes cegos ou com baixa-visão. / The inclusion movement is characterized by the society\'s responsibility to do the adaptation that is necessary to people with disabilities, so they can experience the way of life characteristic of the time and space in which they are in. Adaptations must be made in both physical structure and classes of the school environment. In Geography, due to the intensive use of graphical representations, maps and graphics, the students with visual impairment are the most excluded learning public. Tactile Cartography is the science that focus on tactile adaptations and can give the visually disable students the access to a world of possibilities that develop their cognition, facilitate access to places and is capable to provide the knowledge of the socio-economic factors that help to understand the reality we live. The Geography of the Brazilian Population was the center of this research. In the first stage, this work reflected on the population question. Considering renewed geography, the work sought to discuss the Population Geography more critically, beyond Demographic studies. The second step was to analyze printed and tactile maps about Brazilian population and to elaborate tactile cartographic representations. The constructed tactile cartographic representations supported a didactic sequence that was applied in ADEVIRP (Association of Support to the Visual Impairment of Ribeirão Preto) and showed to be efficient in the teaching-learning process of blind or with low vision students.

Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-07-08T19:29:46Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Kelli Teixeira da Silva.pdf: 3210676 bytes, checksum: cf3cc015d7dee153e881609612499e63 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-08T19:29:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Kelli Teixeira da Silva.pdf: 3210676 bytes, checksum: cf3cc015d7dee153e881609612499e63 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-01-31 / Nenhuma / A presente dissertação intitulada "A qualificação profissional na área da deficiência visual do Instituto Benjamin Constant: uma análise na perspectiva dos professores" tem por objetivo conhecer e compreender as diretrizes político-pedagógicas que orientam a proposta de qualificação docente do Instituto Benjamin Constant/Rio de Janeiro na dimensão do Curso de Qualificação de Professores na Área da Deficiência da Visão; na perspectiva dos professores que nele trabalharam no contexto da edição do ano de 2012. A razão por escolher este curso e esses professores como colaboradores da pesquisa se deve, entre outros motivos, ao fato de que esse curso engloba em sua grade curricular todos os demais cursos de curta duração oferecidos pelo Instituto Benjamin Constant durante o ano. Além, é claro, da relevância social dos serviços prestados pelo IBC, no que diz respeito à deficiência visual. Pois, além de capacitar profissionais, o instituto atende um número expressivo de pessoas cegas e com baixa visão; possui uma escola; presta assessoria a escolas e instituições; realiza consultas oftalmológicas à população; reabilita; produz material especializado; impressos em Braille; publicações científicas. Um dos princípios teórico-metodológicos que fundamenta a presente pesquisa refere-se à perspectiva histórico-cultural. Significa compreender a pesquisa como relação dialógica entre sujeitos em que, o pesquisador e os atores colaboradores, juntos buscam construir sentidos para o fenômeno pesquisado. A partir desta perspectiva, mais do que simplesmente realizar uma análise do que foi dito ou percebido, buscou-se compreender o processo de formação que é realizado nesse contexto. O processo analítico partiu da análise de conteúdo e teve como fonte principal as entrevistas semiestruturadas e os documentos pesquisados. Esse processo foi concluído por meio da interpretação das evidências coletadas à luz dos marcos conceituais nos quais embaso este estudo. As considerações finais se expressam numa síntese interpretativa das três categorias analíticas que emergiram desse processo: Relação IBC/MEC; Diretrizes Político-Pedagógicas do CURSÃO e CURSÃO: Significados e expectativas. / The present dissertation titled “The institute Benjamin Constant: Analysis of the proposal for professional qualification in the field of Visual Impairment from the teacher’s perspective” has the objective get to know and comprehend the political pedagogy guidelines to the teaching qualification of the IBC (Benjamin Constant Institute)/Rio de Janeiro in the extension of the Teachers Qualification Course in the field of Visually Impairment, (acronym: CURSÃO); from the perspective of its teachers from the 2012 edition. The reason for choosing this course and these teachers as allies on the research is due to the course embracing in its curricular schedule all other short-duration courses offered by the Institute during the year, besides the social relevance of the IBC when relating the Visually Impaired People. Therefore, besides training professionals the Institute assists a large number of blind and visually impaired ones, it has a school; advises other schools and institutions; holds ophthalmology appointments to the population; rehabilitates; produces specialized material printed in Braille; scientific publications. One of the theoretical and methodological principles that basis the present research refers to the historical and cultural perspective. It means to understand the research as a dialogical relationship between subjects, where the researcher and the collaborators seek for purposes to the present study together. Beyond this perspective of what has been said and realized, we tried to comprehend the process of formation that is made in this context. The analytic process began on the content analysis and had as main source the semi-structured interviews and the documents found. This process concluded through the interpretation of the collected evidences under the concept landmarks in which I based this study. The final considerations are shown in an interpretative synthesis of the three analytic categories that appeared from this process: Relation IBC/Ministry of Education; Political Pedagogy Guidelines of the CURSÃO and CURSÃO: meanings and expectations.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T16:57:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rita de Cassia Celio Pasquarelli.pdf: 1293706 bytes, checksum: 2f8bac2a48bd5d22a726b331c2306efd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-31 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This study aimed to promote the dialogue between the inclusion of students with visual impairment and the teaching and learning of Statistics, based on the variability of data, in an introductory and intuitive way. Thereby, we are guided by the following question: How to further the inclusion of students with visual impairment in Statistics classes and induct the construction of meaning of the following contents: media, median and mode, aiming at intuitive variability? Assuming that the content surrounding this discipline requires considerable time, we present the concepts as elementary process, predicting its strengthening and expansion during the Basic School. With that in mind, we made use of Assistive Technology with the development of materials called "dot-plot and box-plot graphs simulator . We adopt as our benchmark two philosophies, Inclusion and Exploratory Data Analysis, and as our methodology, qualitative research. We've found that 'teaching strategies' are crucial to foster the learning of statistical concepts for students with visual impairments. Thus, we prioritize the multisensory modalities, hearing and touch, with cooperative activities, elementary mathematical notions, without emphasis on formulas and definitions. We develop our work with a group of 9th graders in an institution in the city of São Paulo: the group goes as follows: four blind, one with low vision and three seers. We can state that we provided significant results on the inclusion of the students with visual impairment involved in this research, with implications in the ways of teaching and learning Statistics for these students; it also indicates the construction of meanings about the variability in the distribution of data. Notwithstanding this, we can state that provide four accessibilities: instrumental, methodological, programmatic and attitudinal. We add that, contrary to some authors, the time factor has not hurt the inclusion of students with visual impairments, as we work with these students and the seers at the same time. Of the statistical concepts involved, as we predicted, the time was inadequate to ensure that students reached the significant building, which justifies the choice of introductory activities, with intuitive character / Esta pesquisa teve por objetivo promover o diálogo entre a inclusão de alunos com deficiência visual e o ensino e a aprendizagem de Estatística, baseado na variabilidade dos dados, de maneira introdutória e intuitiva. Assim, nos orientamos pela seguinte questão: Como proporcionar a inclusão de alunos com deficiência visual nas aulas de Estatística e iniciar a construção de significados dos conteúdos de média, moda e mediana, com vistas à variabilidade intuitiva? Assumindo que os conteúdos que envolvem esta disciplina demandam considerável tempo, apresentamos os conceitos como processo elementar prevendo seu fortalecimento e expansão no decorrer da Escola Básica. Considerando esses aspectos, fizemos uso da Tecnologia Assistiva com o desenvolvimento do material denominado simulador de gráficos dot-plot e box-plot . Adotamos como nosso referencial duas filosofias, a Inclusão e Análise Exploratória de Dados e como metodologia a pesquisa qualitativa. Verificamos que estratégias de ensino são cruciais para fomentar as aprendizagens de conceitos estatísticos para os alunos com deficiência visual. Assim, priorizamos as modalidades multissensoriais, audição e tato, com atividades cooperativas, noções matemáticas elementares, sem ênfase em fórmulas e definições. Desenvolvemos nosso trabalho com uma turma do 9º ano em uma Instituição na cidade de São Paulo, com oito alunos, dentre eles, quatro cegos, um com baixa visão e três videntes. Podemos afirmar que proporcionamos resultados expressivos quanto à inclusão dos alunos com deficiência visual envolvidos nesta pesquisa com implicações que apontam caminhos para o ensino e a aprendizagem de Estatística para esses alunos, com indícios de construção de significados sobre a variabilidade na distribuição dos dados. Não obstante a isto, podemos afirmar que proporcionamos quatro acessibilidades: instrumental, metodológica, programática e atitudinal. Acrescentamos que, ao contrário do que alguns autores afirmam, o fator tempo não prejudicou a inclusão dos alunos com deficiência visual, pois, trabalhamos com esses alunos simultaneamente aos videntes. Quanto aos conceitos estatísticos envolvidos, como prevíamos, o tempo foi insuficiente para que os alunos alcançassem a construção significativa, o que justifica a escolha de atividades introdutórias, com caráter intuitivo