Accessibility is important in the development of digital products as well as in physical products. An accessible product enables all people to use it, whether they have a disability or not. This thesis focuses on accessibility for visually impaired people in a music streaming service on desktop. Many music streaming services for desktop are built with web technologies, including Spotify. The aim of this thesis was to evaluate the accessibility status of the Spo- tify desktop application as well as develop accessibility guidelines fo- cused on a music streaming service. A user test was performed to in- vestigate the accessibility status of the desktop application. Existing accessibility guidelines was studied and used together with the results of the user test to develop accessibility guidelines applicable to a music streaming service. It was found that the Spotify desktop application had many accessibility issues and these were considered when developing accessibility guide- lines. The existing guidelines studied was the WCAG 2.0 guidelines developed by W3C. These were read through completely and compiled in Chapter 4 of this report. The result of the thesis was accessibility guidelines suitable for a music streaming service on desktop. Since music streaming applications can be developed using different techniques and frameworks these guide- lines should be used as a guide on how to implement accessibility and needs to be customized for each use case. Though the fundamentals of the guidelines should be applicable to most music streaming desktop applications.

Syftet med studien var att beskriva särskolepersonalens erfarenheter av tillgänglighet på särskolors lekplatser. För att besvara syftet genomfördes intervjuer på särskolor i fyra kommuner i Stockholms läns landsting. Material analyserades och ur det framkom följande tre kategorier: ”Brister på flera nivåer”, ”Lekplatsen kan bidra till social interaktion” samt ”Ett tungt arbete att vara på lekplatsen”. I analysen framkom att tillgängligheten på särskolors lekplats är undermålig och att redskap på lekplatsen inte är anpassade. Det framkom också att personalen har svårt att kunna lämna barnen själva på lekplatsen eftersom de flesta barn behöver stöd och guidning för att de ska kunna leka på lekplatsen. Vidare framkom det att personalen behöver hjälpa barnen vid lekredskapen vilket var ett fysiskt tungt arbete och ledde till att personalen ibland valde bort aktiviteter. Interaktion mellan barnen är bra på grund av att personalen finns tillgänglig hela tiden och att ett bra samarbete mellan personalen finns. / The purpose of the study was to describe the staff's experience of accessibility at special school’s playgrounds. In response to the purpose, interviews were conducted on special schools in four municipalities in Stockholm County Council. Materials were analyzed and the following three categories emerged: "Lack on several levels", "The playground can contribute to social interaction" and "A heavy work to support at the playground". The analysis revealed that accessibility to the school's playground is inadequate and that tools in the playground is not adapted. It was also found that staff have difficulty in leaving children alone in the playground because most children need support and guidance to play in the playground. Furthermore, it emerged that the staff needed to help the children at the play equipment, which was a physically demanding work and led to the staff sometimes opting activities. Interaction between the children is good because staff are available all the time and that there is good cooperation between the staff.

En años recientes, el uso de tabletas y teléfonos o dispositivos inteligentes ha incrementado continuamente gracias a la facilidad y disponibilidad de acceso a la información, entretenimiento y comunicación que ofrecen con su creciente variedad de aplicativos y especialmente su acceso a internet. A diferencia de computadoras o notebooks, estos dispositivos tienen tecnologías para mejorar la usabilidad para personas con dificultades visuales que también pueden ser utilizadas para crear nuevos aplicativos de asistencia sin la necesidad de aparatos externos. Esto genera oportunidades para un desarrollo inclusivo que mantiene la misma portabilidad. Sin embargo, estos dispositivos principalmente usan una pantalla táctil y aún entre sus tecnologías incorporadas, no tienen medios para ingresar datos que sean permitan que personas con ceguera ingresen información por otros medios que no sean su voz o un complejo teclado QWERTY. En este artículo, proponemos el uso de una solución adaptativa que permite al usuario usar la misma pantalla táctil como una alternativa para ingresar datos al simular un teclado Braille y demostramos su uso, además de tecnologías de lector de texto, con una aplicación que permite que una persona ciega chatee mediante mensajes instantáneos.

<p>Despite a largely static DNA sequence, our genomes are incredibly malleable. Comparative studies of chromatin features between different cell types, tissues, and species have revealed tremendous differences in how the genome is accessed, transcribed, and replicated. However, how the dynamics of chromatin accessibility contribute to development, environmental response, and disease status has only begun to be appreciated. In this work we identified chromatin accessibility changes by DNase-seq in three diverse processes: in granule neurons of the developing cerebellum, with intestinal epithelial cells in the absence of a normal microbiota, and with myelogenous leukemia cells in response to histone deacetylase inhibitor treatments. In all cases, we coupled these analyses with RNA-seq assays to identify concurrent transcriptional changes. By mapping the changes to these genome-wide signals we defined the contribution of local chromatin structure to the transcriptional programs underlying these processes, and improved our understanding of their relation to other chromatin changes like histone modifications. Furthermore we demonstrated use of the strongest accessibility changes to identify transcription factors critical for these processes by finding enrichment of their binding motifs. For a few of these key factors, depletion or overexpression of the protein was sufficient to regulate the expression of predicted target genes or exert limited chromatin accessibility changes, demonstrating the functional significance of these proteins in these processes. Together these studies have informed our understanding of the role chromatin accessibility changes play in development and environmental responses while also proving their utility for key regulator identification.</p> / Dissertation

In an effort to shift reliance away from single-occupancy vehicles, many cities have been investing in active and public transportation, and promoting multi-modal travel. It has been recognized both academically and professionally that there is a need to address issues regarding access to transit stations and nodes – the ‘first mile problem.’ Many see bicycles as the answer to the first mile problem; however, scholarly literature has generally neglected exploring how to accommodate bicycles at different stations. This practicum investigates the first mile problem in Edmonton, Alberta, and identifies existing challenges with bicycle access to Edmonton’s Light Rail Transit (LRT) system. The findings suggest three distinct LRT ‘station types’, each requiring a nuanced suite of infrastructure improvements in order to encourage more bicycle access. Further, these improvements can only be realized through the development and execution of comprehensive policies and regulations that support cycling and bike-transit integration. / October 2016

This study attempts to find a correlation between commuting modes in Washington DC and characteristics of the city and the people that they serve. It investigates why some census tracts have experienced increases in the commuting share of alternative transportation, such as public transit, walking, and bicycling, while others haven't. Findings demonstrate that demographic variables such as percent Hispanic and foreign born were the strongest predictors of change in commute mode share followed by distance to train station. Land use variables demonstrated weak correlations with variations in mode share due most likely to a lack of density gradient within the study area. The creation of variables to determine land use mix by census tract posed technical challenges as well. Recommendations include policy addressing rising demand for more diverse transportation systems be implemented and further research be conducted on creating more accurate land use variables to include in the model.

This thesis deals with tourism services accessibility for foreigners in the Czech republic, which means each service language adaptation for foreign visitors. The term of accessibility is defined in the theoretical section as well as the way of application in tourism services and the evaluation criteria. Great emphasis was laid on tourism employees language facilities and foreign language information accessibility. The services analysis was made in Prague as the most visited tourism destination in the Czech republic and then in Třebíč, town with UNESCO listed sights. The main task was map out the present state of services in term of language accessibility which are offered to foreigners and propose possible ways of other development in the areas of tourism services where the accessibility is not completely solved.

A research report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Health Sociology in the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. / This study is founded on the argument that the health of a population is dependent on both structural factors and human agency. Literature shows that men are generally poor at attending to their health needs as compared to women, with statistics confirming higher mortality rates and lower life expectancy among them. This research study aimed to explore the factors influencing the health seeking behaviours of black South African working class men in Modimolle Township, Limpopo Province (South Africa). The study followed a qualitative approach where semi-structured face-to-face interviews were used for data gathering. A snowball non-probability sampling technique was used to select 15 black working class men between the ages of 29 and 50 years. All the interviews were conducted and audio recorded in Modimolle Township between two residential locations. The interviews were transcribed verbatim. Thematic content analysis was employed for data analysis in which emerging themes bordered around the identities of men, their relationship to their bodies and their perceptions of health care systems. The construction of masculinities among men created multiple and varied ways to their health seeking behaviors. Men engaged in multiple practices ranging from preventive medical check-ups, the use of various types of enemas as well as the use of traditional medicines for the maintenance of their health. These practices were associated with the construction of a responsible masculinity among the participants which challenges the notion that masculinity is associated with negative health seeking behaviors among men. / MT2018

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 201 / This dissertation examined the role of brands in consumer decision making in online environments versus offline environments. The effects of the information type and quality available in a given purchase environment influences consumer choice. The premise on which this study was based is the accessibility-diagnociticity model which states that the weight given to any piece of information which would be used for consumer decision making depends on the accessibility of that piece of information, the accessibility of alternative inputs and diagnositicity or perceived relevance of the inputs (Feldman & Lynch 1988). Information available to consumers plays a significant role in their decision making and there has been limited studies investigating this in the online versus offline shopping environments. The challenge of online shopping for some product categories is that there is limited capacity to provide touch, smell and taste information. The dissertation reports three experiments which were conducted to test the hypotheses. Participants were randomly assigned to different shopping environments with varying levels of information. The findings extend the theory of the diagnosticity of information (Alba, Hutchinson, & Lynch, 1991; Feldman & Lynch 1988; Herr, Karde, & Kim, 1991; Lynch, Marmorstein & Weigold, 1988; Lynch 2006) indicating that, when consumers observe that they do not have enough information to make a purchase decision, they do not make a decision unless the brand is familiar. vii The findings from the research offer fresh insights that familiar brands have greater advantage in online shopping than unfamiliar brands, particularly for experiential products. The results suggest that in purchase situations where there is limited sensory information, consumers rely on brand familiarity to make decisions or they do not make a decision if the brands are unfamiliar. The results of the dissertation showed that when there is limited information in consumer decision making processes, consumers use their knowledge about brands to make or not make a decision. The results contradict the long tail theory (Anderson, 2006) which proposes that the businesses would make more profits from niche offerings of unfamiliar brands. The results of the study were not conclusive on the effects of shopping environments on price sensitivity for familiar and unfamiliar brands. The results suggested the predicted pattern, though the interaction was not statistically significant and there is need for future research on online price elasticity. Future research should also explore the effects of these new sources of information like blogs, consumer and expert reviews, Facebook, etc. on consumer decision making in the offline and online environments

Since the Swedish health care system is mostly organized at a regional level and the population density across the Swedish regions are variating, the supply of health care differs among the regions. Population density and the centralization of care is also affecting the distribution of health care facilities since most opportunities for care will be found where population density is high, such as larger cities. In northern Sweden where the larger parts of the area are sparsely populated and the main cities are mostly located along the coast, accessibility to health care for the rural population and their urban counterparts are therefore very different. The level of accessibility to health care can be more crucial in some situations than in other, one of these is childbirth. Since the labour process can develop quickly, the need to get the right care at the right time can be vital for both mother and child.  In the past years there have been changes to the maternity hospital distribution in northern Sweden. This is due to the closure of Sollefteå maternity hospital and the temporal closing of Lycksele maternity hospital. The aim of this thesis is to analyse the change in accessibility between 2013 and 2019 as a result of these shutdowns. This is done using service area analysis through the ArcGIS network analyst extension. The result show that the closures have had large impact on the spatial accessibility, increasing travel times to maternity hospitals for the inland population. Those who are mostly affected are people who already had poor accessibility, these are also places who have a small population. The result also shows that around 90 % of the women could reach their closest maternity hospital within one hour in 2013 compared to around 80 % in 2019. Around 40 % of the women are at higher risk of childbirth complications since they exceed 20 minutes travel time, this was the same value in 2013 as for 2019. As conclusion, closures have decreased accessibility for women in the inland of northern Sweden but the largest part of the population remain having good accessibility to their closest maternity hospital.