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Taking accessibility into consideration is crucial when planning for public transport in a city. The bus network of the Swedish city Uppsala has undergone major changes since 2017, featuring a new circular bus line and several exchange points where commuters can change to regional and city buses easily. Measuring the accessibility and mobility of the residents of Uppsala will be the focus of this study, to detect underserviced areas and to measure the availability of buses throughout the week. Measuring accessibility and mobility were visualised primarily with the help of Geographic Information System [GIS] and data from General Transit Feed Specification [GTFS]. This is conducted through a quantitative method by comparing population data, ridership count and public transport data. The data is collected from GTFS, Region Uppsala and Uppsala University. In the results, the supply of buses in central Uppsala meets the demand of the commuters, and most importantly during peak hours. The exchange points are valuable for commuters to execute their journeys by having broader route alternatives to choose from. Nevertheless, the usage of bus stations is sufficient in most parts of Uppsala. However, there are certain areas in central Uppsala that are lacking accessibility to bus stations.

The current shortage of senior housing and the lack of accessibility in today's million-program housing creates concern among the older age group when the need to move becomes necessary with aging. Nowadays, more and more older groups are experiencing a fear of no longer being able to stay in their current homes due to lack of accessibility, which can make everyday life more difficult. Between the period 1965-1974 a million homes were built, which today are facing extensive refurbishment. By increasing the availability of these homes, the demand for senior housing can be accommodated while contributing to a more accessible society. In order to increase accessibility and contribute to an optimal living environment for seniors, technical building measures are required to be taken, as well as improvement regarding the floor plan. A pleasant indoor climate, access to a lift, spacious bathrooms and meeting places are some of the accomodationg that seniors value in their residential building. This report thus examines the required construction technical solutions to increase accessibility and improve the living environment in an existing residential building built under the million program in Finspång municipality. It also examines whether these solutions are technically and financially feasible to carry out, as well as researching what seniors generally appreciate in their living environments.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an important resource for making the web more accessible for people with disabil- ities. They are used as a source of information for web content cre- ators, but also in standards as a basis for legislation when measuring whether a website is accessible or not. The guidelines have been criti- cized for poor coverage when studying real-life accessibility, especially for people with cognitive impairments. A newly released version of the guidelines, WCAG 2.1 aims to improve accessibility but has not been studied yet. This study evaluates the coverage of WCAG guidelines by con- ducting a user study and comparing the results with WCAG evalu- ation to find out if the problems found by users would be fixed by conforming to the guidelines. 3 websites were evaluated with a total of 6 users from 3 different disability groups. Same sites were evaluated with WCAG 2.0 and 2.1. The results show none of the site passed the WCAG evaluation. The users found 40 issues, of which 32,5% would be fixed if conform- ing to WCAG criteria. Most of the issues not covered by WCAG were related to understandability and readability of the content and the user interface. The blind group found the biggest number of issues, but al- most half of the issues would be fixed by WCAG, compared to only 13% for people with cognitive impairments. Despite the fact that all critical issues were covered by WCAG, the amount of serious issues not covered reveals that WCAG as a sole measure for accessibility is not enough to guarantee equal access to the web. / Riktlinjerna för tillgängligt webbinnehåll (WCAG) är en viktig resurs för att göra webbsidor mer tillgängliga för personer med funktionsnedsättningar. Riktlinjerna används som informationskälla av webbinnehållsskapare, men också i standarder som grund för lagstiftning när man mäter om en webbplats är tillgänglig. Riktlinjerna har kritiserats för att dom inte är tillräckligt omfattande när man studerar tillgänglighet med användare, särskilt med personer med kognitiva funktionsnedsättningar. En nyligen släppt version av riktlinjerna, WCAG 2.1, syftar till att förbättra tillgängligheten men har ännu inte studerats. Syftet med detta forskningsprojekt är att utvärdera om riktlinjerna ger en tillräcklig nivå av tillgänglighet for en webbplats genom att utföra en användarstudie och jämföra resultaten med WCAG riktlinjerna för att ta reda på om problemen som användarna upptäckte skulle lösas genom att följa riktlinjerna. 3 webbplatser testades med totalt 6canvändare från 3 olika funktionshindergrupper. Webbplatser granskades också med WCAG 2.0 och 2.1. Resultaten visar att ingen av webbplatserna uppfyllde alla kriterier i WCAG. Användarna hittade 40 problem, varav 32,5% skulle undvikas om webbplatserna uppfyllde WCAG-kriterierna. De flesta av de problem som inte omfattas av WCAG gällde förståelse och läsbarhet av innehållet och olika element på sidan. Blinda gruppen fann det största antalet problem, men nästan hälften av problemen skulle undvikas genom att följa WCAG, jämfört med endast 13% för personer med kognitiva funktionsnedsättningar. Alla kritiska problem omfattades av WCAG, men största delen av allvarliga problem stod kvar, som visar att WCAG räcker inte som den enda sätt at mäta tillgänglighet.

Urbanisation is a global trend, but in recent decades it has been occurring at particularly high rates in the Global South. Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are facing a number of challenges as their populations grow, and among these, urban accessibility stands out as one of the most difficult to contend with. Meeting this challenge will require new solutions, and recently Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) have emerged as two potentially revolutionary innovations, especially when combined. In 2016, Dar es Salaam launched a BRT system, and in 2017 it introduced a TOD strategy in order to combat the city’s urban accessibility crisis. This study investigates the urban form at and around BRT stations in order to characterise BRT-TOD in the city and extract lessons for future implementations of BRT-TOD in Dar es Salaam and beyond. The investigation was carried out within the framework of urban morphology. It was found that at locations in the city centre, BRT has generally been able to integrate seamlessly into the built environment and achieve many of the core principles of TOD. In the rest of the city, however, BRT acts simply as a form of transit, with stations generally removed from the urban fabric and the local place. Some general issues are the large building setback, the number of informal vendors, private transport operators, exclusive new developments, lack of public spaces, the low quality of the pedestrian environment and the reinforcement of unsustainable forms of urban sprawl. This study aims to contribute to a growing discussion of sustainable urban accessibility solutions in the rapidly expanding cities of the Global South.

Self-advocacy for students with disabilities was noted throughout the literature as a necessary element for student success (Brinckerhoff, 1996; Daly-Cano, Vaccaro, & Newman, 2015; Gould, 1986; Williams & Shoultz, 1982). The literature also found that self-advocacy was particular crucial as students entered higher education (English, 1997; Stodden, Conway, and Chang, 2003; Vaccaro, Daly-Cano & Newman, 2015). In regard to student persistence, academic advising was the most cited student service (Hossler & Bean, 1990). Academic advisors assist students through their academic journeys and are tasked with assisting students to navigate college life (Kuh, 2008). However, there was a lack of research regarding the relationship between advisors, students with disabilities, and self-advocacy. Therefore, this research study was conducted to explore the insights and support of self-advocacy among academic advisors when working with students with disabilities. A qualitative phenomenological research design was used to explore these experiences. From the data analysis, seven themes emerged after the interviews and a focus group, which represented the needs of academic advisors for their specific roles and interactions. The themes were lack of knowledge, accommodations, transition, academics, fear of being labeled, relationships and interactions, and self-awareness. The information gathered through this study may lead to professional development programs to improve relationships between academic advisors and students with disabilities and to prepare students with disabilities to become strong self-advocates.

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Students with upper body motor impairments, such as cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, ALS, etc., face challenges when learning to program in block-based programming environments, because these environments are highly dependent on the physical manipulation of a mouse or keyboard to drag and drop elements on the screen. In my dissertation, I make the block-based programming environment Blockly, accessible to students with upper body motor impairment by adding speech as an alternative form of input. This voice-enabled version of Blockly will reduce the need for the use of a mouse or keyboard, making it more accessible to students with upper body motor impairments. The voice-enabled Blockly system consists of the original Blockly application, a speech recognition API, predefined voice commands, and a custom function. Three user studies have been conducted, a preliminary study, a usability study, and an A/B test. These studies revealed a lot of information, such as the need for simpler, shorter, and more intuitive commands, the need to change the target audience, the shortcomings of speech recognition systems, etc. The feedback received from each study influenced design decisions at different phases. The findings also gave me insight into the direction I would like to go in the future. This work was started and finished in 2 years.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to survey ·learning disability students and students in special day classes and to compare them on select characteristics to each other and to children attending regular day classes. VARIABLES: The selected variables. for this study were creativity, locus of control, and academic achievement. Each of these variables was divided into sub-parts permitting a more inclusive consideration. Creativity was measured for the factors of fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. Locus of control was separated into three parts, each measuring one of the following: student responsibility for academic failure, (I-); responsibility for academic success, (I+); and a composite of these two (I Total). Academic achievement was measured by the use I of diagnostic Stanford Reading and Stanford Arithmetic tests. The following skills· were tested in the area of reading: reading comprehension, vocabulary, auditory discrimination, syllabication, beginning and ending sounds, blending, and sound discrimination. The diagnostic arithmetic test had thirteen subtests. Only seven of the subtests were used and these were number system and counting, operations, decimal place value, addition, subtraction, concepts total, and computation total. POPULATION: The population of this study consisted of forty randomly selected elementary students in special programs for the educationally handicapped. Twenty of the students were enrolled in learning disability groups while the remaining twenty students attended special day classes for educationally handicapped minors. All of the students were in either the third or fourth grade level school placement and attended the Napa Valley Unified School District. PROCEDURES: The forty students were divided into one of four groups according to I.Q. and educational classification. This allowed the researcher to control the I.Q. while examining the twenty-one variables. Analysis of variance was used. When comparing students in special day classes and students in learning disability groups to normative data, the t-test was utilized. FINDINGS: Achievement l. Special day class students are academically more deficient than learning disability students in understanding the number system, knowing decimal place notation, doing addition. These results were significant at the .05 level of confidence. 2. As expected, students in learning disability groups and students in special day classes are below regular students in all academic areas (significant at the .01 level). Creativity 1. Students in learning disability groups are more flexible than students from special day classes. · 2. Both students from learning disability groups and students from special day classes were less elaborate but more original in their responses than regular students. · Locus of Control 1. Students in learning disability groups and students in special day classes were less able to take responsibility for their academic successes than regular students. There is some indication that both students in learning disability groups and students in special day classes do not take responsibility for their academic failures. In general, these two types of students see the world as externally controlled.

Food accessibility has lately been of primary interest given its impact on public health outcomes. This thesis illustrates the gaps in food access by applying spatial analysis in Massachusetts accounting for a variety of demographic and socioeconomic factors. The number of grocery stores, farmers markets, and convenience stores within 1/4 and 1 mile of the Census tracts’ centroids are the two accessibility metrics used in the spatial analysis. In addition, a regression model is developed using the Gradient Boosting machine learning method to show the relationship between the socioeconomic factors and the number of grocery stores within 1 mile of the Census tracts’ centroids. Percent of minority population, population in poverty, vehicle ownership, and population density are the factors used as explanatory variables. The results include histograms and maps for the spatial analysis, which show that access to food services is higher in urban high-density areas regardless of high poverty and minority percent values. The regression model results include partial dependence plots, variable importance plot as well as a map that illustrates the standard deviation of the residual values. This research can inform that when the vehicle ownership, the minority and poverty percent increase, the number of grocery stores increases, as these values are high in big cities where there is high availability of food retailers.