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This study focused on the use of Assistive Technology (AT) in enhancing the educational support of all learners in a mainstream school. The theoretical frameworks used in this study were Wellness Theory and Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). The main aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of Assistive Technology in promoting the educational support of all learners in a mainstream school. This use of AT thus benefiting inclusion and inclusive practices and enhancing learning and support for all students in a mainstream school. The study was embedded in an interpretivist paradigm and used a qualitative research approach. Sampling was purposive and participants were selected based on the researcher’s pre-defined purpose for the study. Ethical approval was sought from the University of South Africa and prior to conducting research consent forms were signed by all participants. Data were collected using questionnaires with open-ended questions, face to face interviews and document analysis. Data analysis was done through thematic coding (noting recurring patterns of information) and the development of major themes based on qualitative data collected. Findings revealed the need for more technology in the research site (such as iPads and laptops), as well as the need for staff training in order to effectively use the technology. Furthermore, having more educational assistants to support students with more complex needs was also highlighted. Findings from face-to-face interviews indicated themes articulating with the above mentioned. This included the need for time to plan for the use of Assistive Technology in the classroom, along with time to familiarize oneself with the various forms of technology available. Training to effectively implement and support the technology was highlighted, as was time to engage with other colleagues and develop a collegial enquiry for the effective use of Assistive Technology to support all learners in the mainstream class. Findings from documents reviewed showed significant focus on the need for diagnosis to be able to select intervention strategies for the classroom and instruction. When staff were aware of a child’s medical, cognitive or mental health diagnosis, appropriate supports could be explored. The school support documents reviewed indicated a clear requirement for updated testing and setting of goals for students, to be supported by the strategies. Recommendations made for the effective use of AT included the promotion of professional development in staff and the establishment of professional learning communities which value the sharing and exchange of information regarding knowledge and skills. Furthermore, a framework is proposed which may be used by schools using assistive technology in supporting learners in mainstream schools so that learning may be enhanced. A further longitudinal study was recommended for the future to determine the impact of the use of AT to support inclusion when relevant staff training is available, applicable and ongoing. / Inclusive Education / D. Ed. (Inclusive Education)

Despite the rapid proliferation of assistive technology implementation, studies have revealed that a number of professionals that provide assistive technology services do not have adequate competencies to recommend and deliver assistive technologies in school settings. The purpose of the study was to examine the competencies of assistive technology specialists in Florida K-12 public schools, and identify training opportunities that may have helped them achieve professional competence in the evaluation and provision of assistive technology devices and services across AT service providers from different preparations. The study applied quantitative and qualitative methods to determine answers to the following six research questions: (1) to what extent does the perceived level of AT knowledge differ among AT specialists from different occupations in the Florida public school setting, (2) to what extent does the perceived level of AT skills differ among AT specialists from different occupations in the Florida public school setting, (3) what are the AT specialists’ perceptions about their AT knowledge and skill levels, (4) what common competency sets are needed for the AT specialist, regardless of their occupational role, (5) what are the training opportunities among AT specialists from different occupations in the Florida public schools setting, and (6) what type of training opportunities are essential among AT specialists from different occupations in the Florida school setting. In order to gather data of breadth and depth, the researcher disseminated an online survey, which 39 AT providers from the five Florida school regions completed. Interviews were conducted with seven of the survey respondents to triangulate interview data with the survey data. Results suggested that assistive technology specialists possess different levels of assistive technology knowledge and skills. Assistive technology specialists from different professional backgrounds and years of experience identified a lack of competence in several areas where they currently provide AT services. Assistive technology specialists should seek continuous in-service training to increase their assistive technology knowledge in the evaluation and recommendation of AT equipment and services for students with special needs in schools. This training is vital to meet their students’ assistive technology needs and legislation requirements for assistive technology services for students with disabilities. Recommendations for the improvement of assistive technology professional practice in schools are included in the study.

Problématique. L'utilisation d'un chien d'assistance à la mobilité (CAM) représente une option novatrice pour préserver l’intégrité des membres supérieurs (MSs) chez les utilisateurs de fauteuil roulant manuel (FRM). Aucune étude biomécanique n’a quantifié les effets du CAM sur les efforts aux MSs lors de la montée d’un plan incliné. Objectif. Cette étude quasi-expérimentale vise à comparer les efforts aux MSs lors de la montée d’un plan incliné avec et sans l’assistance d’un CAM. Méthodologie. Dix participants avec une lésion de la moelle épinière (LME) qui utilisent un FRM et possèdent un CAM ont monté un plan incliné à trois reprises avec et sans l’assistance du CAM. Les forces appliquées sur les cerceaux, mesurées avec des roues instrumentées, et les mouvements du FRM et des MSs, enregistrés avec un système d'analyse du mouvement, ont permis de mesurer les efforts mécaniques aux MSs. Simultanément, l'activité électromyographique (EMG) des muscles grand pectoral, deltoïde antérieur, biceps et triceps a été enregistrée et normalisée avec sa valeur maximale pour mesurer les efforts musculaires aux MSs. Résultats. En général, le CAM réduit significativement les valeurs moyennes et maximales de la force totale appliquée aux cerceaux et de sa composante tangentielle, des moments nets de flexion, de rotation interne et d’adduction aux épaules et des taux d’utilisation musculaire du deltoïde antérieur, du biceps et du triceps. Conclusion. L’assistance d’un CAM réduit les efforts aux MSs lors de la montée d’un plan incliné chez les utilisateurs d’un FRM ayant une LME. / Problematic. The use of a mobility assistance dog (ADMob) represents an innovative option to preserve upper limb (U/Ls) integrity in manual wheelchair (MWC) user population. No biomechanical studies have quantified the effects of ADMob on U/Ls efforts when climbing an incline. Objective. This quasi-experimental study compares the U/Ls efforts when climbing an incline with and without the assistance of an ADMob for MWC traction. Methodology. Ten participants with spinal cord injury (SCI) using a MWC and owning an ADMob climbed an incline 3 times with and without the use of an ADMob. The forces applied to the handrims, captured with instrumented wheel and movements of the MWC and the U/Ls, recorded with a three-dimensional motion analysis system, were used to measure the U/Ls mechanical efforts. Simultaneously, the electromyographic (EMG) activity of the pectoralis major muscle, anterior deltoid, biceps and triceps were recorded during the tasks and normalized with its maximum value to measure the U/Ls muscular efforts. Results. Typically, ADMob significantly reduces the mean and peak values of the total force applied to the rings and the tangential component, the mean and peak values of flexion, internal rotation and adduction net joint moments at the shoulder and the mean and peak values of muscular utilization ratio of anterior deltoid, pectoralis major, biceps and triceps. Conclusion. The assistance of an ADMob for MWC traction when climbing an incline reduces the effort to U/Ls among MWC users with a SCI.

Satsningar på en-till-en, det vill säga en dator eller pekplatta per elev, blir allt vanligare i svensk skola, men det finns begränsad forskning om hur detta påverkar elever med funktionsnedsättning och/eller i behov av stöd. I en inkluderande skola behöver tekniken vara tillgänglig för alla och användas i ett meningsfullt sammanhang. Studiens syfte var att undersöka hur en-till-en-satsningar kan påverka elevers möjligheter i skolan,alla elever oavsett funktionsförmåga inräknade. I detta ingick att identifiera såväl positiva som negativa aspekter av att ha ständig tillgång till en dator per elev i undervisningssituationen och hur detta förhåller sig till den inkluderande skolan. Metoder som användes i insamlingen var fallstudien som metod, deltagande semistrukturerade observationer på två skolor samt semistrukturerade elevintervjuer på en av dessa skolor. Som stöd för analysen av materialet användes en modell för undervisning och lärandeprocesser som bygger på ett didaktiskt designperspektiv. Resultatet visar att en-till-en, om tekniken används inom ramen för en medveten pedagogisk tanke hos läraren, ger många möjligheter i form av anpassningar utifrån varje elevs behov. Eleverna är ofta positiva till datorn och kan komma runt sina svårigheter utan att sticka ut i klassrummet. Dessutom ökar möjligheten för läraren att kommunicera enskilt och i grupp med eleverna, vilket ger rikliga tillfällen till formativ bedömning och ytterligare individanpassning. Samtidigt identifieras stora svårigheter med IKT i klassrummet, bland annat att vissa elever får väldigt lite skolarbete gjort på grund av att de inte kan motstå sociala medier, spel och annat som en Internetuppkopplad dator ständigt erbjuder. Med andra ord finns en risk för att lärmiljön blir otillgänglig och exkluderande, särskilt för elever med koncentrationssvårigheter. Allt detta behöver pedagoger vara medvetna om för att genom kollegialt lärande kunna utveckla fungerande strategier som gynnar alla elevers lärande. / Investing in one-to-one computing (1:1), i.e. a computer or tablet per student, is increasingly common in Swedish schools, but there is limited research on how this affects students with disabilities or with special educational needs. The purpose of the study was to investigate how 1:1 may affect students with disabilities or special educational needs. The purpose included identification of positive and negative aspects related to the constant access to personal devices in the classroom, as well as an analysis of how that relates to the concept of inclusive education. The methods used in the case study were semi-structured observations in two schools and semi-structured interviews with students at one of these schools. The analysis of the research material was made with the support of a model for teaching and learning processes based on a didactic design perspective. The results show that 1:1 can provide many possibilities in the form of adjustments based on each student’s needs, providing the technology is used in accordance with the teacher’s intentions with her or his teaching. Many students enjoy their computers and can overcome personal difficulties without showing it to their classmates. The use of personal devices also leaves more time for teachers to communicate individually or in small groups with their students, i.e. opportunities for formative assessment and further individualization. However, the study also identifies major difficulties with ICT in the classroom. Some students perform poorly as they cannot resist the social media, computer games and other issues that Internet connected devices can offer. In other words, there is a risk that the learning environment becomes inaccessible and excluding, especially for pupils with special needs. Teachers need to be aware of these possibilities as well as limitations with one-to-one computing in order to find strategies that benefit all pupils.

Submitted by SBI Biblioteca Digital (sbi.bibliotecadigital@puc-campinas.edu.br) on 2018-06-07T14:48:53Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Andre Luiz da Silva.pdf: 21913229 bytes, checksum: a21aa44045c7a96617c071e0837056d8 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-07T14:48:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Andre Luiz da Silva.pdf: 21913229 bytes, checksum: a21aa44045c7a96617c071e0837056d8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-05-30 / This study describes a comparative analysys of accessibility for the blind used in SGEAD (Distant Learning Management Systems), TelEduc and WebCT according to criteria, recommendations and international norms such as heuristical evaluation techniques, automatic test of accessibility, inspection based on the points of verification of the W3C recommendations for the accessibility of the content of the Web 1.0 and from tasks reports and questionnaires conducted with the users. One of the goals of this researches is to demonstrate the importance of the use of standards and guides for Web accessibility as support for accessibility for the blind in the current scenario of digital inclusion. The quality of the interface is essencial for the success of distant learning interactive systems. It is expected that this study will contribute to the production of knowledge that will guide and support the professionals involved with e-Iearning. / Este estudo descreve a an?lise comparativa de acessibilidade para cegos aplicadas nos Sistemas de Gerenciamento para Educa??o a Dist?ncia (SGEAD) TelEduc e WebCT, segundo os crit?rios, recomenda??es e normas internacionais, tais como, t?cnicas de avalia??o heur?stica, teste autom?tico de acessibilidade, inspe??o baseada nos pontos de verifica??o das recomenda??es para a acessibilidade do conte?do da Web 1.0 do W3C e de tarefas e question?rios com os usu?rios. Um dos objetivos desta pesquisa ? demonstrar a import?ncia da utiliza??o de padr?es e guias para a Acessibilidade Web como fator de apoio a acessibilidade para cegos dentro do atual cen?rio de inclus?o digital. A qualidade da interface ? fundamental para que sistemas interativos de educa??o a dist?ncia possam ser utilizados com sucesso. Espera-se com este estudo, contribuir para a produ??o de conhecimentos que sirvam para orientar e apoiar os profissionais envolvidos com a educa??o computadorizada.

Les enfants souffrant de troubles du langage, comme la dyslexie, rencontrent de grandes difficultés dans l'apprentissage de la lecture et dans toute tâche de lecture, par la suite. Ces difficultés compromettent grandement l'accès au sens des textes auxquels ils sont confrontés durant leur scolarité, ce qui implique des difficultés d'apprentissage et les entraîne souvent vers une situation d'échec scolaire. Depuis une quinzaine d'années, des outils développés dans le domaine du Traitement Automatique des Langues sont détournés pour être utilisés comme stratégie d'aide et de compensation pour les élèves en difficultés. Parallèlement, l'usage de cartes conceptuelles ou de cartes heuristiques pour aider les enfants dyslexiques à formuler leurs pensées, ou à retenir certaines connaissances, s'est développé. Ce travail de thèse vise à répertorier et croiser, d'une part, les connaissances sur le public dyslexique, sa prise en charge et ses difficultés, d'autre part, les possibilités pédagogiques ouvertes par l'usage de cartes, et enfin, les technologies de résumé automatique et d'extraction de mots-clés. L'objectif est de réaliser un logiciel novateur capable de transformer automatiquement un texte donné en une carte, celle-ci doit faciliter la compréhension du texte tout en comprenant des fonctionnalités adaptées à un public d'adolescents dyslexiques. Ce projet a abouti, premièrement, à la réalisation d'une expérimentation exploratoire, sur l'aide à la compréhension de texte grâce aux cartes heuristiques, qui permet de définir de nouveaux axes de recherche ; deuxièmement, à la réalisation d'un prototype de logiciel de cartographie automatique qui est présenté en fin de thèse / Children with language impairment, such as dyslexia, are often faced with important difficulties when learning to read and during any subsequent reading tasks. These difficulties tend to compromise the understanding of the texts they must read during their time at school. This implies learning difficulties and may lead to academic failure. Over the past fifteen years, general tools developed in the field of Natural Language Processing have been transformed into specific tools for that help with and compensate for language impaired students' difficulties. At the same time, the use of concept maps or heuristic maps to encourage dyslexic children express their thoughts, or retain certain knowledge, has become popular. This thesis aims to identify and explore knowledge about the dyslexic public, how society takes care of them and what difficulties they face; the pedagogical possibilities opened up by the use of maps; and the opportunities created by automatic summarization and Information Retrieval fields. The aim of this doctoral research project was to create an innovative piece of software that automatically transforms a given text into a map. It was important that this piece of software facilitate reading comprehension while including functionalities that are adapted to dyslexic teenagers. The project involved carrying out an exploratory experiment on reading comprehension aid, thanks to heuristic maps, that make the identification of new research topics possible, and implementing an automatic mapping software prototype that is presented at the end of this thesis

The collaboration between the School of Engineering and the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of North Florida has introduced the possibility of creating a new environment for pediatric physical therapy assessments. There are currently no methods for remotely monitoring children with impairments. However, with embedded sensor technology in the form of power mobility and accepted therapy assessment tools, remote monitoring can become a possibility. As a part of this work, a ride-on toy car was developed as a remote monitoring device and a case study with a child with a mobility impairment was used as a proof of concept. In this thesis, the background information on the project, the case study diagnosis and history, and the model used to develop this project are detailed.

Many individuals with severe motor impairments are cognitively capable, but because of their physical impairments, unable to express their intention through conventional means of communication. Access technologies are devices that attempt to translate the intention of these individuals into functional activity by harnessing their residual physical or physiological abilities. The primary objective of this thesis was to design and develop a novel non-invasive and non-contact access technology based on infrared thermal imaging. This access technology translates the local temperature change associated with voluntary mouth opening to activation of a binary switch such as a mouse click or key press. To this end, an algorithm based on motion and temperature analyses, and morphological and anthropometric filters was designed to detect mouth opening activity in thermal video in real-time. The secondary objective of this thesis was to introduce a mutual information measure for objective assessment of binary switch users’ performance. A model was suggested, in which combination of cognitive and physical abilities of the human user of a binary access switch constitute a communication channel. The proposed mutual information measure estimates the rate of information transmission in the ‘human communication channel’ during stimulus response tasks. Using this measure, in a study with ten able-bodied participants, the infrared thermal switch was validated against a conventional chin switch. Impairments in body functions and structures that may contraindicate the use of the infrared thermal switch were explored in a study with seven clients, with severe disabilities. Potential hard and soft technological solutions to mitigate the effect of these impairments on infrared thermal switch use were recommended. Finally the infrared thermal switch was tailored to meet the needs of a young man with severe spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, who had no other means of physical access.

Many individuals with severe motor impairments are cognitively capable, but because of their physical impairments, unable to express their intention through conventional means of communication. Access technologies are devices that attempt to translate the intention of these individuals into functional activity by harnessing their residual physical or physiological abilities. The primary objective of this thesis was to design and develop a novel non-invasive and non-contact access technology based on infrared thermal imaging. This access technology translates the local temperature change associated with voluntary mouth opening to activation of a binary switch such as a mouse click or key press. To this end, an algorithm based on motion and temperature analyses, and morphological and anthropometric filters was designed to detect mouth opening activity in thermal video in real-time. The secondary objective of this thesis was to introduce a mutual information measure for objective assessment of binary switch users’ performance. A model was suggested, in which combination of cognitive and physical abilities of the human user of a binary access switch constitute a communication channel. The proposed mutual information measure estimates the rate of information transmission in the ‘human communication channel’ during stimulus response tasks. Using this measure, in a study with ten able-bodied participants, the infrared thermal switch was validated against a conventional chin switch. Impairments in body functions and structures that may contraindicate the use of the infrared thermal switch were explored in a study with seven clients, with severe disabilities. Potential hard and soft technological solutions to mitigate the effect of these impairments on infrared thermal switch use were recommended. Finally the infrared thermal switch was tailored to meet the needs of a young man with severe spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, who had no other means of physical access.