Com a Política Nacional de Educação Especial na perspectiva da Educação Inclusiva (2008), as escolas regulares vêm recebendo um número maior de estudantes surdos ou com deficiência auditiva (S/DA), que antes frequentavam escolas especializadas. No entanto, dados apontam a diminuição do número de estudantes S/DA matriculados no ensino fundamental para o ensino médio, e do ensino médio para o ensino superior; ou seja, existem razões para se acreditar que barreiras educacionais se impõem no caminho desses estudantes para que conquistem uma formação educacional completa. Neste contexto, o objetivo deste trabalho é propor um modelo de aceitação de tecnologias levando em consideração fatores que envolvam aspectos do contexto da educação inclusiva, bem como efetuar experimento da interação de usuários S/DA com uma tecnologia para avaliar o modelo. Dentre os fatores mencionados um deles se refere às potenciais barreiras educacionais vivenciadas pelos estudantes S/DA em salas de aula inclusivas. Com relação à metodologia de pesquisa, o estudo desenvolveu-se em ciclos. Na medida em que as investigações avançavam, um novo estudo iniciava, se desenvolvia e se fechava. Isso permitiu que a proposta inicial tivesse sucessivos refinamentos ao longo do tempo até o ponto em que os questionamentos iniciais foram respondidos e o objetivo foi atingido. O modelo proposto mostrou resultados positivos, no sentido de conseguir capturar os fatores que podem influenciar a aceitação de tecnologias considerando o contexto de aplicação específico, uma vez que estes incorporam os aspectos da qualidade pragmática e os aspectos da qualidade hedônica, questões relacionadas à utilidade percebida da minimização de potenciais barreiras educacionais, expectativas futuras, e condições facilitadoras. Conclui-se que o modelo engloba tanto a investigação sobre questões motivacionais pessoais dos usuários quanto a investigação de aspectos do contexto de uso, e que o modelo pode ser utilizado para a finalidade a qual foi proposto, a avaliação de aceitação de tecnologias em ambientes de educação incluvisa. / With the foundation of the National Policy on Special Education on the Perspective of Inclusive Education (2008), mainstream schools are receiving a greater number of deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) students, that once before were attending specialized schools. However, data point to the declining number of D/HH students enrolled from primary school to high school, and from high school students to higher education; ie, there are reasons to believe that educational barriers are imposed on the way of these students to conquer a complete education. In this context, the goal of this work is to propose a technology acceptance model that takes into account factors that ivolve aspects of the inclusive education context, as well as performing experiment on the interaction of D/HH users with a technology to evaluate the model. Among the factors, one of them refers to the potential educational barriers experienced by D/HH students in inclusive classrooms. With regard to research methodology, the study was developed in cycles. To the extent that the investigations progressed, a new study began, was unfolded and closed. This allowed successive refinements over time to the point where the initial questions were answered and the goal was reached. The proposed model has shown positive results in capturing factors that influence technology acceptance given the domain specific context, since they incorporate aspects of pragmatic quality and hedonic quality, also issues related to perceived usefulness in minimizing potential educational barriers, future expectations, and facilitating conditions. We conclude that the model encompasses both users personal motivation and context of use aspects, and the model can be used for the purpose for which it was proposed, technology acceptance evaluation considering inclusive education contexts.

Reading development is supported by strong language skills, not least in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. The work in the present thesis investigates reading development in DHH children who use sign language, attend Regional Special Needs Schools (RSNS) in Sweden and are learning to read. The primary aim of the present work was to investigate whether the reading skills of these children can be improved via computerized sign language based literacy training. Another aim was to investigate concurrent and longitudinal associations between skills in reading, sign language, and cognition in this population. The results suggest that sign language based literacy training may support development of word reading. In addition, awareness and manipulation of the sub-lexical structure of sign language seem to assist word reading, and imitation of familiar signs (i.e., vocabulary) may be associated with developing reading comprehension. The associations revealed between sign language skills and reading development support the notion that sign language skills provide a foundation for emerging reading skills in DHH signing children. In addition, the results also suggest that working memory and Theory of Mind (ToM) are related to reading comprehension in this population. Furthermore, the results indicate that sign language experience enhances the establishment of representations of manual gestures, and that progression in ToM seems to be typical, although delayed, in RSNS pupils. Working memory has a central role in integrating environmental stimuli and language-mediated representations, and thereby provides a platform for cross-modal language processing and multimodal language development. / En god språklig förmåga bidrar till god läsutveckling, inte minst hos döva och hörselskadade (D/H) barn. Studierna som ingår i avhandlingen undersöker läsutveckling hos D/H elever som går på teckenspråkiga specialskolor och som håller på att lära sig att läsa. Arbetets huvudsakliga syfte var att undersöka om deras läsförmåga kan förbättras via datoriserad teckenspråksbaserad lästräning. Ett annat syfte var att undersöka samtida och longitudinella samband mellan läsförmåga, teckenspråk, och kognition i samma population. Resultaten indikerar att teckenspråksbaserad lästräning kan bidra till ordläsningsutveckling. Vidare pekar resultaten på att medvetenhet om och manipulation av teckenspråkets sublexikala struktur stöttar läsförmågan och dessutom att imitation av kända tecken (i.e., vokabulär) var associerat med utvecklingen av barnens läsförståelse. Dessa fynd visar att teckenspråkskunskaper kan utgöra en grund för läsutveckling hos teckenspråkiga D/H elever. Resultaten indikerade även att arbetsminne och Theory of Mind (ToM) är relaterade till läsförståelse i denna grupp. Vid sidan av resultaten rörande läsutveckling, framkom också att teckenspråkserfarenhet leder till starkare etablering av representationer av manuella gester och vidare att barnens mentaliseringsförmåga (Theory of Mind) uppvisade en förväntad progression, om än försenad. En implikation av detta är att insatser som stöttar utveckling av teckenbaserade representationer och deras användning vid bearbetning av skrivet språk kan främja läsutveckling hos teckenspråkiga D/H elever. Arbetsminne föreslås genom sin roll i integration mellan inkommande stimuli och språkmedierade representationer fungera som en plattform för modalitetsöverskridande språkbearbetning och multimodal språkutveckling.