The purpose of my work is to investigate the experiences in school for pupils with Asperger syndrome around the question, what is a good school for them. I´m also interested in what experiences the staff has about this question. I made a qualitative interview study. I have interviewed three pupils with Asperger syndrome, a teacher and a pupil assistant. To give the reader background information I have written about what the researchers say about what it is like to have Asperger syndrome. I have also in the literature information about experiences from people with Asperger syndrome. The interviewed pupils are in senior level and the interviewed staff is their supporting staff. All the pupils in this investigation are included in “their own” class. They can leave the class to get support in a small group, either to get help in a special subject, or because they decide that they want help or peace and quiet. My results show that the interviewed pupils have it rather good at school, except in relations to friends. Both the staff and the pupils say that the relationship to the staff is very important. To get an even better school the pupils want that the teachers in the class listen carefully what pupils say to each other. / Syftet med mitt arbete är att undersöka skolerfarenheter hos elever med Aspergers syndrom kring frågan hur en bra skola ser ut för dem. Jag är också intresserad av uppfattningarna hos personalen. För att nå mitt syfte har jag gjort en kvalitativ intervjuundersökning, där jag har intervjuat tre elever med Aspergers syndrom, en lärare och en elevassistent. För att läsaren ska få en bakgrundsinformation har jag tagit upp vad forskarna säger om hur det är att ha Aspergers syndrom. I litteraturgenomgången finns information om hur personer med Aspergers syndrom själva upplever sitt funktionshinder. Eleverna går på högstadiet och den intervjuade personalen är deras stödpersonal. Alla elever i den här undersökningen är inkluderade i ”sin” klass. De går ifrån till en stödgrupp, antingen för att få hjälp i ett speciellt ämne, som är schemalagt, eller för att de själva bestämmer att nu behöver jag hjälp eller lugn och ro. Mitt resultat visar att de intervjuade eleverna har det ganska bra i sin skola, förutom när det gäller kamratrelationer. Relationen till skolpersonalen är mycket viktig, enligt både elever och personal. För att få en ännu bättre skola vill eleverna att lärarna i klassen ska vara mer vaksamma på vad som sägs mellan eleverna.

En röststörning kan sägas föreligga då rösten inte fungerar eller låter som den brukar så att det påverkar kommunikationen. Prevalensen för röststörningar uppskattas till omkring 6 % av den vuxna befolkningen. När rösten inte fungerar som den ska leder det till emotionella, sociala och funktionella svårigheter för individen och har negativ inverkan på livskvaliteten. Voice- Related Quality of Life (V-RQOL) är ett självskattningsformulär som mäter vilken inverkan en röststörning kan ha på individens livskvalitet. Detta instrument är internationellt välanvänt, men har inte funnits översatt till svenska. Syftet med föreliggande uppsats var att översätta och validera V-RQOL för en svensk population. Översättningen skedde genom så kallad back translation och den svenska versionen fick namnet Röstrelaterad livskvalitet (RRL). RRL och Rösthandikappindex (RHI) distribuerades i pappersformat till en röstpatientgrupp (n = 88) och en röstfrisk grupp (n = 110). Reliabiliteten av domänerna och samtliga tio påståenden på RRL var hög för patientgruppen med Cronbach’s alfa- värden från 0.82 till 0.90. Det fanns en tydlig relation mellan den självskattade röstkvaliteten och poängen på RRL och formuläret kunde även differentiera mellan röstpatienter och röstfriska. Dessa resultat indikerar att formulärets begreppsvaliditet är god. Pearson’s korrelationsanalys visade att det fanns en signifikant negativ korrelation mellan RRL:s och RHI:s domäner och totalpoäng. Detta starka samband mellan ”the gold standard”, RHI, och RRL innebär en god kriterierelaterad validitet för formuläret. Sammanfattningsvis visar resultaten att RRL har hög reliabilitet och god validitet, dessutom är formuläret kort vilket innebär en liten arbetsinsats. Formuläret anses därför vara ett pålitligt och värdefullt tillägg i den kliniska bedömningen av röststörningar. / A voice disorder can be said to exist when the voice does not work or sound as it normally should in a manner so that it interferes with communication. The prevalence of voice disorders is estimated to be about 6 % of the adult population. When the voice does not work as it should it may lead to emotional, social and functional difficulties for the individual and with negative effects on the quality of life. Voice- Related Quality of Life (V-RQOL) is a self-reporting questionnaire which measures the effect of a voice disorder on the quality of life of an individual. The instrument is frequently used internationally, but no Swedish translation has existed. In the present study, the purpose was to translate and validate V-RQOL for a Swedish population. The method for translating the questionnaire was back translation. The translated questionnaire was given the Swedish name Röstrelaterad livskvalitet (RRL). RRL and the Swedish version of The Voice Handicap Index, Rösthandikappindex (RHI), was distributed to a group of voice patients (n = 88) and a group of non-voice patients (n = 110). The reliability of the domains and the combined items of RRL was high according to Cronbach’s alpha with alpha values ranging from 0.82 to 0.90. There was a strong relation between the self–estimated voice quality and the scores on RRL, and the RRL- questionnaire was shown to differentiate between voice patients and non-voice patients. These results indicate that the construct validity of the questionnaire is good. Pearson’s correlation analysis demonstrated a significant negative correlation between the domains and total scores of RRL and RHI. This strong relation between “the gold standard”, RHI, and RRL proved that the criterion validity of the questionnaire is good. In summary the results show that RRL has a high reliability and good validity, in addition to this, the questionnaire is short and requires minimal work. The questionnaire is therefore considered to be a reliable and valuable addition to the clinical assessment of voice disorders.

Avhandlingen beskriver och analyserar hur frågor kring tillgänglighet/handikapp för första gången aktualiserades och implementerades i planeringen och utformningen av den byggda miljön i Aten, nämligen processen i samband med beslut, planering och implementering av jätteprojektet Atens Metro. Studien tecknar framväxten av olika handikapporganisationer, som från att ha varit svaga aktörer successivt lyckades få gehör för sina krav inom stadens förvaltning, politiska organ, den grekiska riksdagen och inte minst inom de företag som byggde metrosystemet. Avhandlingen diskuterar hur handikapporganisationer och metrosystemet växte fram och påverkade varandra, hur viktiga forum för att diskutera/problematisera olika perspektiv på handikapp skapades där aktörsgrupper med delvis olika intressen förde fram sina ståndpunkter och förhandlade samt vilka konkreta avtryck som dessa processer ledde till i form av en - slutligen - handikappvänlig teknisk konfiguration av metrosystemet. Studien knyter också an till den europeiska diskussionen, bl.a. inom EU, kring handikapp och vilken betydelse som denna diskussion hade för det framväxande metroprojektet, inte minst inför Atens OS-värdskap 2004. Avhandlingen tar sin teoretiska utgångspunkt i dels samhällsvetenskapliga teknik- och vetenskapsstudier, dels "disability studies". / The idea of building a metro network in Athens dates back to the 1950s. It took almost fifty years for the Greek government to develop plans, secure funds and to carry out an effective procurement process for the construction of the Athens metro. In February 1987 the government announced an invitation to tender for the design and construction of the metro. Thirteen years later, in January 2000 the first two lines began operation. The construction of the metro consisted of numerous preliminary studies, different public organizations which dealt with its development and several controversies concerning its design. One of these controversies referred to the issue whether the metro would be accessible to disabled people or not. Integrating accessibility provisions in the metro design constituted a controversial issue where different actors argued and acted for and against its implementation. This study describes and analyses the process of making the metro accessible. The analysis focuses on how questions regarding accessibility/disability were actualized for the first time in the planning and design of the Greek built environment and in particular on the process of building the biggest and most complicated infrastructure project in Greece, the Athens metro. At the same time, the study describes the evolution of disability organizations in Greece: they changed from being weak actors who were unable to influence socio-political configurations to actors that successively gained attention within the public administration, political organs, the Greek Parliament and the company that constructed the metro. The study discusses how disability organizations and the metro were developed and influenced each other and how important forums, where several actors with diverse interests problematized and produced different perspectives on disability, were initiated. These forums constituted public spaces within the public administration and eventually contributed to the construction of an accessible metro network. The analysis is also connected to Athens hosting of the Olympic and Paralympic Games of 2004 which created increasing demands for constructing an accessible built environment, including the metro. Furthermore, the study also draws upon the discussion within the EU on disability and on which kind of consequences this discussion implied for the developing metro. The theoretical basis for this study is located at the intersection of two broad fields, namely science and technology studies (S&TS) and disability studies.

This thesis investigates Zigenarundersökningen [the Gypsy study] – a socio-medical study of Swedish Roma conducted in 1962-1965. The Study was financed by the National Labour Market Board, which sought scientific information on every adult Roma citizen in order to plan for targeted authority interventions. The socio-medical team used a number of different medical and social techniques, drawing together different kinds of data – from the molecular to the social level – and adding “objective” records from public institutions, which resulted in the creation of detailed and voluminous individual case files. On the basis of these files, the public health specialist John Takman in charge of the socio-medical examinations formulated a professional opinion on each individual and family. During the execution of the study, new scientific and social questions were articulated, resulting in that the originally limited investigation concerning only a smaller group of Roma citizens evolved into a comprehensive research project covering all people identified as Swedish Roma. In this thesis, this expansion is analysed using methodological tools from Science and Technology Studies that focus on the reflexivity between the goals of scientific actors, and the social conditions and problematisations that surround them. In this way, science and policy mutually influence each other in situated practices, which also involves the drawing of scientific boundaries that serve to establish epistemic authority.   Departing from Engin F. Isin’s theory on social citizenship, and its alterities, as constituted in contingent and contextualised social practices, and from Franca Iacovetta’s study of Canadian gatekeepers’ work in cold-war Canada, the thesis investigates how the, with time, increasing and more comprehensive activities of experts and professionals created new dimensions of citizenship. Against this background, the thesis draws the conclusion that the scientific-political examinations of problematised citizenship and citizens in Sweden in the 1960’s, while defining deviance, also defined normality. This implies, furthermore, that scientific measurements and classifications of alterity contributed to constituting those measuring and classifying – the experts and professionals – as virtuous citizens, in accordance with contemporary norms of professionalism and expertise, while the Roma were continually constructed as problematic citizens. Hence, scientific-political activities concerning Swedish Roma in the 1960’s created new spaces of social citizenship, where the contents of both normality and deviance were nuanced and (re)defined.