The Help America Vote Act, passed into law in 2002, mandated that all polling places provide privacy and independence to all voters. Given this, many jurisdictions have been forced into making a choice between providing traditional voting methods (such as paper ballots) and offering newer electronic voting systems. Electronic voting machines have been seen as the solution to many usability and accessibility problems, but very little literature exists to indicate whether this is the case among specific populations such as disabled, elderly, and non-English speaking voters. An audio accessible voting interface for visually disabled voters (CHILVote) was designed using specifications from both the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines and a largescale survey of blind individuals conducted by Piner and Byrne [in proceedings of The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 55th Annual Meeting, pp. 1686-1690 (2011)]. CHILVote’s interface utilizes the given design guidelines and includes use of a male text-to-speech voice, a flexible navigation structure, adjustable speed and volume, and an optional review section. Relatively low error rates (M=1.7%) and high SUS scores (M=89.5) among blind subjects are consistent with previous findings. Error rates and satisfaction are not significantly different than those of sighted voters using both paper and DRE, and blind voters using a non-electronic interface. CHILVote significantly reduced the time it takes for blind subjects to vote, from 25.2 minutes (VotePAD) to 17.1 minutes (CHILVote). This is an improvement, but still over 2.5 times slower than sighted subjects voting on an identical ballot. The integration of accessibility into mainstream technology often has benefits beyond allowing more of the population access to a system. This research provides a comparison point and guidelines for future studies of accessibility solutions.

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva hur mammor med synnedsättning och barn i åldern 0-16 år upplever sin psykosociala hälsa samt hur de hanterar sin situation. Metod: En deskriptiv studie med en kvalitativ ansats. Data analyserades med kvalitativ innehållsanalys enligt Graneheim och Lundman. Totalt analyserades intervjuer med åtta informanter. Resultat: Analysen resulterade i fem kategorier och 20 subkategorier: Att vara förälder med synnedsättning, att som synskadad möta sin omgivning, att få stöd, att hantera vardagen, att fysiskt och psykiskt påverkas av sin situation.  Resultaten visade att mammor med synnedsättning med barn i åldern 0-16 år utsattes för ökad psykosocialt stress. De höga krav de själva ställde på sig, den tid och energi som synnedsättningen tog i anspråk samt genom att de valde att inte berätta för sin omgivning att de hade en synnedsättning ansågs vara en del av förklaringen. Resultaten visade även att mammor med synnedsättning upplevde att de för det mesta blev bra bemötta samt att det sociala nätverket var viktigt för att få vardagen att gå ihop. / Aim: The aim of this study was to describe how visually impaired mothers with children aged 0-16 years experienced their psychosocial health and how they handle their situation. Method: A descriptive qualitative interview study.  Data analysis was performed by qualitative content analysis according to Graneheim och Lundman. A total of eight interviews were analysed. Results: The analysis yielded five categories containing a total of 20 sub-categories: to be a visually impaired parent, to encounter your environment, to get support, to handle everyday life, to be psychologically and physically affected by the situation. The study concludes that visually impaired mothers with children aged 0-16 years were more prone to psychosocial stress. This, according to the results, is due to the high demands they have on themselves, the time and energy everything takes when you are visually impaired and by choosing to not tell people around you about your visual impairment. The results also show that visually impaired mothers mostly experience positive attitudes and that the individual social network is important in order to make ends meet in everyday life.

This study aims to discover the perceptions of the visually disabled students at a public university in Ankara, Turkey for attending and participating in an online communication and discussion environment on the Web to access information and establish social relationships with others. The purpose of this research is six folds: (1) to investigate the current status of the visually disabled university students at a public university in Ankara, Turkey for accessing and using computers and the Internet, (2) to learn the kind of web sites that those students prefer to visit on the Internet, (3) to discover the topics and subject they prefer to see in the Web forum that will be designed and developed for them, (4) to identify the topics and subjects in the Web forum that those visually disabled university students mostly visited for reading, replying and adding new titles under them, (5) to show the effects of the Web forum on the participants for accesing information and establishing social relationships with others, (6) to learn the views and opinions of those visually v disabled university students about that Web forum after actively participating and spending meaningful time in it. In this study, mixed research method is used. The participants of this study were the visually disabled students of a public university in Ankara, Turkey and found by the researcher with the help of an academician colleague working in the Special Education Department under the Faculty of Education in that university. In that university, there were totally 39 visually disabled students and 36 of them accepted to be enrolled in this study on a voluntary basis. Within the scope of the study, &ldquo / EnabledForum - EngelsizForum&rdquo / was designed and developed by the researcher as a communication and discussion environment for those visually disabled university students for enabling them to establish social relationships with others via submitted posts for the topics and subjects of the forum. Moreover, this forum helped those visually disabled university students for accessing up-to-date information from the Web based sources. Finally, the usage logs of the &ldquo / EnabledForum - EngelsizForum&rdquo / helped the researcher to analyse and report which topics and subjects were mostly interested by those visually disabled university students.

Federal and state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies are putting increased emphasis on, and providing more resources for, self-employment for individuals who are blind or visually-impaired since the Rehabilitation Act was amended in 1998. Additional emphasis is being placed on self-employment because VR system consumers – especially those who are blind or visually-impaired – are disproportionately likely to have difficulty obtaining other kinds of competitive employment in the aftermath of the 2007-2009 recession. The purpose of this quantitative study is to identify variables in the administrative records of the federal Rehabilitation Service Agency that impact self-employment outcomes and earnings among blind or visually-impaired consumers. The file, comprised of 13,998 cases closed in Texas from Fiscal Years 2008 through 2012, spans the national recession and subsequent slow recovery. From the original file, 798 cases closed through self-employment were examined by employment status at application, cost of services and returns on investments (ROI). This study found those who were self-employed at application were 50 times more likely to be self-employed at closure. Those who received assessments, diagnosis and treatment, technical assistance, and rehabilitation services were more likely to be self-employed at closure. The variables most closely related to weekly earnings at closure for self-employed consumers were: gender (male), being self-employed at application and receiving some form of rehabilitation technology. Disproportionate numbers of those who were self-employed at application were 55 to 65 and self-identified as White only with weekly earnings at application above the mean for the entire population of consumers whose cases were closed through self-employment. They received the fewest services on average over the shortest period of time at the lost average cost. Returns on investments in serving those who were self-employed at application were positive but small. The average cost of services provided to those employed at application was the highest. However, on average, they experienced decreases in the hours worked per week and weekly earnings. Thus, returns on investments were, on average, negative. Limitations of the study, implications for practice, and future research are discussed. / text

Nowadays visually impaired students attend both mainstream schools and the Lithuanian Education and Training Centre for the Blind and Visually Impaired. These students meet certain learning difficulties caused by impaired vision or other problems related to the impairment. This study aimed to investigate and answer a question: „Do the pupils’ choice a vacation that correspond with their abilities and possibilities. The written questionnaire has been used as a method of the study. The questions had to describe to: ь social background of the visually impaired pupils; ь their knowledge about themselves and their family members; ь their perception of their disability and self-esteem; ь opinions of the pupils about quality of vocational couselling; ь learning motivation of the visually impaired pupils; ь intention of adequacy of the visually impaired pupils‘ choice of vocation 169 pupils were involved into the investigation (there were totally blind and those having mild impairment of vision). Conclusions: § The visually impaired pupils particularly need parents‘ encouragement and support. If a family is not interested in educational process of a pupil the pupil doesn’t‘ have any learning motivation and intentions to choice a certain vocation. § The pupil’s choice vocations that do not correspond with their abilities since they do not comprehend their disability adequately. § Vocational counselling in the Lithuanian education and training centre for the... [to full text]

This investigation aims to assess issues of physical, sensory and intellectual access to museums and galleries in Scotland, with a particular relevance to people with sight difficulties. The research has been completed from the point of view of the visually impaired visitor, using original fieldwork comprising visits to museums accompanied by people with different types of sight difficulties. An examination of the facilities provided has been undertaken from the visitors' perspective alongside the current and forthcoming legislative requirements. The opinions of the museums' community have been taken into consideration primarily by discussions with the curators of the museums and galleries visited. An appreciation of the legislative stimulus for museums and galleries to consider people with disabilities, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, is also attempted, including reports from the MPs involved in the development and the introduction of this legislation and the MSPs with responsibilities for the representation of people with disabilities in the Scottish Parliament. A particular focus is applied to the introduction of Part 111 of the legislation which was enacted during the research period and used as a stimulus for the areas of questioning with the visually impaired people who assisted. This facilitates the presentation of a context against which to place the findings of the discussions with visually impaired people. Visitors are an essential requirement for the existence and future of museums and galleries and the potential audience of people with visual impairments is increasing and significant.

This paper introduces a system which enables visually impaired users to detect objects and landmarks within the line of sight. The system works in two modes: landmark mode, which detects predefined landmarks, and object mode, which detects objects for everyday use. Users can get audio announcement for the name of the detected object or landmark as well as its estimated distances. Landmark detection helps visually impaired users explore an unfamiliar environment and build a mental map. The proposed system utilizes a deep learning system for detection, which is deployed on the mobile phone and optimized to run in real-time. Unlike many other existing deep-learning systems that require an Internet connection or specific accessories. Our system works offline and only requires a smart phone with camera, which gives the advantage to avoid the cost for data services, reduce delay to access the cloud server, and increase the system reliability in all environments.

<p> Centre of pressure (CP) excursion frequency characteristics of normal and visually impaired children were examined. Thirty-six normal (N) children and 12 visually impaired (VI) children stood on a force platform under 4 conditions (eyes open or closed, normal or foam surface). CP excursions were analyzed by fast Fourier transformation. Total power was calculated between 0-4 Hz, and percent of total power was calculated in the low (0-1 Hz) and high (1-4 Hz) bands. Linear regression was performed on logarithmically transformed data and the slope was used to compare the relative power at low and high frequencies. Analysis of covariance removed the variance due to height in the N children. The Mann-Whitney test compared theN and VI children. Total power decreased with age. Young children (4-7 years) had more high frequency power. Young children may respond intermittently to feedback with ballistic type movements while older children may continuously monitor and respond to sensory feedback. Vision helped control CP adjustments, but power did not increase between 0-1 Hz with eyes closed. VI had higher total power on the normal surface. With eyes closed the differences were more obvious in the older children (10-12 years) which suggests vision is important in development to fine-tune the sensory systems. The foam reduced pressor receptor feedback, reducing the advantage of more finely tuned somatosense in N children. VI children had more low frequency power than N children (A-P). Young VI children did not have a large amount of high frequency power, as the N children did, suggesting that VI children may adapt at a younger age to continuously monitor and respond to feedback without relying on intermittent ballistic type responses. </p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

Since retailing conceptualisation, it has been at the forefront of societal distribution of necessities, goods and experiences. Human beings, the consumers of retail, have daily or multiple times used supermarkets to express their purchase behaviour and elevate their consumer lifes. In the retail space itself the consumer uses their senses of visual, auditory, olfactory and touch to accurately perceive all around them. But there is a group of individuals who face various challenges in the retail experience: people who are visually impaired. For them, the retail experience differs significantly from the norm. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore how people who are visually impaired experience the retail setting of supermarkets. With an aim to analyse how in-store design and sensory cues can be used to enable and affect supermarkets for the visually impaired. Additionally, the impact of using aids will be explored to facilitate their role in retail experience. Empirical findings were collected with the help of qualitative single case studies with semi structured interviews. In total, one pilot-study was conducted and 15 visually impaired people were interviewed in Sweden. The informants were asked about their retail experience in supermarkets and how in-store design, senses and aids affect their personal experiences. The findings were analysed and coded through thematic analysis and later discussed with various peer-reviewed literature. Conclusively, this thesis found that visually impaired people experience a significant difference from sighted people in supermarkets. Facing numerous challenges and obstacles in their visits. It was found that visually impaired peopleare separated from other customer segments through various inaccessible factors in the retail setting. However, as these factors work as barriers, the research shows that there exist solutions and potential in the supermarket setting, extending through in-store design, sensory cues, and aids. By facilitating and developing the areas, major improvements to customer accessibility can be introduced.