Special Collections

Disability and Information Technology

Disability and Information Technology examines the extent to which regulatory frameworks for information and communication technologies (ICTs) safeguard the rights of persons with disabilities as citizenship rights. It adopts a comparative approach focused on four case studies: Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. It focuses on the tension between social and economic values in the regulation of ICTs and calls for a regulatory approach based on a framework of principles that reflects citizenship values. The analysis identifies challenges encountered in the jurisdictions examined and points toward the rights-based approach advanced by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as a benchmark in protecting the rights of persons with disabilities to have equal access to information. The research draws on a wealth of resources, including legislation, cases, interviews, consultation documents and responses from organisations representing persons with disabilities.

Date Added: 03/07/2019

Quality Indicators For Assistive Technology

More than 6 million children with disabilities in North America require assistive technology and related services each year in order to participate and succeed in school. This book, Quality Indicators for Assistive Technology, provides an essential guide for assessing a child's needs, choosing and implementing the right technologies and services, and training education professionals in how to optimize learning with these critical tools.

Date Added: 03/07/2019

Assistive Technology

An exploration of the ways in which psychologists and other helping professionals can collaborate with users of assistive technology to help them get the most out of these devices.

Date Added: 03/07/2019

Assistive Technologies and Other Supports for People With Brain Impairment

Assistive Technologies and Other Support for People with Brain Impairment, by Marcia J. Scherer, is a must-have text for academic instructors and their students. The author's synopsis of brain impairment, current rehabilitation strategies, available assistive technologies and resources, as well as the practical merging of the above, makes this an invaluable addition to any academic program in cognitive rehabilitation. This book gives a clear and detailed overview of how the brain reacts to impairment and gives illustrated examples of effective integration of AT into the lives of people with cognitive disability. Integrating current research with the experiences of people with cognitive disabilities, this volume examines how assistive and cognitive support technologies are being harnessed to provide assistance for thinking, remembering, and learning. The book vividly describes real-life situations in which cognitively impaired individuals use assistive supports and the advantages and limitations these individuals perceive from their use. It provides information on how cognitively impaired individuals and their families and caregivers can select the most appropriate technologies from a wide array of accommodations and resources, including individualized protocols of different forms of support to facilitate optimal functioning. The text offers practitioners a comprehensive and systematic process for ensuring their clients' effective application and utilization of this technology. This book will also provide insight for users of assistive technology and their families and caregivers to ensure optimal technology use.

Date Added: 03/07/2019

Disability and Technology

This book brings together formally disparate literatures and debates on disability and technology in a way that captures the complex interplay between the two. Drawing on disability studies, technology studies and clinical studies, the book argues that interdisciplinary insights together provide a more nuanced and less stylized picture of the benefits and barriers in disability and technology. Drawing on a breadth of empirical studies from across the globe, a picture emerges of the complex and multi-directional interplay of technology and disability. Technology is neither inherently enabling or disabling but fundamentally shaped by the social dynamics that shape their design, use and impact.

Date Added: 03/07/2019

The Illustrated Guide to Assistive Technology and Devices

"A Doody's Core Title 2012"This new illustrated guide to assistive technologies and devices chronicles the use of AT/AD - technology used by individuals with disabilities to perform functions that might otherwise be difficult or impossible. This book empowers people to use assistive technologies to overcome some of their physical or mental limitations and have a more equal playing field. It includes real-life examples about how people with disabilities are using assistive technology (AT) to assist them in daily tasks, and discusses emotional issues related to AT/AD.

Date Added: 03/07/2019

Assistive Technology For Young Children

This book appeals to the needs of a wide range of readers who seek to increase their technology competencies in order to improve access to learning for children with disabilities.

Date Added: 06/22/2021

Assistive Technologies for the Interaction of the Elderly

This book presents a wealth of insights and new conceptualizations for the development of Assistive Technologies for the Interaction of the Elderly. The book arranges the chapters according to important aspects of maximizing the use value in innovation projects. Every chapter will include an executive summary reporting the main results, a storyline using everyday language, and scientific excursions, wherever useful. The book shows how an innovation project should be structured towards maximum use value and how a project should be structured in order to make a difference. It describes the useful categorization of the large group of the elderly to maximize the focus of the innovation and demonstrates the user involvement into innovation activities. Of course, the assessment of such innovative projects is discussed as well as the "lessons learned". The book also explores the business opportunities and the financial evaluation of aspects of assistive technology.  

Date Added: 03/07/2019

Assistive Technologies In The Library

This sensitively written and practical guidebook will be an indispensable resource for ensuring that a library’s offerings are accessible to everyone.

Date Added: 06/21/2021

Approaching Disability

Disability Studies is an area of study which examines social, political, cultural, and economic factors that define 'disability' and establish personal and collective responses to difference. This insightful new text will introduce readers to the discipline of Disability Studies and enable them to engage in the lively debates within the field. By offering an accessible yet rigorous approach to Disability Studies, the authors provide a critical analysis of key current issues and consider ways in which the subject can be studied through national and international perspectives, policies, culture and history. Key debates include: The relationship between activism and the academy Ways to study cultural and media representations of disability The importance of disability history and how societies can change National and international perspectives on children, childhood and education Political perspectives on disability and identity The place of the body in disability theory This text offers real-world examples of topics that are important to debates and offers a much needed truly international scope on the questions at hand. It is an essential read for any individual studying, practising or with an interest in Disability Studies.

Date Added: 03/07/2019

Approaching Disability

Disability Studies is an area of study which examines social, political, cultural, and economic factors that define 'disability' and establish personal and collective responses to difference. This insightful new text will introduce readers to the discipline of Disability Studies and enable them to engage in the lively debates within the field. By offering an accessible yet rigorous approach to Disability Studies, the authors provide a critical analysis of key current issues and consider ways in which the subject can be studied through national and international perspectives, policies, culture and history. Key debates include: The relationship between activism and the academy Ways to study cultural and media representations of disability The importance of disability history and how societies can change National and international perspectives on children, childhood and education Political perspectives on disability and identity The place of the body in disability theory This text offers real-world examples of topics that are important to debates and offers a much needed truly international scope on the questions at hand. It is an essential read for any individual studying, practising or with an interest in Disability Studies.

Date Added: 03/07/2019

Disability, Human Rights, and Information Technology

Disability, Human Rights, and Information Technology addresses the global issue of equal access to information and communications technology (ICT) by persons with disabilities. The right to access the same digital content at the same time and at the same cost as people without disabilities is implicit in several human rights instruments and is featured prominently in Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The right to access ICT, moreover, invokes complementary civil and human rights issues: freedom of expression; freedom to information; political participation; civic engagement; inclusive education; the right to access the highest level of scientific and technological information; and participation in social and cultural opportunities.

Despite the ready availability and minimal cost of technology to enable people with disabilities to access ICT on an equal footing as consumers without disabilities, prevailing practice around the globe continues to result in their exclusion. Questions and complexities may also arise where technologies advance ahead of existing laws and policies, where legal norms are established but not yet implemented, or where legal rights are defined but clear technical implementations are not yet established.

At the intersection of human-computer interaction, disability rights, civil rights, human rights, international development, and public policy, the volume's contributors examine crucial yet underexplored areas, including technology access for people with cognitive impairments, public financing of information technology, accessibility and e-learning, and human rights and social inclusion.

Contributors: John Bertot, Peter Blanck, Judy Brewer, Joyram Chakraborty, Tim Elder, Jim Fruchterman, G. Anthony Giannoumis, Paul Jaeger, Sanjay Jain, Deborah Kaplan, Raja Kushalnagar, Jonathan Lazar, Fredric I. Lederer, Janet E. Lord, Ravi Malhotra, Jorge Manhique, Mirriam Nthenge, Joyojeet Pal, Megan A. Rusciano, David Sloan, Michael Ashley Stein, Brian Wentz, Marco Winckler, Mary J. Ziegler.

Date Added: 03/07/2019

Assistive Technologies for People with Diverse Abilities

The familiar image of the disabled tends to emphasize their limitations and reduced quality of life. However, many people with cognitive, motor, and other difficulties also have the capacity to enhance their social interactions, leisure pursuits and daily activities with the aid of assistive technology. Assistive devices from the simple to the sophisticated, have become essential to intervention programs for this population. And not surprisingly the numbers of devices available are growing steadily. Assistive Technologies for People with Diverse Abilities offers expert analysis of pertinent issues coupled with practical discussion of solutions for effective support. Its comprehensive literature review describes current and emerging devices and presents evidence-based guidelines for matching promising technologies to individuals. Program outcomes are assessed, as are their potential impact on the future of the field. In addition, chapters provide detailed descriptions of the personal and social needs of the widest range of individuals with congenital and acquired conditions, including: Acquired brain damage. Communication impairment. Attention and learning difficulties (with special focus on college students). Visual impairment and blindness. Autism spectrum disorders. Behavioral and occupational disorders. Alzheimer's disease. Severe, profound and multiple impairments. The scope and depth of coverage makes Assistive Technologies for People with Diverse Abilities an invaluable resource for researchers, professionals and graduate students in developmental psychology, rehabilitation medicine, educational technology, occupational therapy, speech pathology and clinical psychology.

Date Added: 03/07/2019

Assistive Technology For Blindness And Low Vision

Assistive technology has made it feasible for individuals with a wide range of impairments to engage in many activities, such as education and employment, in ways not previously possible. The key factor is to create consumer-driven technologies that solve the problems by addressing the needs of persons with visual impairments. Assistive Technology for Blindness and Low Vision explores a broad range of technologies that are improving the lives of these individuals. Presenting the current state of the art, this book emphasizes what can be learned from past successful products, as well as what exciting new solutions the future holds.

Written by world-class leaders in their field, the chapters cover the physiological bases of vision loss and the fundamentals of orientation, mobility, and information access for blind and low vision individuals. They discuss technology for multiple applications (mobility, wayfinding, information access, education, work, entertainment), including both established technology and cutting-edge research. The book also examines computer and digital media access and the scientific basis for the theory and practice of sensory substitution.

This volume provides a holistic view of the elements to consider when designing assistive technology for persons with visual impairment, keeping in mind the need for a user-driven approach to successfully design products that are easy to use, well priced, and fill a specific need. Written for a broad audience, this book provides a comprehensive overview and in-depth descriptions of current technology for designers, engineers, practitioners, rehabilitation professionals, and all readers interested in the challenges and promises of creating successful assistive technology.

Date Added: 06/21/2021

Safe at Home with Assistive Technology

This book describes how assistive technology can help handicapped, elderly and acutely sick people to manage their daily lives better and stay safe in the home. It discusses how safety is understood from an ethical, technical and social perspective, and offers examples of the problems that users, their helpers and professional carers have with assistive technology in everyday situations. The book provides insights from user-centred research and uses photographs to illustrate the main topic: how users and technology can work together to ensure safety. User-focused and combining experience with research, the book will interest users of these kinds of technology, health professionals who might introduce and/or prescribe them, engineers who develop and sell assistive technological gadgets, and architects who build safe homes - as well as researchers and students who work in these fields. It provides an overview of the existing technology, examines ways to test its effectiveness from the point of view of users, health professionals and researchers from different fields (architecture, education, engineering, facility management, medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, rehabilitative medicine, physiotherapy, social science and speech therapy), and lists useful addresses, websites and literature

Date Added: 03/07/2019

Safe at Home with Assistive Technology

This book describes how assistive technology can help handicapped, elderly and acutely sick people to manage their daily lives better and stay safe in the home. It discusses how safety is understood from an ethical, technical and social perspective, and offers examples of the problems that users, their helpers and professional carers have with assistive technology in everyday situations. The book provides insights from user-centred research and uses photographs to illustrate the main topic: how users and technology can work together to ensure safety. User-focused and combining experience with research, the book will interest users of these kinds of technology, health professionals who might introduce and/or prescribe them, engineers who develop and sell assistive technological gadgets, and architects who build safe homes – as well as researchers and students who work in these fields. It provides an overview of the existing technology, examines ways to test its effectiveness from the point of view of users, health professionals and researchers from different fields (architecture, education, engineering, facility management, medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, rehabilitative medicine, physiotherapy, social science and speech therapy), and lists useful addresses, websites and literature

Date Added: 03/07/2019

Sound-Based Assistive Technology

This book presents a technology to help speech-, hearing- and sight-impaired people. It explains how they will benefit from an enhancement in their ability to recognize and produce speech or to detect sounds in their surroundings. Additionally, it is considered how sound-based assistive technology might be applied to the areas of speech recognition, speech synthesis, environmental recognition, virtual reality and robots. The primary focus of this book is to provide an understanding of both the methodology and basic concepts of assistive technology rather than listing the variety of assistive devices developed. This book presents a number of different topics which are sufficiently independent from one another that the reader may begin at any chapter without lacking background information. Much of the research quoted in this book was conducted in the author's laboratories at Hokkaido University and University of Tokyo. This book offers the reader a better understanding of a number of unsolved problems that still persist in the field of sound-based assistive technology.

Date Added: 03/07/2019

Sound-Based Assistive Technology

This book presents a technology to help speech-, hearing- and sight-impaired people. It explains how they will benefit from an enhancement in their ability to recognize and produce speech or to detect sounds in their surroundings. Additionally, it is considered how sound-based assistive technology might be applied to the areas of speech recognition, speech synthesis, environmental recognition, virtual reality and robots. The primary focus of this book is to provide an understanding of both the methodology and basic concepts of assistive technology rather than listing the variety of assistive devices developed. This book presents a number of different topics which are sufficiently independent from one another that the reader may begin at any chapter without lacking background information. Much of the research quoted in this book was conducted in the author's laboratories at Hokkaido University and University of Tokyo. This book offers the reader a better understanding of a number of unsolved problems that still persist in the field of sound-based assistive technology.

Date Added: 03/07/2019

Assistive Technology for Visually Impaired and Blind People

Equal accessibility to public places and services is now required by law in many countries. In the case of the vision-impaired, it is often the use of specialised technology which can provide them with a fuller enjoyment of all the facilities of society from large scale meetings and public entertainments to the more personal level of reading a book or making music. In this volume the engineering and design principles and techniques used in assistive technology for blind and vision-impaired people are explained. Features:· instruction in the physiology of the human visual system and methods of measuring visual ability;· explanation of many devices designed for every-day living in terms of generic electrical engineering principles;· sections of practical projects and investigations which will give the reader ideas for student work and for self teaching;· contributions by authors of international repute from divers fields which co-operate under the banner of assistive technology, among them: artificial vision systems; psychology, haptics, electrical engineering, design and visual physiology. Assistive Technology for Vision-impaired and Blind People is an an effective means of maintaining the currency of knowledge for engineers and health workers working to provide devices and/or services for people with sight loss and an excellent source of reference for students working in assistive technology and rehabilitation.

Date Added: 03/07/2019

Building Access

“All too often,” wrote disabled architect Ronald Mace, “designers don’t take the needs of disabled and elderly people into account.” Building Access investigates twentieth-century strategies for designing the world with disability in mind. Commonly understood in terms of curb cuts, automatic doors, Braille signs, and flexible kitchens, Universal Design purported to create a built environment for everyone, not only the average citizen. But who counts as “everyone,” Aimi Hamraie asks, and how can designers know? Blending technoscience studies and design history with critical disability, race, and feminist theories, Building Access interrogates the historical, cultural, and theoretical contexts for these questions, offering a groundbreaking critical history of Universal Design. Hamraie reveals that the twentieth-century shift from “design for the average” to “design for all” took place through liberal political, economic, and scientific structures concerned with defining the disabled user and designing in its name. Tracing the co-evolution of accessible design for disabled veterans, a radical disability maker movement, disability rights law, and strategies for diversifying the architecture profession, Hamraie shows that Universal Design was not just an approach to creating new products or spaces, but also a sustained, understated activist movement challenging dominant understandings of disability in architecture, medicine, and society.Illustrated with a wealth of rare archival materials, Building Access brings together scientific, social, and political histories in what is not only the pioneering critical account of Universal Design but also a deep engagement with the politics of knowing, making, and belonging in twentieth-century United States.

Date Added: 03/07/2019

The Ultimate Guide to Assistive Technology in Special Education

Green, a speech-language pathologist, presents a guide for parents, teachers, therapists, and others to using assistive technology in special education classrooms to improve the communication, literacy, and learning of students with disabilities. After introducing computers and software and the benefits of this technology, she outlines specific tools for verbal and written expression, auditory and reading comprehension, reading skills, cognition, learning, and memory, with information on websites, features, operating systems, and price. She includes games and free online interactive activities, Internet communication and learning tools, and adapted email, search engines, and web browsers. There is no index. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)

Date Added: 03/07/2019

Assistive Technology In Special Education

Families, teachers, and therapists who are searching for an update about how to use the latest technologies to help individuals who struggle with communication, literacy, and learning will benefit from the wealth of practical, well-organized information in this second edition of Assistive Technology in Special Education. The indexed update presents an overview of the uses of technologies to help readers zero in on specific, powerful, cutting-edge resources they can use to enhance success. The book features new tools to improve and compensate for challenges relating to speaking, understanding, reading, writing, thinking and remembering, as well as strategies to help students become more organized and efficient. The use of tablets such as the iPad and smartphones, as well as cloud-based products, are highlighted. Online resources and social networking tools are presented to empower readers to learn about new products as they become available.

Date Added: 03/07/2019

Assistive Technology in Special Education

Assistive Technology in Special Education presents a wealth of practical, well-organized information to help families, teachers, and therapists find effective solutions for students with learning, literacy, and cognitive challenges. This third edition features new affordable tools to improve and compensate for challenges related to speaking, understanding, reading, writing, and thinking and remembering, as well as strategies to help students become more organized and efficient. Also highlighted are iDevices, G Suite (Google Apps and Extensions), online collaborative sites, and features built into the computers and mobile devices readers already use. As technology changes and new operating systems make older programs obsolete, this book will empower readers to explore the most current resources as they become available.

Date Added: 03/07/2019

Assistive Technology in Special Education

Families, teachers, and therapists who are searching for an update about how to use the latest technologies to help individuals who struggle with communication, literacy, and learning will benefit from the wealth of practical, well-organized information in this second edition of Assistive Technology in Special Education. The indexed update presents an overview of the uses of technologies to help readers zero in on specific, powerful, cutting-edge resources they can use to enhance success. The book features new tools to improve and compensate for challenges relating to speaking, understanding, reading, writing, thinking and remembering, as well as strategies to help students become more organized and efficient. The use of tablets such as the iPad and smartphones, as well as cloud-based products, are highlighted. Online resources and social networking tools are presented to empower readers to learn about new products as they become available.

Date Added: 03/07/2019

Breakthrough Teaching and Learning

The many technology-related educational changes of the past decade have been propelled by even greater changes in the general consumer technology landscape. Education has become increasingly entwined with the digital consumer landscape. We are no longer asking whether digital materials and tools should be integrated into teaching and learning, but how and how well. Meanwhile, the overall academic performance of U.S. students has not kept pace with our international peers. Many policymakers have called for increased attention to students' 21st century skills and work readiness, pointing to the critical role technology should play in educational innovation. These changes mean that many mainstream accessible technologies can be used in the classroom to benefit a diverse population of learners, including students with disabilities and English language learners, reflecting the national shift from separate special education programs to more inclusive classrooms. Changes to policies and standards have pushed assistive and accessible technologies to the forefront, including the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, which requires teacher preparation programs to address educational technology and principles of universal design for learning (UDL), and the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS), which creates a public-private infrastructure to provide more timely delivery of digital text to students with physical and print disabilities. This volume represents pioneering ideas that examine how accessible educational technologies can be harnessed for breakthrough learning for all students. Chapters will cover innovation trends in educational and assistive technologies, cognitive and neuroscience findings on how individual differences impact technology use and choice; the intersection of educational, leisure, health habits and exer-gaming; the use of social networking tools by students with and without disabilities; the use of social networking for teacher professional learning communities; the future of assessments for decision-making; and an analysis of the habits of mind and work traits of innovators NCTI has interviewed over the past five years.

Date Added: 03/07/2019