Academic literature on the topic 'Accessibility integration'

COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DO PESSOAL DE ENSINO SUPERIOR<br>Hoje em dia e-learning está se tornando mais importante por possibilitar a disseminação de conhecimento e informação através da internet de uma forma mais rápida e menos dispendiosa. Consequentemente, de modo a filtrar o que é mais relevante e/ou de interesse do usuário, arquiteturas e técnicas de personalização vêm sendo abordadas. Dentre as muitas possibilidades de personalização existentes, a que lida com acessibilidade está se tornando essencial, pois garante que uma grande variedade de usuários possa ter acesso à informação conforme suas necessidades e características. Acessibilidade não é apenas garantir que pessoas com alguma deficiência, ou dificuldade, possam ter acesso à informação, apesar de ser importante e eventualmente ser uma exigência legal. Acessibilidade é também garantir que uma larga variedade de usuários e interfaces possam obter acesso à informação, maximizando assim a audiência potencial. Esta dissertação apresenta uma extensão do LORIS, um sistema de integração de repositórios de objetos de aprendizagem, descrevendo as alterações na sua arquitetura para ser capaz de lidar com acessibilidade e reconhecer diferentes versões de um mesmo objeto de aprendizagem, permitindo assim que um usuário execute uma consulta considerando seu perfil e preferências. Foi desenvolvido um protótipo dos serviços descritos na arquitetura utilizando serviços Web e navegação facetada, bem como padrões web, de e-learning e de acessibilidade. O uso de serviços Web e de padrões visa promover flexibilidade e interoperabilidade, enquanto a navegação facetada, como implementada, permite que o usuário aplique múltiplos filtros aos resultados da consulta sem a necessidade de re-submetê-la.<br>Nowadays e-learning is becoming more important as it makes possible the dissemination of knowledge and information through the internet in a faster and costless way. Consequently, in order to filter what is more relevant and/or of users interest, architectures and personalization techniques have been raised. Among the many existing possibilities of personalization, the one that deals with accessibility is becoming essential because it guarantees that a wide variety of users may have access to the information according to their preferences and needs. Accessibility is not just about ensuring that disabled people can access information, although this is important and may be a legal requirement. It is also about ensuring that the wide variety of users and devices can all gain access to information, thereby maximizing the potential audience. This dissertation presents an extension of LORIS, an integration system of learning object repositories, describing the changes on its architecture to make it able to deal with accessibility and to recognize different versions of the same learning object, thus allowing a user to execute a query considering his/her preferences and needs. A prototype of the services that are described in the architecture was developed using web services and faceted navigation, as well as e-learning and accessibility standards. The use of web services and standards aims at providing flexibility and interoperability, while the faceted navigation, as implemented, allows the user to apply multiple filters to the query results without the need to resubmit it.

This paper presents findings from a study designed to identify skills and strategies students with visual impairments have developed to aid their social integration into higher education campus life. Attending college provides numerous learning opportunities outside the classroom. The study explores the process by which students at two universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia were able to identify, navigate, and participate in extra-curricular activities. Previous research by Roy & MacKay (2002) and Hodges & Keller (1999) provides a quantitative framework from which a qualitative tapestry was woven. A secondary purpose of the study was to verify the validity of Roy & MacKayâ s finding that the age that individuals first experience visual disability and the visibility of their visual impairment (the variance in their ability to appear sighted) are valid predictors of social integration of visually impaired students among college students. This study is important for several reasons, including, (a) to help develop a more inclusive campus environment, (b) to identify factors that have influenced the selection of post-secondary educational experiences by visually-impaired students, and (c) to give a voice to visually impaired students to help administrators understand their needs and desires (Henderson, 2001).<br>Ph. D.

Thesis (Sc.D.)--Boston University<br>This purpose ofthis dissertation is to expand the understanding of the community integration of individuals with disabilities who used to be homeless but now have permanent housing. Current measures of community integration rely on self-report assessments that often quantify physical or social participation, but fail to capture the individual's spatial presence in the community, accessibility to resources, and neighborhood characteristics that may promote or impede integration efforts. To sustain the momentum of research in community integration and recovery, new techniques using activity maps created by participants combined with quantitative assessments of integration are an important next step. The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques in combination with a participatory mapping interview provides a more comprehensive approach to evaluating community integration. In addition, GIS calculations of an individual's activity space area based on the drawn maps may provide meaningful information about one's activity and movement patterns within the community in relation to other measures of community integration. Finally, by having individuals create their own maps, they define what community means and what locations are important to them in the integration process. The first study measures the size ofan individual's activity space, or spatial extent of one's day-to-day interactions in the community, and compares this measure to the results of more traditional, survey-based community integration measures. Methods in the first study also explore the types of locations, activities, and resources that are identified as important to individuals in their interaction with the community, as well as test the significance of family involvement and feeling part of the community. The second study examines the relationship of proximity to community features within the individual's immediate environment to both community integration outcomes and the types of locations used. Methodological strengths of these studies include identification of current community integration activities from the individual's perspective and using a spatial approach to measure the impact of accessibility and neighborhood characteristics on community integration.

Urbanisation is a global trend, but in recent decades it has been occurring at particularly high rates in the Global South. Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are facing a number of challenges as their populations grow, and among these, urban accessibility stands out as one of the most difficult to contend with. Meeting this challenge will require new solutions, and recently Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) have emerged as two potentially revolutionary innovations, especially when combined. In 2016, Dar es Salaam launched a BRT system, and in 2017 it introduced a TOD strategy in order to combat the city’s urban accessibility crisis. This study investigates the urban form at and around BRT stations in order to characterise BRT-TOD in the city and extract lessons for future implementations of BRT-TOD in Dar es Salaam and beyond. The investigation was carried out within the framework of urban morphology. It was found that at locations in the city centre, BRT has generally been able to integrate seamlessly into the built environment and achieve many of the core principles of TOD. In the rest of the city, however, BRT acts simply as a form of transit, with stations generally removed from the urban fabric and the local place. Some general issues are the large building setback, the number of informal vendors, private transport operators, exclusive new developments, lack of public spaces, the low quality of the pedestrian environment and the reinforcement of unsustainable forms of urban sprawl. This study aims to contribute to a growing discussion of sustainable urban accessibility solutions in the rapidly expanding cities of the Global South.

Lekplatser förser barn med möjligheten att praktisera och utveckla sina sociala, emotionella, kognitiva och fysiska förmågor. Att tillhandahålla tillräckligt med lekplatser vilka också upplevs som tillgängliga är således en hörnsten för en hållbar planering. Denna uppsats utforskar barns tillgång till lekplatser iStockholm. Tillgängligheten undersöks inte bara med traditionella metriska mått, dvs. det fysiska avståndet, utan också med hjälp av space syntax-teorier och metoder som bättre skildrar det upplevda avståndet till lekplatsen. Användningen av space syntax i en barnkontext är relativt outforskat. Dennastudie bidrar därigenom till space syntax-litteraturen genom att utforska dess tillämpningspotential i ett bredare sammanhang. Resultaten antyder att Stockholm presterar långt under stadens egna rekommendationer, och studien mynnar ut i en diskussion om potentiella planeringskonflikter. Dessa konflikter uppstår i gränslandet mellan ambitionen att planera säkra lekplatser och ambitionen att planera lekplatser som upplevs lätta att navigera till, samtidigt som de ligger inom ett rimligt gångavstånd från hemmet.<br>Playgrounds provide children with the opportunity to practice and develop social, emotional, cognitive, and physical skills. Providing enough playgrounds that also are perceived as accessible is thus a cornerstone of sustainable planning. This paper explores children's access to playgrounds in Stockholm. Accessibility is not only assessed using traditional metric measurements, i.e. the physical distance, but also with space syntax theories and methods capturing notions of perceived accessibility. The utilization of space syntax in the context of children is relatively unexplored. This study is therebycontributing to the space syntax literature by exploring the wider application potential of its methods. The results suggest that Stockholm performs well below the city's own recommendations, and the study proceeds into a discussion about possible planning conflicts. These conflicts are between the ambition to plan safe playgrounds and the ambition to plan playgrounds that are easy to navigate to, while also being within a reasonable walking distance from the home.

Mestrado em Gestão de Sistemas de Informação<br>Nos últimos tempos temos assistido à valorização da informação, ao aumento da relevância da transformação digital e ao aumento de utilização de APIs. Nos últimos meses a transformação digital tornou-se ainda mais imperativa em função das consequências da pandemia. Tendo sido identificada uma lacuna na literatura existente, o presente trabalho tem como objetivo propor e testar um modelo teórico para avaliar a utilização das APIs, identificando os seus business drivers, os seus desafios e os seus efeitos. Com recurso a um questionário respondido por 124 indivíduos, na sua maioria programadores e diretores de sistemas de informação e à metodologia PLS-SEM executada no programa SmartPLS, foi possível encontrar evidência estatística para suportar oito das treze hipóteses formuladas. Foram identificadas como razões para utilizar APIs: a procura por uma independência, por novos modelos de negócio e por uma melhoria de processos. Como desafio apenas o custo foi identificado. Proveniente da utilização advêm benefícios relativos à acessibilidade, à integração de sistemas, à especialização da organização e ao aumento da eficiência.<br>In recent times we have seen the valorization of information, the increase of the relevance of digital transformation and the increase in the use of APIs. In recent months, digital transformation has become even more imperative due to the consequences of the pandemic. Having identified a gap in the existing literature, the present work aims to propose and test a theoretical model to assess the use of APIs, identifying their business drivers, their challenges and their effects. By running a survey answered by 124 individuals, mostly programmers and information systems managers and the PLS-SEM methodology executed in the SmartPLS software, it was possible to find statistical evidence to support eight of the thirteen formulated hypotheses. The reasons for using APIs were identified as: the search for independence, for new business models and for process improvement. As challenges only the cost was identified. From the use of APIs there are benefits related to accessibility, systems integration, specialization of the organization and increased efficiency.<br>info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

This dissertation examines genericity from a textual perspective. The material consists of popular science texts about species of animals. The investigation concerns both the distribution of different forms of generic noun phrases and the boundary between generic and non-generic noun phrases. The analytical tools are taken from Accessibility Theory and Blending Theory. Two separate studies have been undertaken. The results of the first study indicate that generic reference on the whole follows the same principles of accessibility as non-generic reference, although there are some differences that can be attributed to the distinction between generic and non-generic reference. Some results suggest that our mental representations of generic referents are generally less accessible than those of non-generic referents. Factors other than accessibility influencing the choice of generic noun phrases are also identified. While genericity is generally treated as an all-or-nothing phenomenon, an important experience of this first study concerns the difficulties facing anyone who tries to distinguish between generic and non-generic noun phrases in authentic texts. These difficulties are the centre of attention in the second study, which shows that genericity is an extremely context-dependent phenomenon. The sentence context may clearly indicate a particular, non-generic reference, while the wider context of the text reveals that the noun phrase in question is in fact generic. Not infrequently, chains of reference involve a great deal of shifting and slithering between a generic and a non-generic meaning, although the references are seemingly coreferential. It is sometimes difficult to decide on the real referents intended. At times there are also clear cases where the noun phrase must be analysed as referring to both generic and non-generic entities at the same time. This implies that it is unlikely that we actually decide for every reference if it is generic or non-generic.