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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Blind and partially blind people'
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Franks, Julie Elizabeth. "A study of practitioners' perspectives on rehabilitation work with blind and partially sighted people in the U.K." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.390851.
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Thurston, Mhairi. "Emotional support and inclusion for blind and partially sighted people in the United Kingdom : the development of counselling for sight loss : a pluralistic practice model." Thesis, Abertay University, 2017. https://rke.abertay.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/2282351c-9da4-4b1a-8502-dea1ba372139.
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This is a narrative account of a cohesive programme of research carried out between 2010 and 2016, which resulted in ten peer-reviewed, published papers that provide an empirical basis for my thesis. The impetus for this academic exploration was provided by my personal experience of acquired sight loss, where my medical and functional needs were prioritised but my emotional needs were overlooked. The first study I undertook confirmed that people experienced negative emotional effects attributable to acquired sight loss. Subsequent studies explored the experience of social exclusion in health and education for blind and partially sighted people. Difficulties were evident across the lifespan, starting with undiagnosed refractive errors in childhood, moving to perceptions of inclusion in high school and on to experiences of exclusion in health care and engagement with leisure activities in adulthood. These papers offer a context for understanding the social and emotional effects of sight loss. Two supporting papers examined how inclusion in healthcare might be increased through nurse education and how accessible games might aid inclusion in entertainment. The thesis as a whole focuses on the development of Counselling for Sight Loss, a pluralistic practice framework for responding holistically to the emotional effects of sight loss, which are compounded by social exclusion. My theoretical model explaining the transition from sight to blindness provided a theoretical context for the thesis, advocating that different people benefit from different types of emotional support at different times in their sight loss journey. This has implications for the nature and timing of emotional support offered to blind and partially sighted people. Counselling for Sight Loss is based around a menu of therapeutic tasks, identified from analysis of systematic case study data in which clients identified helpful aspects of their therapy. These tasks provide an empirical basis for working therapeutically with clients who have visual impairment and will act as a foundation for the development of training materials. The findings of my most recent study have highlighted the need for a national framework for the provision of emotional support services for blind and partially sighted people within the United Kingdom. Currently, emotional support and counselling services are being delivered by staff with varying degrees of relevant training, including those with none. My research has contributed to the development of quality standards and training, based on my Counselling for Sight Loss data, to benefit UK service delivery. Thus my thesis represents a systematic commitment to using research to generate real-world solutions to a real-world problem: designing and delivering effective emotional support and counselling for adults with sight loss in the United Kingdom.
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Redon, Marjorie. "Τraitement d'image pοur la valοrisatiοn et l'accessibilité des οeuvres muséales." Electronic Thesis or Diss., Normandie, 2024. http://www.theses.fr/2024NORMC263.
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La question de l’accessibilité des œuvres muséales aux personnes présentant une incapacité visuelle (PPIVs) est régulièrement soulevée par les associations et les musées. De par leur nature, certaines œuvres, telles que les tapisseries médiévales, ne peuvent être touchées et ne sont que peu souvent accessibles via l’audio-description. Aussi, la création manuelle de représentations tactiles est coûteuse et complexe, limitant leur disponibilité dans les musées. La Tapisserie de l’Apocalypse et la Tapisserie de Bayeux sont deux exemples emblématiques. Ces deux œuvres d’art de grande envergure mesurant 104 m sur 4,5 m pour la première et 70 m sur 50 cm pour la deuxième, sont devenues au fil du temps les objets de nombreuses études. Bien que le Château d’Angers propose des visites guidées adaptées aux personnes aveugles et malvoyantes, celles-ci restent limitées et nécessitent la participation de plusieurs personnes. Au musée de la Tapisserie de Bayeux, un espace de découverte tactile est proposé mais seules trois des 58 scènes peuvent être explorées.Cette thèse aborde les problématiques d'inclusion dans les musées. Ce travail a été mené dans une volonté de rendre la perception des tapisseries médiévales accessible à un plus grand nombre de personnes. Ce travail propose ainsi une méthodologie innovante de création semi-automatique d’objets 3D à partir d’une simple photographie. Nous nous intéressons dans ce manuscrit aux possibilités offertes par les outils d’intelligence artificielle pour la création de bas-reliefs imprimés en 3D, rapidement et à moindre coût. Pour cela, nous étudions des algorithmes de segmentation tels que les Mask R-CNN ; et d'autres réseaux de neurones permettant de générer des images, comme les réseaux génératifs antagonistes (GANs). En plus de la possible génération d'impressions 3D permettant une exploration tactile des œuvres, nous devons nous intéresser à la pertinence de telles représentations. Afin de nous assurer que la solution proposée permette une meilleure autonomie dans l’appréciation de l’art, nous menons également une campagne d'évaluation auprès de PPIVs. Au final, nous visons à améliorer l'expérience muséale des personnes aveugles et partiellement aveugles par une augmentation de leur autonomie dans ces lieux de culture et renforcer leur satisfaction et leur motivation à découvrir ces trésors culturelsThe issue of accessibility to artworks in museums for visually impaired people (VIP) is frequently raised by associations and museums. Some works, such as medieval tapestries, by their very nature, cannot be touched and are often not accessible through audio-description. Moreover, the manual creation of tactile representations is costly and complex, limiting their availability in museums. The Apocalypse Tapestry and the Bayeux Tapestry are two iconic examples. These large-scale artefacts, measuring 104 m by 4.5 cm meters for the former and 70 m by 50 cm for the latter, have been the focus of numerous studies over the years. Although the Château d'Angers offers guided tours adapted for blind and partially sighted visitors, these remain limited and require the involvement of several people. At the Bayeux Tapestry Museum, there is a tactile discovery area, but only three of the 58 scenes have been adapted into tactile mock copies.This work is motivated by the challenges of inclusion in museums and aims to make the perception of medieval tapestries accessible to as many people as possible. We propose an innovative methodology for the semi-automatic creation of 3D objects from simple photographs. In this manuscript, we explore the possibilities offered by artificial intelligence tools to quickly and affordably create 3D-printed bas-reliefs. Specifically, we study segmentation algorithms like Mask R-CNN and image-generating neural networks such as generative adversarial networks (GANs). In addition to generating 3D prints that enable tactile exploration of artefacts, we also evaluate the relevance of these representations through experimentation with VIPs. Overall, our goal is to improve the museum experience for blind and partially sighted visitors by enhancing their autonomy in cultural spaces and increasing their satisfaction and motivation to discover these cultural treasures
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Rackley, Mark Anthony. "'The blind leading the blind' : a phenomenological study into the experience of blind and partially sighted clients with a sighted therapist." Thesis, Middlesex University, 2015. http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/18562/.
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The focus on blindness and partial sightedness and improving the lives of those living with blindness and partial sightedness has increased in UK public policy and discourse over the last decade. However, there has been little focus on the psychological and emotional needs of those living with sight loss and how emotional support services may work effectively with this client group. This investigation, using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), examines the experience of nine blind or partially sighted people, aged between 22 and 75 years of age, living in the UK who have had psychological therapy with a sighted therapist in the last two years. The findings highlight various aspects of the participants’ experience under four meta-themes: 1) Struggles between the two worlds, 2) Bringing the ‘elephant’ into the therapy room, 3) Non-verbal communication and 4) Verbal communication and the power of the therapeutic relationship. The discussion highlighted areas for consideration for sighted counselling psychologists and other mental health professionals who may work with clients who are blind or partially sighted. It also explores three major areas: (i) for counselling psychology as a profession to consider how it supports clients who are blind or partially sighted, (ii) for sighted counselling psychologists and other mental health professionals to examine their own attitude toward disability and how they work with this in their profession and (iii) for sighted counselling psychologists to challenge traditional ways of working with touch, silence and talking when working with blind or partially sighted clients.
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Jones, J. Michael Browning Philip L. "Factors that correlate with employment and earnings for people who are blind in Alabama." Auburn, Ala, 2008. http://repo.lib.auburn.edu/EtdRoot/2008/SUMMER/Rehabilitation_and_Special_Education/Dissertation/Jones_John_51.pdf.
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Jefferson, Luke Alexander. "Computer accessibility for colour-blind people." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.502557.
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Colour vision deficiency (CVD), often and erroneously called colour-blindness, is the collective term for a variety of abnormal physiological conditions, usually congenital, which result in fewer colour responses than normal. Despite the surprisingly high incidence of CVD (8% of men are colour vision deficient) very few commercial interfaces tackle the problem explicitly. This thesis reviews the different types of accessibility problems encountered by colour vision deficient computer users. It reports results from a questionnaire study designed to ascertain the extent to which CVD impacts computer use, the frequency at which people with CVD experience problems and the severity of these problems. This thesis demonstrates how computational models of CVD can be applied to a variety of existing software tools and interfaces to improve computer accessibility for people with CVD. Specifically, it shows how it is possible to integrate models of CVD and measures of colour difference to facilitate the selection of accessible colour schemes and to automatically map combinations of colours that colour vision deficient people find hard to discern using multi-dimensional scaling. The recolouring algorithm is evaluated using a computerised version of the standard Ishihara pseudoisochromatic plate colour vision test. The effect of applying the algorithm is to decrease (increase) error (performance) significantly for both simulated and real colour vision deficient observers so that it is comparable to the error obtained by a normal colour observer. In addition to introducing a fully automatic recolouring method, a new semi-automatic recolouring method is described along with an interface that allows the method to be delivered as an adaptive technology. The interface allows users with CVD to recolour images for their own colour vision impairment in real-time. The interface is evaluated using a perceptual image similarity task, highlighting the benefits and limits of the proposed method.
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Tse, Cheuk-yin Samuel. "Factory for the blind." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 2002. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B25954209.
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Bennett, David James. "Presenting diagrams in sound for blind people." Thesis, University of York, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.313857.
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Hnilica, David. "Assistance and Information System for Blind People." Master's thesis, Vysoké učení technické v Brně. Fakulta informačních technologií, 2007. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-412767.
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Tato práce řeší problém implementace asistenčního systému pro podporu zrakově postižených osob v prostředcích hromadné dopravy. Jelikož se jedná pouze o část většího celku (projektu RAMPE), není v této práci pokryta celá problematika, nýbrž pouze její část. Práce je psána z pohledu vývojáře a softwarového architekta. Zlepšuje architekturu dříve vyvinutého projektu, navrhuje nové metody a techniky a přidává do výsledné aplikace nové funkce. Toto však platí pouze pro příslušnou část - práce nemůže a ani si neklade za cíl změnit nebo navrhnout celý systém. To už bylo provedeno jinými autory v minulosti a tato práce je na těchto předchozích výsledcích postavena.
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Tse, Cheuk-yin Samuel, and 謝卓然. "Factory for the blind." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2002. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31986766.
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Samad, Shaheen. "A Blind Partially Coherent Multi-H CPM Receiver for Aeronautical Telemetry." International Foundation for Telemetering, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/595645.
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ITC/USA 2011 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Seventh Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 24-27, 2011 / Bally's Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NevadaMulti-H Continuous Phase Modulation is a highly bandwidth efficient constant amplitude modulation scheme. Because of these qualities it was selected as the Advanced Range Telemetry (ARTM) tier II waveform. In the past, two demodulation techniques have widely been proposed, coherent detection and non-coherent detection. This paper presents a receiver design that implements a hybrid, partially coherent detection scheme that takes advantage of the positive aspects of both coherent and non-coherent detection. Because complete phase recovery is not required, the hybrid receiver performs better in environments with fast fading, strong phase noise, and multi path when compared to the traditional coherent receiver. The hybrid receiver can also acquire and reacquire signals much faster than conventional coherent receivers. The hybrid receiver design implements a partial carrier detection scheme that utilizes phase information that performs much better in AWGN environments than typical non-coherent receivers. Simulation results show that the hybrid receiver has low implementation loss compared to the optimal Maximum Likelihood Sequence Estimation (MLSE) receiver.
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Thompson, Leanne Julia. "Object representation and tactile picture perception in blind people." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.421972.
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Rootham, Esther Maddy. "(Re)Working citizenship : young people and colour-blind politics." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2012. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:1a140a0d-2255-4770-95cc-634d16fa393b.
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This study is about the manner in which ‘ethnicity’, ‘race’, ‘racism’ and ‘anti-racism’ are understood in contemporary France and how this affects the ways in which racialized young adults experience their schooling and early working lives. I explore the ways in which young people living and working in Paris and its surrounding suburbs understand the opportunities and barriers they face. I ground these narratives in an historicized account of the emergence of recent formulations of debates about the appropriate place of immigrants and racialized communities in public political culture in France. I do this through both an examination of the controversy surrounding the use of the categories ethnicity and ‘race’ for the purpose of monitoring discrimination as well as an analysis of a recently inaugurated national museum dedicated to the contribution of immigrants to the French nation. I argue that highly mediatised discussions in France revolving around the meaning of the French national identity, immigration and integration, youth unrest in the banlieues and the place of religion in French society are all implicitly discourses of ‘race’ and racism, despite the concerted and explicit avoidance of the deployment of racial terminology. I draw together an analysis of racialization processes as they take place at different scales and arenas from the denial of the significance of racialization in intellectual milieus, to the process of invisibilisation of racialization and colonialism at work in museum displays and memory narratives to the individual and collective everyday lived experience of racism of relatively high achieving young racialized adults. While rooted in human geography, I rely on a variety of qualitative methods and contribute to a range of academic fields, including the study of racism and anti-racism, the sociology of statistics, museum studies and political science.
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Dushi, Denis. "Using Deep Learning to Answer Visual Questions from Blind People." Thesis, KTH, Skolan för elektroteknik och datavetenskap (EECS), 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-247910.
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A natural application of artificial intelligence is to help blind people overcome their daily visual challenges through AI-based assistive technologies. In this regard, one of the most promising tasks is Visual Question Answering (VQA): the model is presented with an image and a question about this image. It must then predict the correct answer. Recently has been introduced the VizWiz dataset, a collection of images and questions originating from blind people. Being the first VQA dataset deriving from a natural setting, VizWiz presents many limitations and peculiarities. More specifically, the characteristics observed are the high uncertainty of the answers, the conversational aspect of questions, the relatively small size of the datasets and ultimately, the imbalance between answerable and unanswerable classes. These characteristics could be observed, individually or jointly, in other VQA datasets, resulting in a burden when solving the VQA task. Particularly suitable to address these aspects of the data are data science pre-processing techniques. Therefore, to provide a solid contribution to the VQA task, we answered the research question “Can data science pre-processing techniques improve the VQA task?” by proposing and studying the effects of four different pre-processing techniques. To address the high uncertainty of answers we employed a pre-processing step in which it is computed the uncertainty of each answer and used this measure to weight the soft scores of our model during training. The adoption of an “uncertainty-aware” training procedure boosted the predictive accuracy of our model of 10% providing a new state-of-the-art when evaluated on the test split of the VizWiz dataset. In order to overcome the limited amount of data, we designed and tested a new pre-processing procedure able to augment the training set and almost double its data points by computing the cosine similarity between answers representation. We addressed also the conversational aspect of questions collected from real world verbal conversations by proposing an alternative question pre-processing pipeline in which conversational terms are removed. This led in a further improvement: from a predictive accuracy of 0.516 with the standard question processing pipeline, we were able to achieve 0.527 predictive accuracy when employing the new pre-processing pipeline. Ultimately, we addressed the imbalance between answerable and unanswerable classes when predicting the answerability of a visual question. We tested two standard pre-processing techniques to adjust the dataset class distribution: oversampling and undersampling. Oversampling provided an albeit small improvement in both average precision and F1 score.En naturlig tillämpning av artificiell intelligens är att hjälpa blinda med deras dagliga visuella utmaningar genom AI-baserad hjälpmedelsteknik. I detta avseende, är en av de mest lovande uppgifterna Visual Question Answering (VQA): modellen presenteras med en bild och en fråga om denna bild, och måste sedan förutspå det korrekta svaret. Nyligen introducerades VizWiz-datamängd, en samling bilder och frågor till dessa från blinda personer. Då detta är det första VQA-datamängden som härstammar från en naturlig miljö, har det många begränsningar och särdrag. Mer specifikt är de observerade egenskaperna: hög osäkerhet i svaren, informell samtalston i frågorna, relativt liten datamängd och slutligen obalans mellan svarbara och icke svarbara klasser. Dessa egenskaper kan även observeras, enskilda eller tillsammans, i andra VQA-datamängd, vilket utgör särskilda utmaningar vid lösning av VQA-uppgiften. Särskilt lämplig för att hantera dessa aspekter av data är förbehandlingsteknik från området data science. För att bidra till VQA-uppgiften, svarade vi därför på frågan “Kan förbehandlingstekniker från området data science bidra till lösningen av VQA-uppgiften?” genom att föreslå och studera effekten av fyra olika förbehandlingstekniker. För att hantera den höga osäkerheten i svaren använde vi ett förbehandlingssteg där vi beräknade osäkerheten i varje svar och använde detta mått för att vikta modellens utdata-värden under träning. Användandet av en ”osäkerhetsmedveten” träningsprocedur förstärkte den förutsägbara noggrannheten hos vår modell med 10%. Med detta nådde vi ett toppresultat när modellen utvärderades på testdelen av VizWiz-datamängden. För att övervinna problemet med den begränsade mängden data, konstruerade och testade vi en ny förbehandlingsprocedur som nästan dubblerar datapunkterna genom att beräkna cosinuslikheten mellan svarens vektorer. Vi hanterade även problemet med den informella samtalstonen i frågorna, som samlats in från den verkliga världens verbala konversationer, genom att föreslå en alternativ väg att förbehandla frågorna, där samtalstermer är borttagna. Detta ledde till en ytterligare förbättring: från en förutsägbar noggrannhet på 0.516 med det vanliga sättet att bearbeta frågorna kunde vi uppnå 0.527 prediktiv noggrannhet vid användning av det nya sättet att förbehandla frågorna. Slutligen hanterade vi obalansen mellan svarbara och icke svarbara klasser genom att förutse om en visuell fråga har ett möjligt svar. Vi testade två standard-förbehandlingstekniker för att justeradatamängdens klassdistribution: översampling och undersampling. Översamplingen gav en om än liten förbättring i både genomsnittlig precision och F1-poäng.
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Kish, Charles Daniel. "Evaluation of an echo-mobility program for young blind people." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1995. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/1036.
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Van, Tol Ruth R. "Self-reported independent living outcome measures of blind elders attending adjustment training." Online version, 2002. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2001/2001vantolr.pdf.
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Browne, Elizabeth J. "God is blind a liberation theology of the outcast /." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1991. http://www.tren.com.
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Blackburn, Ian Russell. "A conceptual multi-model HCI model for the blind." Thesis, Curtin University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/575.
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The ability for blind people to read and write Braille aids literacy development. A good level of literacy enables a person to function well in society in terms of employment, education and daily living. The learning of Braille has traditionally been done with hard copy Braille produced by manual and more recently electronic Braille writers and printers. Curtin University is developing an electronic Braille writer and the research on an interface for Braille keyboard devices, presented in this thesis, forms part of the Curtin University Brailler project.The Design Science approach was the research method chosen for this research because of the flexibility of the approach and because it focuses upon the building of artefacts and theory development. The small sample size meant that both individual interviews and a focus group were employed to gather relevant data from respondents. The literature review covers a variety of areas related to computer interfaces and Braille keyboard devices. A key finding is that the interaction paradigm for Braille keyboard devices needs to differ to interfaces for sighted individuals because of the audio, tactile and serial nature of the information gathering strategies employed by blind people as compared with the visual and spatial information gathering strategies employed by sighted individuals. In terms of usability attributes designed to evaluate the interface consistency was found to be a key factor because of its importance to learning and memory retention.However, two main functions carried out on a computer system are navigating and editing. Thus the model of interface for Braille keyboard devices presented in this thesis focuses upon navigation support and editing support.Feedback was sort from by interviews with individuals and a focus group. Individual interviews were conducted face to face and via the telephone and the focus group was conducted via Skype conference call to enable participants from all over the world to provide feedback on the model.The model was evaluated using usability attributes. Usability was important to the respondents, in particular consistency, learnability, simplicity and ease of use were important. The concept of rich navigation and infinitely definable key maps were understood by respondents and supported. Braille output is essential including the ability to show formatting information in Braille.The limitations of the research included the few respondents to the interviews and the choice to focus upon a theoretical model rather than implementing the model on an actual device. Future research opportunities include implementing the interface concepts from the model on to touch screen devices to aid further development of the interface and implementing the interface on a physical device such as the Curtin University Brailler.
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Zainal, Abidin A. H. "An investigation into accessible and usable web navigation for the blind people." Thesis, Zainal Abidin, A.H. (2016) An investigation into accessible and usable web navigation for the blind people. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2016. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/31912/.
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Navigability, or ease of navigation, is important for web access by the blind community. However, current screen reader program used by blind people to access the Internet imposes navigation constraints since the blind users can only ‘hear’ the content in serial mode. Serialized access using a screen-reader program prevents blind users from experiencing the multi-dimensional effects required to fully understand the page layout. We believe that by accessing web pages using bi-modal interaction, a blind user would be able to gain a two-dimensional perspective of a web page in his or her mental model. The purpose of this study is to investigate the differences in the mental models created by blind people from a two-dimensional web page using two different means: one using a screen reader only and the other using a touch screen with audio feedback.
This study utilized a mixed-method design to investigate the accessibility and usability differences between use of a screen reader and use of a touch screen with audio feedback. Ten blind people and thirty sighted and blindfolded participants participated in this study. This study employed within-subjects repeated measures experiments together with observations, verbal protocols and semi-structured questionnaires to achieve the defined objectives. Additionally, the influence of users’ spatial ability on their performance was investigated using Tactual Performance Test (TPT).
This study found that expert and more experienced screen reader users were able to imagine the page layout in a two-dimensional perspective, using a touch screen with audio feedback. The study also revealed that blind users achieved more accurate orientation when using a touch screen with audio feedback. However, the accuracy of orientation seems to have been affected by page complexity. In addition, investigation of blind users’ spatial ability on their sense of position revealed that, when using a touch screen with audio feedback, blind participants with lower spatial ability took longer time to locate information. Therefore, spatial ability is an important determinant for web navigability when using a touch screen with audio feedback.
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Mekhalfi, Mohamed Lamine. "Recovering the Sight to blind People in indoor Environments with smart Technologies." Doctoral thesis, Università degli studi di Trento, 2016. https://hdl.handle.net/11572/367798.
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The methodologies presented in this thesis address the problem of blind people rehabilitation through assistive technologies. In overall terms, the basic and principal needs that a blind individual might be concerned with can be confined to two components, namely (i) navigation/ obstacle avoidance, and (ii) object recognition. Having a close look at the literature, it seems clear that the former category has been devoted the biggest concern with respect to the latter one. Moreover, the few contributions on the second concern tend to approach the recognition task on a single predefined class of objects. Furthermore, both needs, to the best of our knowledge, have not been embedded into a single prototype. In this respect, we put forth in this thesis two main contributions. The first and main one tackles the issue of object recognition for the blind, in which we propose a ‘coarse recognition’ approach that proceeds by detecting objects in bulk rather than focusing on a single class. Thus, the underlying insight of the coarse recognition is to list the bunch of objects that likely exist in a camera-shot image (acquired by the blind individual with an opportune interface, e.g., voice recognition synthesis-based support), regardless of their position in the scene. It thus trades the computational time with object information details as to lessen the processing constraints. As for the second contribution, we further incorporate the recognition algorithm, along with an implemented navigation system that is supplied with a laser-based obstacle avoidance module. Evaluated on image datasets acquired in indoor environments, the recognition schemes have exhibited, with little to mild disparities with respect to one another, interesting results in terms of either recognition rates or processing gap. On the other hand, the navigation system has been assessed in an indoor site and has revealed plausible performance and flexibility with respect to the usual blind people’s mobility speed. A thorough experimental analysis is hereby provided alongside laying the foundations for potential future research lines, including object recognition in outdoor environments.
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Mekhalfi, Mohamed Lamine. "Recovering the Sight to blind People in indoor Environments with smart Technologies." Doctoral thesis, University of Trento, 2016. http://eprints-phd.biblio.unitn.it/1651/1/Final_Thesis_2016_Mekhalfi.pdf.
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The methodologies presented in this thesis address the problem of blind people rehabilitation through assistive technologies. In overall terms, the basic and principal needs that a blind individual might be concerned with can be confined to two components, namely (i) navigation/ obstacle avoidance, and (ii) object recognition. Having a close look at the literature, it seems clear that the former category has been devoted the biggest concern with respect to the latter one. Moreover, the few contributions on the second concern tend to approach the recognition task on a single predefined class of objects. Furthermore, both needs, to the best of our knowledge, have not been embedded into a single prototype. In this respect, we put forth in this thesis two main contributions. The first and main one tackles the issue of object recognition for the blind, in which we propose a ‘coarse recognition’ approach that proceeds by detecting objects in bulk rather than focusing on a single class. Thus, the underlying insight of the coarse recognition is to list the bunch of objects that likely exist in a camera-shot image (acquired by the blind individual with an opportune interface, e.g., voice recognition synthesis-based support), regardless of their position in the scene. It thus trades the computational time with object information details as to lessen the processing constraints. As for the second contribution, we further incorporate the recognition algorithm, along with an implemented navigation system that is supplied with a laser-based obstacle avoidance module. Evaluated on image datasets acquired in indoor environments, the recognition schemes have exhibited, with little to mild disparities with respect to one another, interesting results in terms of either recognition rates or processing gap. On the other hand, the navigation system has been assessed in an indoor site and has revealed plausible performance and flexibility with respect to the usual blind people’s mobility speed. A thorough experimental analysis is hereby provided alongside laying the foundations for potential future research lines, including object recognition in outdoor environments.
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Myers, Karen A. Hines Edward R. "Preferences of communication styles and techniques of persons with visible visual disabilities implications for higher education /." Normal, Ill. Illinois State University, 1994. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ilstu/fullcit?p9510428.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1994.Title from title page screen, viewed March 28, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Edward R. Hines (chair), Paul J. Baker, Ming-Gon John Lian, George A. Padavil. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 150-163) and abstract. Also available in print.
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Rabeck, Deborah D. (Deborah Denise). "Neuropsychological Functioning of Blind Subjects with Learning Disabilities Compared to Those with Blindness Alone." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1994. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc279324/.
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It has been hypothesized that a disproportionate percentage of the blind population are learning disabled. In the past, norms and technology were not available to assess in a cost effective manner the blind client's neuropsychological functioning. Norms for the Wide Range Achievement Test - Revised (WRAT-R2) are now available for a blind population without any neuropsychological dysfunctioning. This study utilized the adapted WRAT-R2 and the Comprehensive Vocational Evaluation System (CVES), a neuropsychological test battery adapted for the blind, to investigate the possibility that learning disabilities are present in the adult blind population. Suspected learning disabled, blind subjects were compared with normal blind subjects. There were significant neuropsychological differences between the two groups.
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McGraw, Cathy. "Montreal Association for the Blind user satisfaction survey." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp03/MQ37290.pdf.
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Carvalho, Luciana Vieira de. "Construction and evaluation of online course on prevention of hypertension for blind people." Universidade Federal do CearÃ, 2015. http://www.teses.ufc.br/tde_busca/arquivo.php?codArquivo=13391.
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FundaÃÃo Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnolÃgicoDue to altered visual function, blind people are more exposed to risk factors of hypertension, a situation that proves the need to promote educational actions to prevent this disease. The objective was to develop affordable online course for the blind ones on prevention of hypertension. It was used Development Model of Digital Educational Material composed by five phases entitled Analysis and Planning; modeling; implementation; Evaluation and Maintenance; Distribution. In Analysis and Planning phase the product was characterized. The course about hypertension in online mode was directed to blind population. It was built in modeling a script and it was added a content to multimedia elements, being transformed into the pages for internet format with definition of navigation tools and design. There was obtained 15 pages that were divided into six educational modules. The study followed the accessibility standards of national documents (e-MAG) and international (WCAG). In the Deployment it was submit the accessibility evaluating course pages. Initially we used the software ASES that generated Error Reporting, accusing infringement of four national recommendations and three international principles. The pages were reviewed, and the inconsistencies were corrected. In the second test, the pages were lodged into SOLAR environment. It was contacted four blind people whom rated platform accessibility and usability of the platform by performing sequential activities of navigation. It was found that the SOLAR is partially accessible as it found some accessibility barriers (lack of field identification, disposal and inadequate identification fields and links; elements that prevented reading the content in a logical sequence and using the mouse). Therefore, the SOLAR needs improvement to facilitate navigation by the blind. The course components such as texts; images; audio and links were considered accessible, and the initial difficulty in navigation was, to be hosted, on the platform that needed improvements. The Evaluation and Maintenance occurred throughout the course preparation and the distribution will be addressed in further studies. The course did not suffer any changes and the prototype implemented in SOLAR was taken as the result of the research. It concludes that build online course as assistive technology for the blind is a viable task. This study provides information about prevention of hypertension and equal access to digital educational materials. The study encourages nurses to develop affordable technologies for health promotion of blind people.
Devido alteraÃÃo da funÃÃo visual, cegos estÃo mais expostos aos fatores de risco da hipertensÃo, situaÃÃo que comprova a necessidade de promover aÃÃes educativas para prevenir esta patologia. Objetivou-se desenvolver curso online acessÃvel para cegos sobre prevenÃÃo da hipertensÃo. Utilizou-se Modelo de Desenvolvimento de Material Educativo Digital composto por cinco fases intituladas AnÃlise e Planejamento; Modelagem; ImplementaÃÃo; AvaliaÃÃo e ManutenÃÃo; DistribuiÃÃo. Na fase AnÃlise e Planejamento o produto foi caracterizado. Direcionou-se o curso aos cegos com tema sobre hipertensÃo na modalidade online. Na Modelagem construiu-se conteÃdo em roteiro e agregou-se elementos de multimÃdia, sendo transformado em pÃginas no formato para internet com definiÃÃo das ferramentas de navegaÃÃo e design. Obteve-se 15 pÃginas divididas em seis mÃdulos didÃticos. Seguiu-se os padrÃes de acessibilidade dos documentos nacionais (e-MAG) e internacionais (WCAG). Na ImplementaÃÃo submeteu-se as pÃginas do curso a avaliaÃÃo de acessibilidade. Inicialmente utilizou-se software ASES que gerou RelatÃrio de Erros, acusando infraÃÃo de quatro recomendaÃÃes nacionais e trÃs princÃpios internacionais. As pÃginas foram revisadas, sendo corrigidas as inconsistÃncias. No segundo teste, hospedou-se as pÃginas no ambiente SOLAR. Contactou-se quatro pessoas cegas que avaliaram acessibilidade e usabilidade da plataforma e curso mediante realizaÃÃo de atividades sequenciais de navegaÃÃo. Verificou-se que o SOLAR à parcialmente acessÃvel, pois foram encontradas algumas barreiras de acessibilidade (ausÃncia de identificaÃÃo de campos; disposiÃÃo e identificaÃÃo inadequada de campos e links; elementos que impediam leitura do conteÃdo em sequÃncia lÃgica e uso do mouse). Logo, o SOLAR necessita de melhorias para facilitar a navegaÃÃo por cegos. Os componentes do curso, tais como textos; imagens; Ãudio e links foram considerados acessÃveis, sendo que a dificuldade inicial na navegaÃÃo ocorreu por estar hospedado na plataforma que necessita de aprimoramentos. A AvaliaÃÃo e ManutenÃÃo ocorreu durante toda elaboraÃÃo do curso e a DistribuiÃÃo serà contemplada em estudo posterior. O curso nÃo sofreu modificaÃÃes e o protÃtipo implementado no SOLAR foi considerado resultado final da pesquisa. Conclui-se que construir curso online como tecnologia assistiva para cegos à tarefa viÃvel. Este oferece conhecimento sobre prevenÃÃo da hipertensÃo e igualdade de acesso a materiais educativos digitais. O estudo estimula enfermeiros a desenvolver tecnologias acessÃveis para promoÃÃo da saÃde das pessoas cegas.
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Caga, Tabisa. "Factors affecting people with disabilities in the employment sector." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1549.
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Since 1994, the South African Government has formulated various policies in an attempt to redress the previous political, economic and social imbalances within the country. The majority of the policies have focused on empowering previously disadvantaged groups including people with disabilities. Despite the interventions, literature reviewed reflects that there is very little progress made with regard to empowerment of people with disabilities in the employment sector. The study seeks to explore and identify factors that affect people with visual disabilities in the employment sector. The researcher used a qualitative approach to investigate the perceptions of people with visual disabilities through conducting focus groups interviews with participants that were recruited using a purposive sampling approach. A total of four groups from Pretoria have been used to draw findings for the research study. During the focus group discussions, a semi structured interview guide was used to generate more in‐depth interpretations from the participants and data was analysed using Tesch’s (1990) framework that is described in Creswell (2003). The findings of the research revealed that people with visual disabilities still have problems in accessing and retaining employment despite the South African favourable legislation. Dominating among the factors that are viewed by the participants to hinder their employability are societal negatives attitudes which include unequal treatment, discrimination when they seek employment, belittling and disregard by employers, coworkers and the society at large. There are also a number of factors that were perceived as barriers to job seekers with visual disabilities which include inaccessible advertising media for vacancies, inaccessible transports systems, inaccessible education and training and lack of funded positions suited for people with visual disabilities.
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Stevens, Robert David. "Principles for the design of auditory interfaces to present complex information to blind people." Thesis, University of York, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.319718.
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Al, Jarallah Khulud. "Cognitive user-centred design approach to improve accessibility for blind people during online interaction." Thesis, De Montfort University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2086/9737.
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The use of internet and other communication technology has become predominantly common in the life of normal sighted users. In order to have a fair level of equality in the society, blind people must also be able to use these facilities with equal ease and effectiveness Many governments decided to implement e-Government applications to enhance the delivery of information and services to its citizens, residents and businesses. These e-Government applications were carefully designed with the help of international standards to serve the whole group of population and especially people with disabilities. However, recent studies showed that the acceptance rate of these e Government applications among the community, especially between people with disability, is not up to the expectations. The aim of this research is to investigate the accessibility issues faced by blind people while interacting with online services like e-Government portals Owing to the nature of content and the importance of information which is to be delivered to the whole country, the accessibility standards of such portals are of paramount importance. It is this idea of evaluation of such websites for special category of blind people that has been the main focus of this thesis. The main aim of this doctoral research is to discover any accessibility problems that could be faced by people with blind users during online interaction and not covered in accessibility standards. A real example of online interaction is the e-Government portals. This research followed a rigours tri-staged evaluation process for a selected e-Government portal (Saudi Arabian portal) to analyse the accessibility issues faced by blind people. The aim of this evaluation process is to understand the cognition and perception of a blind user while interacting with a web-based environment. The first step of the evaluation process was to verify the level of adherence of the selected portal to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The second stage includes a detailed experimental exercise with a number of blind people following the task- oriented approach. The third step of the evaluation process was a detailed interview with web designers to analyse the problems faced by blind participants in the experimental exercise. Thereafter, cognitive-based solutions were proposed to improve the accessibility of online interaction for blind users and fill the gap in the accessibility standards. The introduction of navigational landmarks and the insertion of virtual map description improve the navigation and hence the performance of blind users. The proposed solution has been tested with a separate group of blind users to validate the research findings and to ensure the desired level of accessibility of the e-Government portals is achieved.
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MacFarland, Stephanie Zora Catherine. "Teachers' understanding and implementation of Van Dijk's learning theory for students who are deaf-blind." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/186572.
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This research study investigated the relationship between teachers' understanding of the theoretical principles underlying the Van Dijk Curriculum for students labelled deaf-blind and teachers' implementation of related instructional strategies. This study was conducted at the Rafael School located on the campus of the Instituut voor Doven, a school for deaf children, in The Netherlands. Six teachers who were specifically trained for at least three years in the Van Dijk Curriculum at the Rafael School were observed and interviewed during an academic school year. A comprehensive system was developed to examine the dynamic relationship between teachers' understanding and implementation. Using qualitative research methodology, teacher implementation was documented through observations and teacher understanding was documented through interviews. A systematic coding procedure was used to analyze the data. In general, the findings indicated that a relatively consistent relationship was found between teacher understanding and implementation for five of the six teachers. The one exception was a teacher who demonstrated that she understood the theory underlying the curriculum but was not a high implementor of the related instructional strategies. Possible explanations regarding this particular teacher's incongruent relationship of understanding and implementation are presented. This study demonstrates that a systematic procedure can be developed to investigate the relationship of a curricular theory applied to practice. Furthermore, this study provides insight into how teachers' understanding of theory translates into practice. The particular conditions and circumstances under which the relationship of teachers' understanding and implementation was investigated in this study suggest that a shared philosophy, a theory-based curricular model with integrated strategies, and ongoing staff collaboration and administrative support seem to impact this dynamic relationship.
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Asimopoulos, Nikos. "Design and implementation of a portable omnifont reading aid for the blind." Diss., This resource online, 1990. http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-09162005-115042/.
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Tsang, Chiu-chun Leo. "Urban planning for equal opportunity for the blind in Hong Kong : a case study of transportation facilities planning in public mass transits /." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 1997. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B19130880.
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Asher, Dianne. "Developing the leadership and management of Henshaws Society for Blind People for stability and future growth." Thesis, University of Salford, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.490416.
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This is a practice based thesis which primarily considers the issue of leadership and management in the voluntary sector. The focus for the thesis is my current organisation, Henshaws Society for Blind People, a charity which provides services for visually impaired people of all ages across the north of England.
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Muyinga, Eurelia Godwin Mahembe. "The role of counselling and learning support in helping blind and partially sighted students of the Open University of Tanzania." Thesis, University of Reading, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.400337.
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Di, Mattia Valentina. "Study for a novel electromagnetic travel aid for visually impaired people." Doctoral thesis, Università Politecnica delle Marche, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11566/242743.
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La mobilità autonoma per le persone ipovedenti e non vedenti può essere molto
difficile e spesso richiede l'uso di dispositivi di supporto, come il bastone bianco.
Nel corso degli ultimi decenni sono stati proposti numerosi dispositivi elettronici
con lo scopo di fornire al non vedente delle informazioni sull’ambiente circostante
utili alla deambulazione. Ad oggi nessuno di essi soddisfa appieno i requisiti delle
linee guida internazionali definite per gli ETA. Si è pensato quindi di studiare un
ausilio innovativo basato su impulsi elettromagnetici, ancora mai impiegati per
questo scopo. L’attività di ricerca è iniziata con due studi preliminari, sperimentale
e teorico, che hanno confermato le potenzialità dei campi EM sia nel rilevare la
presenza di ostacoli che nel fornire informazioni aggiuntive riguardanti distanza,
materiale e dimensione. E’ stato poi realizzato e testato da un volontario non
vedente un prototipo capace di rilevare tramite un’antenna la presenza di un
ostacolo e avvisare l'utente con allarmi acustici via via più intensi all’avvicinarsi
dell’oggetto. Secondo i feedback dell’utente il sistema è facile da usare e in grado,
a differenza del bastone bianco, di rilevare anche ostacoli sospesi; ha però bisogno
di essere miniaturizzato, velocizzato per avere risposte in tempo reale e dotato
d’interfaccia vibro-tattile. L'attenzione è stata focalizzata sulla progettazione di
nuovi elementi radianti (un’antenna horn e un array di slot planari) caratterizzati
da: -alte frequenze di lavoro e quindi dimensioni ridotte; -banda ultra larga e quindi
alta risoluzione spaziale; -diagramma di radiazione largo sul piano verticale per
proteggere l’utente dai piedi alla testa e stretto sul piano orizzontale per consentire
una scansione manuale o elettronica dell'ambiente. L'array di slot planari risulta la
soluzione migliore perché consente facile integrazione con altri circuiti e linee di
alimentazione, è flessibile e quindi facilmente attaccabile sul bastone, e spiana la
strada per la progettazione di un dispositivo indossabile.The autonomous mobility of visually impaired and blind people can be extremely difficult and often requires the use of assistive devices, as the traditional and wellaccepted white cane. Many Electronic Travel Aids have been developed during last decades with the aim of reducing the difficulties in mobility task. To date, no one of them meets all the requirements of the international guidelines for ETAs. Therefore, this research activity has been focused on the study of an innovative assistive device based on electromagnetic (EM) fields, never used before for this purpose. The work started with both experimental and theoretical preliminary studies that confirmed the enormous potentialities of EM fields to detect the presence of obstacles and even additional information on distances, materials and dimension. Therefore, a portable prototype able to alert the user about the presence of an obstacle by means of an acoustic alarm has been realised and tested by a blind volunteer. According to user’s feedbacks the system is easy to use and is able to detect even suspended obstacles not detectable by the cane, nevertheless the device needs to be miniaturised, speeded up by developing a real-time signal processing and equipped with a vibrotactile interface. The attention has been mainly focused on the design of new radiating elements (a small horn antenna and a planar slots array) characterised by: -high working frequencies and consequently reduced dimensions; -ultra wide band and hence high spatial resolution; -a radiation pattern wide over vertical plane so as to protect the user from ground to head level, and narrow over horizontal plane to allow manual o electronic scanning of the environment. To conclude, the planar slots array seems to be the best solution because printed technology allows easy integration with other circuits and feeding lines and the structure flexibility makes the antenna easily attachable onto the cane and paves the way for the designing of a device wearable over or under user clothes.
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Al-Salihi, Nawzad Kameran. "Precise positioning in real-time using GPS-RTK signal for visually impaired people navigation system." Thesis, Brunel University, 2010. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/4773.
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This thesis presents the research carried out to investigate and achieve highly reliable and accurate navigation system of guidance for visually impaired pedestrians. The main aim with this PhD project has been to identify the limits and insufficiencies in utilising Network Real-Time Kinematic Global Navigation Satellite Systems (NRTK GNSS) and its augmentation techniques within the frame of pedestrian applications in a variety of environments and circumstances. Moreover, the system can be used in many other applications, including unmanned vehicles, military applications, police, etc. NRTK GNSS positioning is considered to be a superior solution in comparison to the conventional standalone Global Positioning System (GPS) technique whose accuracy is highly affected by the distance dependent errors such as satellite orbital and atmospheric biases. Nevertheless, NRTK GNSS positioning is particularly constrained by wireless data link coverage, delays of correction and transmission and completeness, GPS and GLONASS signal availability, etc., which could downgrade the positioning quality of the NRTK results. This research is based on the dual frequency NRTK GNSS (GPS and GLONASS). Additionally, it is incorporated into several positioning and communication methods responsible for data correction while providing the position solutions, in which all identified contextual factors and application requirements are accounted. The positioning model operates through client-server based architecture consisted of a Navigation Service Centre (NSC) and a Mobile Navigation Unit (MNU). Hybrid functional approaches were consisting of several processing procedures allowing the positioning model to operate in position determination modes. NRTK GNSS and augmentation service is used if enough navigation information was available at the MNU using its local positioning device (GPS/GLONASS receiver).The positioning model at MNU was experimentally evaluated and centimetric accuracy was generally attained during both static and kinematic tests in various environments (urban, suburban and rural). This high accuracy was merely affected by some level of unavailability mainly caused by GPS and GLONASS signal blockage. Additionally, the influence of the number of satellites in view, dilution of precision (DOP) and age corrections (AoC) over the accuracy and stability of the NRTK GNSS solution was also investigated during this research and presented in the thesis. This positioning performance has outperformed the existing GPS service. In addition, utilising a simulation evaluation facility the positioning model at MNU performance was quantified with reference to a hybrid positioning service that will be offered by future Galileo Open Service (OS) along with GPS. However, a significant difference in terms of the service availability for the advantage of the hybrid system was experienced in all remaining scenarios and environments more especially the urban areas due to surrounding obstacles and conditions. As an outcome of this research a new and precise positioning model was proposed. The adaptive framework is understood as approaching an integration of the available positioning technology into the context of surrounding wireless communication for a maintainable performance. The positioning model has the capability of delivering indeed accurate, precise and consistent position solutions, and thus is fulfilling the requirements of visually impaired people navigation application, as identified in the adaptive framework.
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Warren-Peace, Paula R. "Models that predict competitive employment outcomes in the United States Federal/State Vocational Rehabilitation program for clients who are blind and clients with other disabilities." Diss., Mississippi State : Mississippi State University, 2009. http://library.msstate.edu/etd/show.asp?etd=etd-04022009-110035.
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Dunai, Larisa. "Design, modeling and analysis of object localization through acoustical signals for cognitive electronic travel aid for blind people." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Politècnica de València, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/8441.
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El objetivo de la tesis consiste en el estudio y análisis de la localización de objetos en el entorno real mediante sonidos, así como la posterior integración y ensayo de un dispositivo real basado en tal técnica y destinado a personas con discapacidad visual.
Con el propósito de poder comprender y analizar la localización de objetos se ha realizado un profundo estado de arte sobre los Sistemas de Navegación desarrollados durante las últimas décadas y orientados a personas con distintos grados de discapacidad visual. En el citado estado del arte, se han analizado y estructurado los dispositivos de navegación existentes, clasificándolos de acuerdo con los componentes de adquisición de datos del entorno utilizados. A este respecto, hay que señalar que, hasta el momento, se conocen tres clases de dispositivos de navegación: 'detectores de obstáculos', que se basan en dispositivos de ultrasonidos y sensores instalados en los dispositivos electrónicos de navegación con el objetivo de detectar los objetos que aparecen en el área de trabajo del sistema; 'sensores del entorno' - que tienen como objetivo la detección del objeto y del usuario. Esta clase de dispositivos se instalan en las estaciones de autobús, metro, tren, pasos de peatones etc., de forma que cuando el sensor del usuario penetra en el área de alcance de los sensores instalados en la estación, éstos informan al usuario sobre la presencia de la misma. Asimismo, el sensor del usuario detecta también los medios de transporte que tienen instalado el correspondiente dispositivo basado en láser o ultrasonidos, ofreciendo al usuario información relativa a número de autobús, ruta etc La tercera clase de sistemas electrónicos de navegación son los 'dispositivos de navegación'. Estos elementos se basan en dispositivos GPS, indicando al usuario tanto su locación, como la ruta que debe seguir para llegar a su punto de destino.
Tras la primera etapa de elaboración del estaDunai ., L. (2010). Design, modeling and analysis of object localization through acoustical signals for cognitive electronic travel aid for blind people [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/8441
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Gray, Kitra Hill. "Computer Skills And Usage Of Students In Grades 10-12 Who Are Legally Blind: A Descriptive Analysis." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2003. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4327/.
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This research project was a descriptive analysis of the computer usage and skills of academic students in grades 10-12 who are legally blind and attending public school in the Region 10 Education Service Center service area of Texas. In addition, this study provided a process that other regions in the state or educational agencies may duplicate to document the computer skills and usage of students with visual impairments in their area. Twenty-seven students who are legally blind were surveyed by their teachers of the visually impaired regarding their computer usage and skill abilities, and eleven of the twenty-seven students were interviewed by the researcher to gain further information pertaining to computer usage and future plans upon graduation. Using prior research as a basis for understanding how sighted students used the computer, it was found that students who are legally blind used the computer similarly to their sighted peers except that students with significant visual impairments seemed to use to the computer to listen to music more than their sighted counterparts. In addition, students who are legally blind indicated that they learned most of their computer skills at school rather than at home like their sighted teenagers. Furthermore, it was determined that students who are legally blind were not learning the computer skills necessary for success in post-secondary education and vocational endeavors. Although the students were being exposed to many different computer applications, most did not use the applications weekly, nor report that they were experienced with the majority of basic skills related to applications such as word processing, Internet searching, emailing, spreadsheets and databases.
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Maitland, Gregory. "Design of practical electronic cash schemes." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2003.
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Świta, Robert. "System for spatial orientation support of blind people, using conversion of 2D images into a spatial sound : PhD thesis summary." Rozprawa doktorska, [s.n.], 2015. http://dlibra.tu.koszalin.pl/Content/1062.
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Collier, Lesley. "The use of multi-sensory stimulation to improve functional performance in older people with dementia : a randomised single blind trial." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2007. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/165511/.
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Dementia affects over 750,000 people in the UK (Alzheimer’s society, 2003). Clinicians and healthcare managers report dissatisfaction with current healthcare options available for people with dementia (Stubbings & Sharp, 1999). Multisensory Environments (MSEs) utilising advanced sensory stimulating equipment targeting the senses, have been successfully used in dementia care, severe learning disabilities and palliative care (Baker et al, 1997). Despite this, no controlled studies have been conducted to explore the efficacy of this intervention on functional performance. This study explores to what extent, if any, MSEs influence function, mood and behaviour of people with moderate / severe dementia compared with a control activity (gardening). In addition, sensory needs were identified using the Adult Sensory Profile to explore whether sensory preferences are associated with improved performance. Participants were selected from people with a diagnosis of moderate / severe dementia. They were randomly allocated to one of two groups (MSE or gardening). Following baseline assessment, each participant attended their allocated intervention 3 times a week for 4 weeks. Assessment was carried out before and after each session using the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (function) and the Neurobehavioural Rating Scale (mood and behaviour). Results revealed a significant main effect of intervention in both function and mood and behaviour. Sessional analysis revealed significant improvement in motor performance for the MSE group. Overall, both activities were found to improve function and mood and behaviour. Participants who attended the MSE group and improved significantly in function fell within the low registration quadrant of the sensory profile. This suggests that the MSE is more suitable for those who require increased sensory stimulation. This study supports the use of sensory activity for people with moderate / severe dementia and recommends the use of the PAL and Adult Sensory Profile to plan and facilitate activity.
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Bayro-Kaiser, Esteban [Verfasser], Michael [Akademischer Betreuer] Lawo, Arkady [Gutachter] Zaslavsky, and Rainer [Gutachter] Malaka. "Adaptive Wearable Navigation System for Visually Impaired and Blind People / Esteban Bayro-Kaiser ; Gutachter: Arkady Zaslavsky, Rainer Malaka ; Betreuer: Michael Lawo." Bremen : Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Bremen, 2018. http://d-nb.info/1175090050/34.
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Garvey, Carita Elizabeth. "The design of an accessible outdoor discovery trail on the grounds of the Indiana School for the Blind." Virtual Press, 1994. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/897513.
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The goal of this project was to design a masterplan for an outdoor discovery trail on the grounds of the Indiana School for the Blind in Indianapolis, Indiana. The 62 acre site has not been developed for outdoor exploration and is virtually inaccessible due to extreme topographical changes in elevation on the site. Based on guidelines and recommendations recently proposed by the USDA Forest Service and the USDA Park Service for accessibility and interpretation, combined with site research by the author, the masterplan was conscientiously developed. The trail integrates the unique historic background of the site with the sites' diverse, natural features to create a handicapped accessible trail that is an educational and recreational experience for the Indiana School for the Blind campus community.Department of Landscape Architecture
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Emery, Hollier Scott. "The disability divide : a study into the impact of computing and internet-related technologies on people who are blind or vision impaired /." Full text available, 2007. http://adt.curtin.edu.au/theses/available/adt-WCU20070601.163852.
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Hollier, Scott. "The Disability Divide: a study into the impact of computing and internet-related technologies on people who are blind or vision-impaired." Thesis, Curtin University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/214.
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People with disabilities, and in particular people who are blind or vision impaired, are not embracing computing and Internet-related technologies at the same rate as the able-bodied population. The purpose of this study was to find the reasons behind this digital divide for people with disabilities and provide solutions. The investigation into this 'disability divide' initially examined the historical significance of the social construction of disability, the developments of computing and Internet-related technologies and the evolution of associated government and corporate policies. In order to gain an understanding of the specific elements in the current disability divide, interviews were conducted with a range of government representatives, multinational information technology developers and online information providers in Australia and the United States of America. In order to gain an understanding of what people with disabilities required from information technology, a national survey was conducted with people who are blind or vision impaired to determine their computing and Internet experiences. This study clearly identified that people with vision disabilities have a high level of computing and Internet expertise and it is specific barriers, rather than lack of will, that has prevented access to computing and Internet-related technologies. These barriers include issues relating to the perception of disability in society, Federal and state government policy, corporate policy, mainstream computing products, assistive technologies, real-time online communication, poverty and a lack of educational opportunities. Addressing the issues in these areas will significantly reduce the impact of the disability divide, allowing people who are blind or vision impaired to participate more effectively in the information age.
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Hollier, Scott. "The Disability Divide: a study into the impact of computing and internet-related technologies on people who are blind or vision-impaired." Curtin University of Technology, Department of Media and Information, 2006. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=17109.
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People with disabilities, and in particular people who are blind or vision impaired, are not embracing computing and Internet-related technologies at the same rate as the able-bodied population. The purpose of this study was to find the reasons behind this digital divide for people with disabilities and provide solutions. The investigation into this 'disability divide' initially examined the historical significance of the social construction of disability, the developments of computing and Internet-related technologies and the evolution of associated government and corporate policies. In order to gain an understanding of the specific elements in the current disability divide, interviews were conducted with a range of government representatives, multinational information technology developers and online information providers in Australia and the United States of America. In order to gain an understanding of what people with disabilities required from information technology, a national survey was conducted with people who are blind or vision impaired to determine their computing and Internet experiences. This study clearly identified that people with vision disabilities have a high level of computing and Internet expertise and it is specific barriers, rather than lack of will, that has prevented access to computing and Internet-related technologies. These barriers include issues relating to the perception of disability in society, Federal and state government policy, corporate policy, mainstream computing products, assistive technologies, real-time online communication, poverty and a lack of educational opportunities. Addressing the issues in these areas will significantly reduce the impact of the disability divide, allowing people who are blind or vision impaired to participate more effectively in the information age.
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Layas, Fatma A. M. "It's not what you say, it's what you do : the motivation of the crowd to participate in a crowdsourcing project to support blind and partially sighted students." Thesis, University of York, 2017. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/20472/.
Full textAbstract:
There is a growing interest in crowdsourcing projects for socially responsible issues. One area of socially responsible crowdsourcing is to support people with disabilities. However, there is little exploration of what motivates people to participate in such projects. This programme of research investigated the motivators for students to participate in a socially responsible crowdsourcing project to support blind and partially sighted students by describing images found in digital learning resources. For this purpose a crowdsourcing project, DescribeIT, was developed. The first study explored what students thought would motivate them to participate in the project to compare with students’ actual behaviour in the following studies. Altruism and monetary rewards were the leading self-reported motivational factors, other factors such as being interested in accessibility were reported. Studies 2 to 6 investigated the effects of different intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors on students’ participation in the DescribeIT project with students from the UK and Arab countries. Despite the promising results of the self-reports of motivations, UK students’ participation rates in Studies 2 to 4 was extremely low. However, paying UK students small amounts of money (Study 6) did motivate them to participate. Arab students (Study 5) were intrinsically motivated to participate in the DescribeIT project and showed a higher participation rate than UK students. Studies 7 and 9 investigated the quality of the image descriptions produced by crowd members of established crowdsourcing platforms in comparison to those produced by students. The results showed a comparable quality across descriptions produced by students and crowd members. Studies 8 and 9 investigated the effect of simplifying the image description task by changing it to an image tagging task and showed that making the task easier increased participation rate. Lastly, Study 10 investigated the effect of a face-to-face training session on image description quality. It also investigated the effect of quality control instructions on quality. The face-to-face training increased description quality, but different quality control instructions did not. The practical implications of this research for crowdsourcers in socially responsible crowdsourcing contexts, are that they need to consider the cultural backgrounds of their potential crowd, make the task easy to do, offer small payments if possible and train crowd members in order to produce good quality work. The theoretical implications are a greater understanding of the motivations of crowd members in socially responsible projects and the importance of measuring both self-reports of motivation and actual behaviour.
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Griffith, David. "Blind justice? : an investigation into the social and economic effectiveness of discrimination law in the delivery of fair employment for visually impaired people." Thesis, London Metropolitan University, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.590112.
Full textAbstract:
This inquiry examines why UK legal and social policy has not prevented the employment exclusion of visually impaired people. Visual Impairment is one of the largest impairment constituencies. As a result, mainstream access solutions are, increasingly, freely available in computers, phones and tablets. This provides the possibility of effective job productivity in virtually every workplace. Discrimination is also ostensibly illegal, yet visually impaired people are facing long term exclusion from the labour market. The investigation starts by offering some demographic evidence to justify this inquiry by assembling evidence for the relative size of the visual impairment population, and their employment exclusion. I will also outline some objective technological factors which should now support the employment of visually impaired people. Then, in Pari One, I commence with a historic contextualisation of social, economic and political drivers that have shaped our current legal and social policy framework. This will discuss the extent to which our current legal framework is an expression of historic pressures for reform. In Part Two, I shall evaluate current law and policy against its stated aims. shall examine how the drivers for, and resistance to, reform have found expression in our current framework. I examine the consequent paradoxes and contradictions played out in the history of discrimination law, including the strange death and resurrection of disability indirect discrimination. I try to outline why there may be only limited cause for optimism with the law in its current form. In Part Three, I shall propose practical reform to the current legislative and social policy framework. I will develop the case for collective, as opposed to individualised, social policy responses. I will propose a new system of Positive Enforcement of Disability Discrimination Law. This part will conclude by addressing the economic consequences of these reforms, and assemble economic evidence to support the inclusion of visually impaired people in employment. Finally, in Part 4 of this inquiry, I shall conclude with an examination of principles which could guide the future formulation of legal and social policy. I will consider the contemporary challenges to The Social Model of Disability. This Part considers what support the Social Model could receive from the Human Rights paradigm, including an analysis of the Capabilities Approach. Finally I consider what support the Social Model could receive from a new Politics of Disablement. The politics of identity management, dependency, and impairment will be investigated to establish what positive support could be politically assembled for the employment inclusion of visually impaired people.
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Chan, Chi-fung. "Computer-aided design and manufacturing of tactile maps." Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 2007. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B37895722.
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Chan, Chi-fung, and 陳智鋒. "Computer-aided design and manufacturing of tactile maps." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2007. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B37895722.
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