Education Commons^™

Intersections Of Critical Systems Thinking And Community Based Participatory Research In Developing A Web Site For Autistic Adults, Dora Madeline Raymaker

Dissertations and Theses

People with disabilities, including those on the autism spectrum, comprise the world's largest minority and experience significant inequities in Internet use. Existing standards for accessible web sites are necessary but not sufficient without the direct engagement of end users in identifying access needs. Yet little is known about methods for effective engagement, and there are no systematically derived Web accessibility guidelines for autistic end users. Here I explore a hybrid approach to direct engagement using critical systems thinking (CST) and community based participatory research (CBPR) during the co-development of a healthcare-focused web site by the Academic Autism Spectrum Partnership in …

An Investigation Of The Prevalence Of Severe Visual Impairment Among Handicapped Children: Implications For Educators, James Bickford

Dissertations and Theses

Since the inception of special education legislation, the identification of severely visually impaired children has become a difficult task. Official prevalence rates for severe visual impairment currently vary from 8 per 10,000 to 120 per 10,000 school aged children. With such a large discrepancy in rates, it is difficult to plan and provide appropriate specialized services to this group of children.

Given this wide variance of reporting, several questions have arisen: (1) What is the prevalence of severely impaired vision as a secondary handicap when another handicapping condition is already known and identified? (2) Is there a significant difference between …