This qualitative, instrumental case study explored existing instructional design practices as related to the accessibility of synchronous, virtual instructional content for adult learners with disabilities within a federal government agency. The purpose of study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of a group of learning professionals…

With the growth of online learning, as well as the use of technology to supplement in-person learning, technology has enabled many opportunities for creating highly interactive and highly accessible learning environments. However, it is important to design learning environments to be accessible to diverse learners and learners with disabilities.…

Many students with disabilities attending alternative high schools are not improving their mathematics ability scores. Failure to improve their mathematics ability scores has hampered their potential academic success and career prospects, resulting in many students dropping out of schools without graduating. The purpose of this quantitative study…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a growth intervention would improve adolescent special education students' self-efficacy and motivation. The research was conducted in a middle school in the Northeast from January 2016 to June 2016. The convenience sample for this study comprised of sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students…

Educators continuously strive to meet the needs of at-risk students, and because of this dedication to student achievement, many special education programs are integrating the use of the graphing calculator within the classroom. Teachers are adapting their lessons to integrate calculators and calculator instruction. This study examined if the use…

This study explored the differences in student achievement on New York State standardized tests between blended learning and traditional instructional methodologies. Specifically, the study compared student achievement in iLearnNYC schools, to their peer schools that deliver instruction in a traditional manner. iLearnNYC is a blended learning…

The passing of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act---later renamed the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act---mandated that schools and districts ensure that all available education services were comparable between students with disabilities and general education students. This mandate led to students with disabilities and…

The purpose of this qualitative action research was to assess teacher perceptions and experiences with Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports implementation and challenging behaviors at one NYC PK-5 Title I school. Students of color and students with disabilities who attend schools with a negative environment tend to experience the school to…

It is common knowledge that employment is a large part of participation in society for all adults; and, one role of public education is to prepare students for these adult roles. Despite increasing school accountability measures for post-school outcomes of students with disabilities, a significant gap in employment between those with and those…

People with disabilities face a number of societal challenges that influence this vulnerable population to be less interested and motivated to pursue working. According to researchers, persuasive technologies are able to motivate intended users to change a targeted behavior. This study included the design, development, and evaluation of an…

The internationalization of distance learning in special education is at a pivotal point in expansion. Even with concerted efforts through traditional means to increase the supply of special educators, shortages persist; therefore, teacher preparation programs are turning to online education. This dissertation study was a formative program…

This study examined font and layout alternatives for mild special education children in third through sixth grade. Of this group, twelve were boys and two were girls, seven were suburban students and seven were urban students. During the first phase, the students were observed reading four different fonts, then the participant named the easiest…

This study examined how desktop virtual reality environment training (DVRET) affected state anxiety and vocational identity of vocational rehabilitation services consumers during job placement/job readiness activities. It utilized a quantitative research model with a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design plus some qualitative descriptive…

Writing is a complex process that presents challenges for middle school teachers and their students with and without disabilities. A particular area of difficulty is the application of content-area vocabulary in the explanatory writing of sixth-grade students. This two-group quasi-experimental study investigated the effectiveness of an elaborative…

Accommodation~assimilation relations were theorized by Kelso and Engstrom (2006) as independent and dependent complementary pairs. This study defined relationships between organisms that experienced complementary interactions of accommodation~assimilation in diverse ecologies designed with universal design for learning environments (UDLE) compared…