According to the Assistive Technology Act of 2004, assistive technology is defined as, "any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities." The use of AT helps persons with…

College students with disabilities face institutional challenges related to pursuing their education. In addition to the developmental changes that occur during young adulthood, these students also must overcome obstacles involving inaccessible environments, programs, services, and instructional approaches. Colleges and other service providers are…

Veterans constitute a significant group in society, and reports have shown that the number of disabled veterans keeps increasing. More than 50,000 United States troops have been injured since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began and the numbers will increase until the troops are withdrawn (Geiling, Rosen, & Edwards, 2012). Consequently,…

Understanding dimensions that influence reinforcement is important for applied behavior analysts. Preference, and reinforcer effectiveness, may change depending upon several dimensions of reinforcement. Two influential dimensions that may influence preference and reinforcer efficacy are response-reinforcer arrangements and stimulus type. Many…

Increasingly, people are engaging online and can participate in activities like searching for information, communicating with family and friends, and self-expression. However, some populations such as older adults, face barriers to online participation like device cost, access, and learnability, which prevent them from reaping the benefits of…

The purpose of this study was to identify the frequency and outcomes of Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act Office for Civil Rights rulings as a result of complaints initiated by students with disabilities against community colleges from 2016-2018. The secondary purpose of this study was to analyze corresponding Office for Civil…

Traumatic Brain Injury outcomes vary by individual due to age at the onset of injury, the location of the injury, and the degree to which the deficits appear to be pronounced, among other factors. As an acquired injury to the brain, the neurophysiological consequences are not homogenous; they are as varied as the individuals who experience them.…

Disabilities services offices at higher education institutions support disabled students in their access to schools, classrooms, assistive technology, and coursework. Few studies exist covering the higher education level to examine the experiences of disabilities services staff in providing access and this restricts sharing of knowledge and best…

Creating accessible instruction has been a subject of debate and lawsuits since the Civil Rights Movement. Examples include "Mills v. Board of Education" in 1972 discussed the 14th Amendment of equal rights in public K-12 education; instances involving extracurricular after-school programs, such as the YMCA Middle Tennessee Agreement for…

This dissertation was conducted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to investigate the needs and perceptions of parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) in regard to the support and services provided in Saudi Arabia. Fifty-eight parents of children who are DHH were surveyed. Participants were asked to complete the survey…

Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) counselors are not providing adequate Assistive Technology/Rehabilitation Technology (AT/RT) to individuals with significant disabilities (Gamble et al., 2006). Rehabilitation professionals have identified AT/RT as an area in which more training is needed, and the provision of AT/RT education will likely lead to more…

Previous research on the use of voice output communication aids (VOCAs) has found a number of positive effects on the behavior of both the VOCA user and their communicative partners. Among these outcomes, studies have found that incorporating speech output into language learning tasks may result in faster and more efficient learning for adults…

The problem observed in this study is the low level of compliance of higher education website accessibility with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The literature supports the non-compliance of websites with the federal policy in general. Studies were performed to analyze the accessibility of fifty-four sample web pages using automated…

Federal disabilities legislation (the "Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act," or IDEIA of 2004) continued the movement of disabled ("differently-abled") persons from segregated public educational institutions to fully integrated general education classrooms, with appropriate accommodations for the…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the manifestation of assistive technology at postsecondary institutions from the perspectives of disability-services administrators, through their personal experiences. Exploration of assistive-technology-related experiences presents the potential to improve understanding of the operation of this vital…