'Homebound' children are unable to attend school for illness-related reasons. To lessen their predicament, schools have begun experimenting with 'telepresence robots' that can enable remote participation. While promising, we know little about the use of telepresence robots in practice. To begin to redress this, we draw on 159 semi-structured…

Gifted students have unique educational needs. Although gifted students are as varied as other students in terms of their learning styles and preferences, all gifted learners have exhibited unusual performance or potential and they have distinctive characteristics, shared by most of these students, which require effective responses from educators.…

Describes the Housebound Learners Project, a London-area program using volunteer tutors to bring adult education to homebound persons. Discusses course and topic selection and outreach in minority communities. (SK)

Eighteen homebound frail elderly took part in an eight-week teleconference that provided practical information (nutrition, health, social services) as well as stimulated thinking. Quality of life improvements and further interest in education resulted. Teleconferencing proved a cost-effective method of reaching homebound persons. (SK)

In Sweden, most "pensioners" over 65 are healthy and living by themselves, and they can come to the library and take part in programs, borrow books, use the computers, read newspapers and magazines. For those elderly persons who are ill or handicapped and homebound, the library can send books and arrange other services. In Sweden there…

This feasibility study examined 11 teleworking arrangements for people with severe physical disabilities in Ireland, over periods ranging from 6 to 18 months. Outcomes suggest teleworking is a feasible form of employment for such persons provided they are appropriately selected and trained and suitable work is identified and managed by employers.…

Two studies were carried out in 1991-92 in Brisbane, Australia on the effects on frail elderly people of cognitive challenge by teleconference. In the first study, 20 residents of aged care centers watched specified programs on television. Later, they discussed the content over the telephone using conference link equipment. The study found that…

This report describes an exploratory study of Telelink, a social application of telephone conferencing which is providing group communication among housebound veterans and war widows in Melbourne, Australia. The study is based on interviews with present Telelink participants and with social workers who might use the service in the future. Included…

The number of elderly people in Denmark continues to grow, which means there is an increasing need for special library services to those elderly who are not able to come to the library because of physical or mental limitations. This paper uses the practices of Sollerod Public Libraries (Sollerod, Denmark) to frame the discussion of the following:…

These guidelines are based on the experiences of a number of librarians working in the area of library services for hospital patients and disabled people in the community, as well as work done previously by a number of national library associations. The guidelines indicate the essential features of services to disabled people and suggest…

A survey of the itinerant teachers of 172 homebound students in Taiwan addressed major needs of the students, whose major health problems included absence of speech, motor handicaps, lack of body balance, and lack of bladder control. Teachers reported that cognitive ability and self-help skills were the two weakest areas for these students.…

The author examines the evolution of the current Australian demographic and its implications for the delivery of public library services. The "baby boomers", the generation born between 1946 and 1961, are the next cohort to be seriously in need of housebound services, and the characteristics and likely needs of this group are considered…

This document describes the situation of people 65 years and older in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. There is growing concern in the Scandinavian countries with provision for the elderly in the future and the feeling that government involvement may not be as great in the future as it has been in the past. The growth of formal care, the…

Describes the Israeli program, Support for Children Confined by Illness (TLALIM), which uses audiotapes, videotapes, and personal computers to enable sick children to keep up with their school work. The characteristics of persons needed to teach sick children and an outline of the teacher training program are given. (KRN)

This book, which is written for adult educators working in further and community education and university continuation in Great Britain, contains 12 papers about engaging with those students who have traditionally been excluded from the full range of educational learning opportunities: women, adults with learning difficulties, members of ethnic…