The records of 1,661 children and adolescents who received 3,188 clinical low vision evaluations from a single examiner at low vision clinics sponsored by the Iowa Braille School over a 22-year period were surveyed to determine the characteristics of this population. The factors that were reviewed included age, sex, ocular condition,…

This study investigated the language used in a selection of films containing audio description and developed a set of definitions that allow productions containing it to be more fully defined, measured, and compared. It also highlights some challenging questions related to audio description as a discursive practice and provides a basis for future…

Persons with multiple disabilities often have limited functioning of their lower limbs and tend to spend large amounts of time sitting in a wheelchair. Efforts to enable some of these persons (that is, those who are in better overall physical condition) to make some use of their legs may involve the use of support walkers. The risk may be even…

While doing research into the topic of assistive technology in libraries, Janet Hopkins, found many examples of libraries providing assistive technology and special services for clients with disabilities. However, most of those examples are in post-secondary and public libraries. It was difficult to identify K-12 school libraries that are…

Two prototype voice output communication aids were implemented to compare methods of graphic symbol message formulation; one emulated current devices that require syntactical ordering of icons (Default) and the other used semantic frames (iconCHAT). Message constructions of eight typically developing children (7-10 years of age) using both…

We assessed the effects of two computer systems used as microswitches for the vocal utterances of an adolescent and a young adult with multiple disabilities. The systems were to respond to three one-syllable utterances of the first participant and nine word-like utterances of the second participant by presenting favorite stimuli linked to those…

Objective: To assess the disciplinary preferences of mothers of profoundly deaf children and normally hearing children in a test of the hypothesized link between child disabilities and punitive parenting. Method: Disciplinary preferences of mothers seeking a cochlear implant for their profoundly deaf child (n = 57), mothers not seeking an implant…

Favorite stimuli were automatically delivered contingent on the performance of steps by two persons (a boy and a woman) with multiple disabilities during their use of support walker devices. The study lasted about 4 months and was carried out according to a multiple baseline design across participants. Recording concerned the participants'…

According to the National Association of the Deaf, there are approximately 28 million deaf and hearing-impaired people in the U.S.--roughly 10 percent of the total population. This hearing-impaired population may be even more isolated than the visually impaired community. Although technology is making it easier for libraries to provide effective…

Students with developmental disabilities often rely on prelinguistic behavior (e.g., reaching, leading) to communicate. When listeners fail to attend to prelinguistic behaviors, students may benefit from responding with an alternative form of communication to repair the breakdown. In the present study, we taught two students with developmental…

A key role in the development and deployment of Assistive Technology solutions is that of the "assessor-consultant". Assessor-consultants for the UK-based charity Abilitynet work with clients to develop customized computer-based assistive technology systems and draw on a range of shared knowledge from the assessor-consultant community.…

The 1992 NIH Research Planning Conference on Prosthetic and Orthotic Research for the 21st Century (Childress, 1992) recognized that the field of prosthetics lacks theoretical understanding and empirical studies on learning to control an upper-extremity prosthesis. We have addressed this problem using a novel approach in which persons without…

Recent work suggests that once the auditory cortex of deaf persons has been reorganized by cross-modal plasticity, it can no longer respond to signals from a cochlear implant (CI) installed subsequently. To further examine this issue, we compared the evoked potentials involved in the processing of visual stimuli between CI users and hearing…

The role of curriculum-based data in educational decision making, particularly with regard to the assistive technology (AT) consideration process, has become increasingly important. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and other demands for school accountability require teachers to be more thoughtful about all decisions regarding students…

The study investigated adaptation to a standard electropalatographic (EPG) practise palate in a group of eight adults (mean age = 24 years). The participants read the phrase "a CVC" over four sampling conditions: prior to inserting the palate, immediately following insertion of the palate, 45 minutes after palate insertion, and 3 hours after…