The growing number of students with disabilities in higher education settings has presented challenges for instructors with regards to appropriate inclusion. Concerning physical activity courses in higher education, instructors may not have the knowledge or resources to make modifications and accommodations that will ultimately result in…

Massive Open Online Courses ("MOOCs") are free online courses offered by institutions of higher education to individuals across the world, without any admissions criteria. Through web-based courses hosted by MOOC platforms, student-participants learn by accessing media, including documents, pictures and uploaded lectures on the course…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how the principles of universal design can be implemented by faculty and course designers to help give all learners access to equivalent information. It describes how information communication technologies can create barriers to information access, particularly when course content is rich in…

Success for online students with disabilities requires an institutional commitment to accessibility. This success also requires an understanding of the benefits and opportunities as well challenges and barriers related to online learning. This question and answer session provides a national perspective from the National Federation of the Blind…

Most university courses involve students sitting examinations and submitting written research papers. Many universities provide each student with individual comments on their assessment items. Generally these comments are written throughout the assessment item by the marker to provide the student with guidance on where they can improve and what…

At the end of July 2011 "The Guardian" reported on the recently opened Crown Woods College in Eltham, South-East London. The College had been rebuilt on the site of the previous Crown Woods School with 50 million pounds of funding via the Building Schools for the Future project. Its nine buildings include four "mini-schools",…

If digital literacy is exploding, the visually disabled are taking the shrapnel. The author wagers that most librarians consider themselves committed to accessibility and make individual and organizational efforts to comply with (and often exceed) the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in their buildings and the Rehabilitation Act Section 508…

Precollege and college students come from a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds. For some, English is not their first language. Also represented in most classes are students with a diversity of ages and learning styles, including visual and auditory. In addition, increasing numbers of students with disabilities are included in regular…

A simulation of the decreased visual acuity of individuals with amblyopia is used in one optometry program to help students understand how amblyopia patients see. Students act as patient, then as doctor, proceeding through clinical diagnosis. (MSE)

The University of Texas at Austin has developed a modular tactual map of the campus and outlying areas to aid visually impaired students. Construction information is summarized. (CL)

The University of South Carolina used an educational television format for an introductory braille course to reach a population of teachers scattered throughout the state. Results indicated that this format is a viable alternative to oncampus sessions. (Author)

Contrast thresholds for sine-wave gratings of spatial frequencies of 2, 4, 12, and 16 cycles per degree were determined for normal and disabled readers at a range of stimulus durations. The differences in sensitivity pattern across spatial frequencies was greatest at stimulus durations approximately equal to fixation durations during reading.…

Twenty-seven blind college students were interviewed on notetaking and studying techniques and were asked to participate in a study of voice indexing, which facilitates access to segments of audio tape. A programed text in recorded form on voice indexing was then pretested by 12 blind participants and revised, based upon findings. The text…

Seventy-two sighted college students who studied the braille or Fishburne alphabet for eight minutes were tested for recall. More Fishburne than braille items were recalled, independent of item arrangement. Results suggest that visually impaired persons might use the Fishburne system for labelling personal objects or when braille learning is too…

A model of interdisciplinary team education is described which is designed to prepare specialists to work with visually disabled/multiply disabled persons. Problems in implementing interdisciplinary courses in higher education are considered, including both institutional and student barriers. (CL)