Simon Hayhoe

Attitudes toward disability and disabled people by Muslims—focusing on attitudes in the Middle East and North Africa—and Christians—focusing on the West (here taken to mean Europe and the Americas)—were examined through a grounded theory literature search, with the study being divided into three phases of reading and analysis. The aims of study were to develop a dialogue on disability between the two faiths, to inform an understanding of the attitudes to disability, and to inform the social practice of promoting support and equality. The study finds that Islam and Christianity have much in common and are a force for good in promoting and developing disability equality by both Muslims and Christians

What can a visually impaired student achieve in art education? Can visually impaired students teach sighted students about elements of perception that sighted students would not normally consider? Are the legal moves towards rights to equal access for visually impaired people useful in asserting that visually impaired students can gain as much from gallery exhibits as sighted students can? In this article, these questions are studied in a practice report of a course involving visually impaired and sighted students working in groups, studying in a museum and creating art work at schools for the blind (i.e. schools maintained for visually impaired and blind students). The study found that by arguing that sighted and visually impaired students can learn about each-others’ perceptual similarities and potentials by working together, and that art is a particularly effective medium for developing this understanding. Furthermore, it is observed that the visually impaired students discussed in this article had as much potential to develop art works as their sighted counterparts

Over the past forty years, many industrialised countries have changed their epistemological focus of impairment and disability from that of a biological abnormality treated by therapies and separate education, to one of a problem of exclusion and social well-being, ameliorated through anti-discriminatory institutional policies, laws and inclusive environments. Since the 1980s, this has also been reflected internationally in the definitions and statements of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and more latterly the United Nations (UN). Although many museums produced touch exhibitions for blind people from the early decades of the 20th Century, since the shift to laws and definitions championing social and cultural inclusion such exhibitions have become significantly more widespread. Arguably, however, many of these exhibitions have been tokenistic and have largely assumed that blind people only need to feel exhibits – a product of philosophical writing undertaken in the 17th and 18th Centuries by the likes of Locke, Diderot and “Demodocus”. This restricts the engagement of blind and visually impaired people to a small number of art works that are allowed to be touched during separate tours, or to an even more limited number of art works which are available to the public on a permanent basis. This, it has been argued, has restricted the participation of blind people in the cultural life of communities, and has had an impact on their well-being, as many blind people regard museums, similar cultural institutions and art itself as being beyond their understanding. Having researched the concept of blind people’s understanding of visual culture in previous studies on the art education of blind people and the practice of blind computer programmers, my Fulbright research addressed questions relating to blind people who visited museums as normal members of the public – i.e. not part of separate tours - or to have pieces verbally described to them on bespoke tours. In particular, I initially addressed the understanding of untouchable art works – particularly paintings – at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. However, during the study the research expanded to address the experiences of museums by blind people in general, including students from two schools for the blind – Perkins (Massachusetts) and California School for the Blind - and addressed the question: Why do people need to visit museums to view and experience works of art when they can now see them reproduced in books or on posters or on the Web? This addressed a much larger understanding of visiting museums, and inclusion in relation to cultural well-being

The Disabled Students Allowance is a government grant for students aged 18 years and over in English Higher Education. Amongst other things, this grant supports the provision of traditional assistive technologies. In April 2014, the UK’s Minister for Universities, Science and Cities proposed cuts to the DSA. Although a later announcement delayed these cuts until the academic year 2016−2017, a number of universities are already preparing alternative means to support disabled students. In this article, it is argued that cuts to the DSA will potentially reduce the cultural and technical capitals of students with disabilities and lessen social inclusion in Higher Education. In particular, less support will potentially lead to a reduction in the development of study skills. As a counter weight, this article proposes a new model of inclusive technical capital. This model originates in Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital and habitus. The proposed model supports the use of native apps and settings in ubiquitous mainstream mobile technologies. It also espouses the use of m-learning for the passive inclusion of students with disabilities. This article also presents the early results of a project on the use of mobile technologies at the London School of Economics and Canterbury Christ Church University. This project found that students with disabilities and their lecturers already used mobile technologies alongside or instead of customized traditional assistive technologies. The project also found that students preferred not to attend, or found it difficult to attend, separate study skills courses using mobile technologies. However, they were more likely to access m-learning tutorial materials on Learning Management Systems. The study concludes that mobile technologies have the potential to develop a number of study skills that are at risk after cuts to the DSA. However, their use in this regard needs further research and support from universities

This article describes an investigation into the potential of mobile operating systems and native apps to transform educational inclusion for disabled students. It is framed by a philosophy of inclusive technology, which theorises that contemporary technologies, such as the World Wide Web, netbooks, tablets and smartphones, could possibly increase the social inclusion of people with disabilities, as these technologies are more portable, provide greater social access to institutional environments and communities, are more socially acceptable and allow greater social communication than traditional assistive technologies. By drawing reference to this philosophy, the article evaluates the accessible software available in Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS operating systems for tablets and smart phones. These systems were chosen as previous literature observes that they offer provision for students with disabilities, and their manufacturers have claimed that they are amongst the most accessible technologies on the market. Two instruments are used to evaluate these devices: A sociological model of technical capital: This model is based on Bourdieu’s theory of social capital, and is premised on the notion that access to technology, either through financial, geographical, intellectual or physical means, increases life chances and access to financial capital, social equality and access to higher levels of education; The SAMR Model of Educational Technology: This model is premised on the theory that educational applications of technology are premised on the transformation or enhancement of traditional pedagogies, either through the substitution, augmentation, modification or redefinition of educational tasks. The evaluation of these mobile operating systems concentrates on their use in three staple study skills: The making and sharing notes in written, audio and video formats; The organisation of information in the form of text based, audio and video files; The recording of still images, audio and video files. The evaluation finds that both operating systems have similarly effective accessible settings in terms of their ability to enlarge text, reverse colours and save and change the quality of audio and video files. However, it is found that Android has better native facilities for audio recording, organizing and sharing files, and Apple iOS has an advantage in terms of its ability to photograph in photo-negative and create time lapse recordings. However, there are issues with both operating systems in terms of pricing, potential ease of use, and cultural diversity. The evaluation concludes that these mobile operating systems have the potential to be used for tasks discussed in the SAMR model, but both systems still need to improve a number of features in order to make their potential technical capital more socially accessible

This paper presents a case study of the use of the iPad 2 by a blind student at Sharjah Women’s College, Higher College of Technology. Emma was finding it difficult to read, write, understand normal graphics, use her computer without a great deal of assistance and use the complex equipment that she needed to be familiar with in her classes in order to work through her assessments. In addition, her increased workload at college was creating physical stress, with the strain on her eyes leaving her increasingly tired when conducting normal exercises, and mentally stressed, with the extra work she had to conduct to compensate for her blindness. As a result, I was asked to work with Emma and recommend assistive technologies, literature and graphics, and help with technical language tuition. As a primary tool of assistance, I recommended using the iPad 2, as it appeared to have a broad range of available literature, and included accessible software to enlarge text, change the color of the interface and provide a synthesized voice

This chapter presents results of a grounded theory literature search on sustainability of the disabled population in countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC), which are composed of the countries surrounding the southern coast of the Persian Gulf and Oman. Research focused on the adaptability of the GCC’s Arabic culture to accommodate a growing number of disabled people in its population, the potential areas of an increase or a decrease in its disabled population, and the advantages and potential problems in the societies of the GCC’s constituent countries