Computers and Students With Disabilities in Postsecondary Education: Research in Progress

telepres.htm

Computer Technologies In Postsecondary Education for
Students With Disabilities /

Technologies informatiques dans l'éducation
postsecondaire des étudiants ayant des incapacités

Catherine Fichten, Maria Barile, Jennison Asuncion,

Darlene Judd, Christian Généreux, Iris Alapin, Myrtis Fossey, Chantal Robillard,

Jason Lavers, & Jean-Pierre Guimont
Adaptech Project, Dawson College
Affiliations: Dawson College, Jewish General Hospital, McGill University,

Concordia University, UQAM, Université de Montréal

1999, Nov.

Presentation on behalf of the Office of Learning Technologies at the TeleLearning '99 Conference, Montréal, Québec. Available Oct. 29, 1999 on the World Wide Web: http://omega.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/cfichten/telepres/ (PowerPoint & text slide show); http://omega.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/cfichten/telepres.pdf (Adobe Acrobat); http://omega.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/cfichten/telepres.htm (HTML)

Goals: AdaptCan Study

Evaluate computer technologies in the postsecondary education of students with disabilities

Explore what technologies student computer users with various disabilities find useful
Look at what educational and social goals are met by computer technologies
Why do students who could benefit from computer technologies fail to use them
How do contextual variables interact with individual differences in the use of computers
Compare student and service provider perspectives

Method

Phase 1: Obtained broad notions about key issues of interest via 4 focus groups

college & university students with disabilities
faculty
postsecondary disability service providers
other concerned individuals

Phase 2: Compared student and service provider viewpoints via semi-structured phone interviews

37 students with disabilities
30 postsecondary disability service providers (all provinces & territories, French & English)

Phase 3: Fully explored the key issues and tested hypotheses in a questionnaire study

725 postsecondary students with various disabilities from across Canada

Highlights of Results

Most students with disabilities use computer technologies to help them succeed (95% of our sample)

colleges have a larger proportion of students with disabilities than universities
half of the students indicated they had two or more impairments or disabilities
almost half of the students indicated they needed adaptations to use a computer effectively
less than 60% of those who needed adaptations had these
high cost of acquiring and maintaining computer and adaptive technologies was the most important and pervasive problem noted by computer users and non-users alike
computers used at home were generally paid for by students themselves or their families
most students were unaware of government programs to absorb or offset the high costs

Recommendations, Dissemination, and Funding

The full report discusses the findings and makes specific recommendations directed at four groups

faculty
government agencies
developers and suppliers of computer technologies
personnel providing services to students with disabilities

Availability

Recommendations

English: http://omega.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/adaptech/recalle.htm

French: http://omega.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/adaptech/recallf.htm

Executive summary

English: http://olt-bta.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/publicat/Dawson79160exe.html

French: http://olt-bta.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/francais/publicat/Dawson79160exf.html

Full report: http://omega.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/adaptech/olt99fin.pdf

Instruments and listing of specific hardware and software used by students:
http://omega.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/adaptech/olt99app.pdf

Ongoing Research

ITAC Project: concerns of cegep students and disability service providers (funded by PAREA)
ServStu Project: exploration of college and university disability service provider concerns (funded by OLT)
F&C Project: mainstream and inexpensive computer technologies for use in postsecondary education (funded by EvNet & SSHRC)

More Information

Visit our bilingual web site http://omega.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/adaptech