National Provisions for Certification and Professional Preparation in Low-Incidence Sensory Disabilities: A 50-State Study.

A multimethod study examined the 50 U.S. states' preparation and licensure practices regarding students with low-incidence sensory disabilities (LISD). The researchers used document review and structured interviews with state education agency representatives. It was found that institutions of higher education (IHEs) in 38 states offer at least one LISD preparation program; 12 states offer no programs at all. Further, program intensity, a measure of state capacity to serve students with LISD, varies from 0 to about 3 programs per million state residents. States also differ by the regime used to qualify teaching candidates, using either licensure or endorsement. Nationally, being an LISD licensure regime is, all else being equal, negatively correlated with number of LISD programs. The findings suggest that many states lack the capacity to supply enough trained professionals to serve students with LISD. Recommendations are framed for states, national organizations, and IHEs.

Reconsidering inherent requirements: a contribution to the debate from the clinical placement experience of a physiotherapy student with vision impairment.

BACKGROUND: Clinical placements in acute hospitals present challenges for students with vision impairment who are being educated as health care professionals. Legislation in Australia supports reasonable adjustments to education, thus students with vision impairment have completed accredited courses and gained professional registration. However the implementation of inherent requirement statements suggesting that adequate visual acuity is required to complete a physiotherapy program may create barriers to access for such students. METHODS: We describe features that contributed to a successful physiotherapy clinical placement in an acute hospital setting for a student with vision impairment and use this experience to prompt debate about the use of inherent requirement statements. FINDINGS: Planning, consultation, collaboration and problem solving commencing from the time of program entry were integral to clinical placement preparation for this student. Individualised adjustments (including a support worker for reading screens and medical records) and the student's specific qualities (professionalism, communication, problem solving, memory, kinaesthetic abilities) contributed to a successful outcome. DISCUSSION: Reflecting on this experience and published inherent requirements, there is an apparent lack of involvement of people with disability in the development of inherent requirement statements; we question the need for this level of regulation; and discuss the potential impact of inherent requirement statements on the health workforce. This experience demonstrated that an individualised approach to reasonable adjustments for a student with a disability was successful in an acute hospital setting. The implementation of inherent requirement statements may systemically reduce the capacity of education providers to develop such bespoke solutions and deserves further debate.

La piedra mágica / No disponible

"La piedra mágica" es, un videojuego que se ha diseñado como herramienta educativa dirigida al alumnado con Necesidades Específicas de Apoyo Educativo y, en particular, a personas con síndrome de Down. Pretende incrementar las habilidades comunicativas de estas personas a través de una mejora de su prosodia (entonación, fluidez, entre otras propiedades) y, consecuentemente, favorecer su inclusión social y laboral. Una de las principales novedades de 'La piedra mágica' es su diseño interdisciplinar, ya que en este proyecto hemos colaborado lingüistas, psicolingüistas, ingenieros informáticos, pedagogos y filósofos para conseguir un entorno educativo complejo y adaptable. Es una herramienta que puede ser empleada de manera autónoma o supervisada y que almacena un historial de seguimiento de cada jugador, de manera que los profesionales pueden acceder a los datos de cada alumno y observar su desarrollo fomentando aquellas carencias más destacadas en cada perfil. Uno de los aspectos más originales de la herramienta es que el jugador se comunica con el resto de personajes del videojuego con su propia voz, lo que le motiva y ayuda a mejorar su capacidad comunicativa. Tras realizar una primera prueba piloto se ha comprobado que más del sesenta por ciento de los alumnos ganan naturalidad y fluidez en su elocución

"La piedra mágica" is a video-play designed as an educational tool for students with special needs, including children with Down syndrome. It is aimed at enhancing communication skills by improving prosody (fluency, tone, etc.), which leads to social and vocational inclusion. It has been created by the interdisciplinary collaboration of people specialized in linguistics and psycholinguistics, informatic engineers, educators and philosophers

Engagement with school in students with special educational needs

Student’ engagement with school is a strong predictor of both positive and negative academic trajectories indicators. Students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) are at increased risk for experiencing cumulative academic-related difficulties which tends to have a negative significant impact on students’ engagement with school. Although some studies have described parceled dimensions of school in students with SEN, studies examining both the individual and contextual dimensions involved in students’ engagement with school are scarce. The objective of this study was to describe multidimensional engagement with school in students with and without SEN, and in students with different SEN. 388 students participated in this study (mean age 13.46; SD= 2.72): 150 with SEN. Students with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity did not differ from students without SEN; students with visual and neuromotor impairment registered higher scores on some cognitive and contextual indicators of engagement; and students with intellectual disability registered lower levels of cognitive and contextual indicators of engagement. These results have strong implications for educational policies and practices, specifically for the promotion of adaptive academic trajectories in students with SEN (AU)

No disponible

Diseño, desarrollo y evaluación de un sistema Brain Computer Interface (BCI) aplicado al control de dispositivos domóticos para mejorar la calidad de vida de las personas con grave discapacidad / Design, development and assessment of a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) system applied to control domotic and electronic devices in order to improve the quality of life of people with severe disabilities

Objetivo: El objetivo del presente trabajo consiste en diseñar, desarrollar y validar una aplicación de control domótico a partir de la señal de electroencefalograma (EEG) empleando un sistema Brain Computer Interface (BCI) basado en potenciales P300 para incrementar la autonomía de las personas dependientes en el hogar. Material y métodos: Se ha implementado una aplicación domótica a partir de un sistema BCI basado en potenciales evocados P300 empleando la señal EEG del usuario. El sistema se aplicó a nueve usuarios con grave discapacidad, procedentes del Centro de Referencia Estatal (CRE) de Discapacidad y Dependencia de León. Resultados: La mayoría de los usuarios fueron capaces de controlar la aplicación con una precisión superior al 65%. Tres de ellos, incluso, superaron el 85%. Estos resultados son notablemente mejores que los obtenidos mediante un sistema BCI basado en ritmos sensoriomotores. Conclusiones: Los sistemas basados en P300 no necesitan etapa de entrenamiento ni un alto nivel de atención sostenida. Por ello, la mayoría de los usuarios consiguieron un buen control de la aplicación propuesta que permite controlar dispositivos del hogar, aumentando así su independencia y calidad de vida (AU)

Objective: The aim of this study is to design, develop and assess an application for automatic control through the electroencephalogram (EEG) signal using a P300 evoked potentials-based Brain Computer Interface (BCI) system, in order to increase the autonomy of dependent people at home. Material and methods: An application for automatic control, by means the user’s EEG signal, through a P300- based BCI system was developed. The system was applied to nine subjects, users of the National Reference Center on Disability and Dependence from León (Spain). Results: Most of the subjects could control the application with an accuracy of 65% and upward. Three of them achieved even more than 85%. These results are significantly higher than the results achieved using a motor imagery-based BCI. Conclusions: P300-based systems require neither a training period nor an extremely high level of attention. Due to this reason, most of users were able to control suitably the developed application, which allows them to control devices at home, improving their independence and quality of life (AU)