1.2.1 Statistical approaches to ‘normality’ What did you base your idea of ‘normal’ height on? It might have been based on your own experience, reflecting the average height of women in your community. Similarly, ‘abnormality’ can be defined in terms of low statistical frequency. If what is most common in the general population is considered ‘normal’, then any behaviour or psychological characteristic that occurs only rarely may be regarded as ‘abnormal’. From this viewpoint, above average individuals are just as
Learning outcomes On completion of this unit, you should be able to: identify and discuss the issues that relate to the definition, explanation and remediation of ‘abnormal’ psychological functioning; understand the complexities involved in identifying, explaining and managing dyslexia.
Acknowledgements Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence Text: DfES ‘Constitution of governing bodies – overview’,
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Learning outcomes The learning outcomes for this unit are: to explain the composition of governing bodies and to consider the respective roles of the ‘officers’ of the governing body; to understand the sharing of the governing body's workload within an agreed formal committee structure; to develop governors as effective managers of their role through critical self-evaluation; to encourage governors to undertake appropriate training as a means of es
5.6.2 Accessibility design guidelines Listed below is a selection of accessibility guidelines that offer a starting point for your own research into the guidelines available for designing accessible, user-friendly products.
5.2.2 Key accessibility principles Below are listed 10 principles for accessibility. These principles underpin many of the sets of accessibility guidelines available, which are referred to in ‘Design guidelines and their limitations’. 1. Keyboard operation: the ability to operate applications fully via the keyboard. This means supporting the standard keyboard shortcuts available for the operating system, such as Alt+F4 to close a wi 4.5.1 Don't – alter courses to the disadvantage of non-disabled students Educators are not expected to make changes that would make the course less effective for most other students. For example, audioconferencing may be a valuable tool that has a positive effect on students’ grades. In this case, you would not be expected to abandon it, even if the audioconferencing cannot be made accessible for deaf students. Health and safety for all students also has to be maintained, although it is rare for there to be a conflict. 4.4.3 Do – consider the impact of alternative study methods and helpers The impact is related to the two types of barrier mentioned above and the intended learning outcomes of an activity. For example, does it contradict the learning objectives if a deaf student relies on a transcript or subtitles for a specific activity? A student may wish to use a helper for course components that cannot be made accessible to them. Returning to the example of someone who cannot hold a stylus, will it be the same experience if they observe someone else using a mobile device? 4.1 Adjustments for all This activity on ‘Accessibility, pedagogy and reasonable adjustments’ discusses considering the needs of disabled students in terms of the concept of reasonable adjustments and the potential impact of a disability on achieving learning objectives. The activity asks you to consider some specific course scenarios and your responses to them. The subsequent activity, ‘Specifying, designing and evaluating accessibility’, goes on to look at design decisions in the development of accessible 3.13.1 General OU Knowledge Network, ‘Guidelines for describing visual teaching material’ http://kn.open.ac.uk/ public/ index.cfm?wpid=2709
US National Public Website on Assistive Technology
3.11 Accessible content and alternatives Assistive technology can give access only to whatever is on the screen; it doesn't provide any alternative content, unless this is specifically added. For example, a screen reader cannot interpret visual content but it can read a description if one has been provided. Multimedia content might need to be supplemented with the same content in other formats. Deaf students need transcripts of audio and for the audio track of video material. If the video is an interview, a simple transcript m 3.7.2 Use of computers by deaf or hard of hearing people In general, people who are deaf or hard of hearing do not require any specific assistive technology in order to use a computer effectively. Deaf people can access visual output and can use a mouse. Hearing aid users may connect their aid to the computer's speakers or an amplifier in order to hear audio output better. Severely deaf people may change the computer's settings so that it provides alternatives to audio aler 3.5.2 Magnification Some people who require large fonts, or who need to enlarge pictures or icons, may use a software magnifier. A basic magnifier is available within operating systems such as Windows and Mac OS. More sophisticated software magnifiers are also available, which provide additional functionality, such as the following: Magnification of the whole screen (see picture below)
Author(s): 3.3.4 Screen readers and speech synthesisers A refreshable Braille display is a row of cells each containing pins that represent Braille dots. These pins are raised or lowered to form Braille letters. The screen reader program sends text a line at a time or as set by the user. The hardware is expensive, a 40 character display costs about £4000 ($7000, €6000); so this option is most often used by those in employment. Its main advantage over speech output is that refreshable Braille distinguishes between individual characters, so there 2.5.1 References Channel 4 (undated) ‘Watch your language’ [online], London, Channel 4 Television, www.channel4.com/life/microsites/B/bornfreak/language.htm (Accessed 31 July 2007). DEMOS (2003) website http://jarmin.com/demos/. DEMOS (2002) ‘Disability Awareness’ module [online], Manchester, DEMOS Project, http://jarmin.com/ demos/Author(s): 2.1 Models of disability Disability is discussed more frequently now than it was even a single generation ago. You may have come across ‘political correctness’ debates in the media in which the terms used to describe diverse groups of people are discussed. In this short activity, we ask you to read about models of disability and guidance on terminology. You will also be asked to revisit your list of challenging activities from the ‘Accessibility and disability’ activity and to update it if necessary. 1.2.2 Usability The second factor is good practice. In general terms, and business terms, it is good practice to make a product available to as wide a market as possible. A design that incorporates the requirements for disabled students is likely to be more accessible and useful for non-disabled students than a design without such consideration. One example would be a user interface that is usable by a blind person will also be usable by a person whose eyes are busy (for example people who are doing a task t 3 The challenge of change …although we may be striving to turn a profession that has the inertia of a supertanker, as individuals each of us is a speed boat that can turn on a dime… (Pate and Hohn (1994), p. 217) The American authors of the quote above suggest that PE needs to change so that it places primary emphasis on the promotion of lifelong exercise. However, they consider that this could be slow and difficult 1. Efficient brain performance Two sources of fuel are particularly important to ensure a healthy and efficiently functioning brain – oxygen and water. Fortunately, in many countries, both of these are in ready supply! Many schools in the UK are already beginning to recognise the need for students (and their brains) to be sufficiently hydrated, and have installed water-coolers at strategic points. Oxygen is easier to supply, but sitting down for a typical 50-minute lesson could decrease the amount of oxygen delivered to 3.5 Issues of capability Very occasionally, issues about the capability of the headteacher may arise during discussions about performance against agreed objectives. If the appointed performance review governors suspect that the headteacher is not able to meet his/her objectives, they should first consider the circumstances of the school to satisfy themselves that these have not altered significantly to make the objective/s unachievable. If this is the case, they should make necessary allowances when monitoring
