Different Types Of Impairments Research Articles

Educational Attainment And Child Labor Status Among Disabled Children In Tamil Nadu, India: An Econometric Analysis

Disabled children aged between 5–14 years replicate a double burden of vulnerabilities since they form a considerable part of the dependent population and are precluded from the activities of a normal life. The inextricable linkage between poverty and disability forces the disabled children to participate the labor market as child labor instead of attaining elementary education. This further makes it impossible for them to enter into mainstream economic activities. The accessibility of education and status of employment as child labor for them varies across different types of impairment and various socioeconomic indicators. In this backdrop, the objective of our present study is subsequently two-fold. Firstly, it investigates the discrepancy in educational attainment and child labor status of disabled children in Tamil Nadu across type of disability and various socio-economic indicators. Secondly, it examines the impact of Tamil Nadu Disabled Persons Act, 2007 on the educational status of the mentally disabled children. The 2011 Census has been used and multinomial logit model is applied to analyze the first objective. For policy evaluation, the 2001 and 2011 Census have been utilized and difference-in-difference (DID) framework in non-linear model is employed. Orissa is considered as our control state in DID framework. Our results show physically and mentally disabled children are more likely to attend educational institutions and participate less in child labor force as compared to children with multiple disabilities. Urban disabled children have higher chances of attending schools and are less likely to drop out compared to their rural counterparts. There is no significant difference across gender in workforce participation of disabled children, but in case of attaining education, male disabled children are more likely to attend educational institutions than their female counterparts. Also, disabled children who have never been married are less likely to work as child labor. The Disabled Persons Act, 2007 is found to have insignificant impact on educational attainment of mentally disabled children. Both national and state level need to be reprioritized to protect disabled children from exploitations like child labor and child marriage and to include them in the mainstream education.

Virtual Reality and Assistive Technologies: A Survey

This paper conducts an extensive survey on existing Virtual Reality (VR)-based rehabilitation approaches in the context of different types of impairments: mobility, cognitive, and visual. Some VR-based assistive technologies involve repetitions of body movements, some require persistent mental exercise, while some work as sensory substitution systems. A multi-modal VR-based environment can incorporate a number of senses, (i.e., visual, auditory, or haptic) into the system and can be an immense source of motivation and engagement in comparison with traditional rehabilitation therapy. This survey categorizes virtual environments on the basis of different available modalities. Each category is again subcategorized by the types of impairments while introducing available devices and interfaces. Before concluding the survey, the paper also briefly focuses on some issues with existing VR-based approaches that need to be optimized to exploit the utmost benefit of virtual environment-based rehabilitation systems .

BUS TRIPS-A Self-Management Program for People with Cognitive Impairments after Stroke.

Stroke is a major cause of disability worldwide and different types of impairments can affect the individual’s ability to manage everyday activities such as travel that is essential for participation in society. The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of a new self-management intervention (BUS TRIPS) focusing on travelling by bus, and potential contributions to an improved ability to travel by bus for people with cognitive impairments after stroke. This is a pilot study of five individuals, utilizing a multiple case study design with a mixed methods approach. Assessments (Stroke Impact Scale, General Self-Efficacy Scale and Life Satisfaction Scale-11, Item 1) were performed before, two weeks after, and three months after the program. The data collection also comprised reflection notes from the group leaders (an occupational therapist and a physiotherapist), a semi-structured group interview and an individual phone survey. The feasibility of the intervention was presented in four sub-categories: (1) appreciated group format despite too short sessions; (2) the importance of skilled leaders and motivated participants; (3) session material adequate but needs minor revision to fit the target group; and (4) homework is valuable but reflective group discussions must be supported. The narratives of each case showed that all participants made some progress related to travelling by bus, but the overall positive results could not be verified by all of the quantitative assessments. We conclude that the BUS TRIPS intervention is feasible and can potentially contribute to an improved ability to travel by bus for the target group. Future studies is called for, and should focus on recruitment challenges, to clarify assessments that would be suitable to use in larger scale clinical trials and during subsequent implementation in clinical practice.

Facial emotion recognition in patients with focal and diffuse axonal injury

ABSTRACTObjective: Facial emotion recognition impairment has been well documented in patients with traumatic brain injury. Studies exploring the neural substrates involved in such deficits have implicated specific grey matter structures (e.g. orbitofrontal regions), as well as diffuse white matter damage. Our study aims to clarify whether different types of injuries (i.e. focal vs. diffuse) will lead to different types of impairments on facial emotion recognition tasks, as no study has directly compared these patients.Methods: The present study examined performance and response patterns on a facial emotion recognition task in 14 participants with diffuse axonal injury (DAI), 14 with focal injury (FI) and 22 healthy controls.Results: We found that, overall, participants with FI and DAI performed more poorly than controls on the facial emotion recognition task. Further, we observed comparable emotion recognition performance in participants with FI and DAI, despite differences in the nature and distribution of their lesions. However, the rating response pattern between the patient groups was different.Conclusion: This is the first study to show that pure DAI, without gross focal lesions, can independently lead to facial emotion recognition deficits and that rating patterns differ depending on the type and location of trauma.

The relationship between physical activity and self-efficacy in children with disabilities

The main purpose of this study is to investigate whether self-efficacy in children with disabilities could be strengthened through targeted and adapted physical activities led by specially educated leaders. Children and Youth Physical Self-Perception Profile (CY-PSPP) scale were used. The study includes 45 children of 8–14 years of age with different types of impairments. The children participated in training sessions twice a week and tried out 13 different physical activities during eight months. The median in this study of total self-efficacy was 104 points, which can be compared to median points varying between 100 and 107 in previous studies based on children without disabilities. Furthermore, there was a statistically significant increase of the means in four out of six different domains of self-efficacy before and after the study was carried out. Key findings indicated that this model is successful in strengthening the children’s self-efficacy and that their perceived self-efficacy was equal to that of children without disabilities.

ERP correlates of error processing during performance on the Halstead Category Test

The Halstead Category Test (HCT) is a neuropsychological test that measures a person's ability to formulate and apply abstract principles. Performance must be adjusted based on feedback after each trial and errors are common until the underlying rules are discovered. Event-related potential (ERP) studies associated with the HCT are lacking. This paper demonstrates the use of a methodology inspired on Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA) applied to EEG signals, to remove high amplitude ocular and movement artifacts during performance on the test. This filtering technique introduces no phase or latency distortions, with minimum loss of relevant EEG information. Importantly, the test was applied in its original clinical format, without introducing adaptations to ERP recordings. After signal treatment, the feedback-related negativity (FRN) wave, which is related to error-processing, was identified. This component peaked around 250ms, after feedback, in fronto-central electrodes. As expected, errors elicited more negative amplitudes than correct responses. Results are discussed in terms of the increased clinical potential that coupling ERP information with behavioral performance data can bring to the specificity of the HCT in diagnosing different types of impairment in frontal brain function.

Subjective video quality evaluation of different content types under different impairments

ABSTRACTNowadays, access to multimedia content is one of the most demanded services on the Internet. However, the transmission of audio and video over these networks is not free of problems that negatively affect user experience. Factors such as low image quality, cuts during playback or losses of audio or video, among others, can occur and there is no clear idea about the level of distortion introduced in the perceived quality. For that reason, different impairments should be evaluated based on user opinions, with the aim of analyzing the impact in the perceived quality. In this work, we carried out a subjective evaluation of different types of impairments with different types of contents, including news, cartoons, sports and action movies. A total of 100 individuals, between the ages of 20 and 68, participated in the subjective study. Results show that short-term rebuffering events negatively affect the quality of experience and that desynchronization between audio and video is the least annoying impairment. Moreover, we found that the content type determines the subjective results according to the impairment present during the playback.

Study Status of University of Lagos Students with Visual Impairment

In this descriptive survey, an effort was focused on investigating the challenges faced by visually impaired students of the University of Lagos. The population for the study comprised of male and female visually impaired students on a regular full-time programme of the University. A total of forty-two students representing 93.3% of the population (46) were involved in the survey using quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection. Data were collected using a self- developed and validated questionnaire named Visually Impaired Students Study (VISSS) (r=0.89), two focus group discussions (one male and one female) and an in-depth interview. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics to present data while inferential statistics of Chi-square was used to test the hypothesis. Information gathered through the FGD and IDI were treated using content analysis method. The study statistically revealed that: the University of Lagos provided a conducive learning environment for students with visual impairment. However, respondents were of the opinion that a lot more need to be done in the following areas of challenge: lecturer-student relationship; delivery of lecture; and conduct of examination including venue and invigilation. The study recommends employment of staff (academic and non-academic) with a background in special education; and training of lecturers in interacting with students with visual impairment. In the interim, dialogue/interaction between the university authority and students with different types of impairment should also be scaled up. Keywords- Visual Impaired, Students, University of Lagos, Conducive learning environment, hostel accommodation, Response to complaints

South African Teachers’ Attitudes toward the Inclusion of Learners with Different Abilities in Mainstream Classrooms

This research sought to examine South African teachers’ attitudes toward the inclusion of learners with different abilities in their hypothetical mainstream classrooms. Participants were 93 South African teachers who responded to the Teachers’ Attitudes and Expectations Scale, a measure developed for this study, regarding four vignettes depicting learners with different types of impairments. Overall, teachers reported that inclusion would benefit learners’ social development (mean scores from 2.57 to 3.35) more than their intellectual development (mean scores from 2.14 to 2.83). It also was found that teachers overwhelmingly were more confident about including learners with Down syndrome into their hypothetical mainstream classes when compared with the inclusion of learners with other disabilities, F(3, 90) = 9.59, p < 0.01. The results suggest that providing teachers with sufficient resources within the classroom and training that includes hands-on experience with children with disabilities could positively influence their attitudes toward the inclusion of learners with disabilities in their classrooms.

Inequalities in social capital and health between people with and without disabilities

The poor mental and physical health of people with disabilities has been well documented and there is evidence to suggest that inequalities in health between people with and without disabilities may be at least partly explained by the socioeconomic disadvantage (e.g. low education, unemployment) experienced by people with disabilities. Although there are fewer studies documenting inequalities in social capital, the evidence suggests that people with disabilities are also disadvantaged in this regard. We drew on Bourdieu's conceptualisation of social capital as the resources that flow to individuals from their membership of social networks. Using data from the General Social Survey 2010 of 15,028 adults living in private dwellings across non-remote areas of Australia, we measured social capital across three domains: informal networks (contact with family and friends); formal networks (group membership and contacts in influential organisations) and social support (financial, practical and emotional). We compared levels of social capital and self-rated health for people with and without disabilities and for people with different types of impairments (sensory and speech, physical, psychological and intellectual). Further, we assessed whether differences in levels of social capital contributed to inequalities in health between people with and without disabilities. We found that people with disabilities were worse off than people without disabilities in regard to informal and formal networks, social support and self-rated health status, and that inequalities were greatest for people with intellectual and psychological impairments. Differences in social capital did not explain the association between disability and health. These findings underscore the importance of developing social policies which promote the inclusion of people with disabilities, according to the varying needs of people with different impairments types. Given the changing policy environment, ongoing monitoring of the living circumstances of people with disabilities, including disaggregation of data by impairment type, is critical.

Invariant and variable relations emerge with degrees of difficulty within habitual and surprise touch-pointing motions

This work was supported by NSF Cyber Enabled Discovery and Innovation Type I Grant # 094158 •The variability inherently present in the speed of the hand motions intended towards the targets serves to distinguish individual rates of adaptation •This paradigm can be combined with robotic motions to study human-robots interactions during pointing and reaching behaviors •The complexity of the number of surprise / targets induces different degrees of learning and adaptation in habitual behaviors •Different levels of kinematics analyses reveal different levels of learning •We plan to include in future studies individuals with ASD and PD and predict different types of adaptive behavior in each group •These indexes may indicate the degree of flexibility of the person when switching between habitual and novel settings BACKGROUND Goal directed movements have different levels of automaticity. Some movements are habitual while others require more deliberate processing. The variability from trial in continuous, natural movements can be informative of the levels of automaticity in the motions, particularly as people adapt to the context of the motions. We here examine the extent to which habitual pointing motions to targets on a touch screen are impacted by surprising targets appearing at random locations of the screen as the subjects perform highly automated pointing motions We use a new Statistical Platform for Individualized Behavioral Analyses (SPIBA) and examine the adaptive progression of young undergraduates as they face different degrees of complexity in the target stimuli and surprise factor. MOTIVATION This is preliminary work to gather normative data in neurotypical subjects and use the paradigm and methods to study individuals with neurological disorders on a spectrum. These include subjects with Parkinson’s disease and Autism Spectrum Disorders. In both populations the balance between voluntary and spontaneous control of goal directed actions is impeded. Yet each group has different types of impairments in adaptive behaviors.

Posterior AD-type pathology: cognitive subtypes emerging from a cluster analysis.

Background. “Posterior shift” of the neuropathological changes of Alzheimer's disease (AD) produces a syndrome (posterior cortical atrophy) (PCA) dominated by high-level visual deficits. Objective. To explore in patients with AD-type pathology whether a data-driven analysis (cluster analysis) based on neuropsychological findings resulted in the emergence of different subgroups of patients; in particular to find out whether it was possible to identify patients with visuospatial deficits consistent with the hypothesis that PCA is a “dorsal stream” syndrome or, rather, whether there were subgroups of patients with different types of impairment within the high-level visual domain. Methods. 23 PCA and 16 DAT patients were studied. By a principal component analysis performed on a wide range of neuropsychological tasks, 15 variables were obtained that loaded onto five main factors (memory, language, perceptual, visuospatial, and calculation) which entered a hierarchical cluster analysis. Results. Four clusters of cognitive impairment emerged: visuospatial/perceptual, memory, perceptual/calculation, and language. Only in the first cluster a visuospatial deficit clearly emerged. Conclusions. AD pathology produces not only variants dominated by memory (DAT) and, to a lesser extent, visuospatial deficit (PCA), but also other distinct syndromic subtypes with disorders in visual perception and language which reflect a different vulnerability of specific functional networks.

Evolutionary approach for integration of multiple pronunciation patterns for enhancement of dysarthric speech recognition

Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder caused by neurological injury of the motor component of the motor-speech system. Because it affects respiration, phonation, and articulation, it leads to different types of impairments in intelligibility, audibility, and efficiency of vocal communication. Speech Assistive Technology (SAT) has been developed with different approaches for dysarthric speech and in this paper we focus on the approach that is based on modeling of pronunciation patterns. We present an approach that integrates multiple pronunciation patterns for enhancement of dysarthric speech recognition. This integration is performed by weighting the responses of an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system when different language model restrictions are set. The weight for each response is estimated by a Genetic Algorithm (GA) that also optimizes the structure of the implementation technique (Metamodels) which is based on discrete Hidden Markov Models (HMMs). The GA makes use of dynamic uniform mutation/crossover to further diversify the candidate sets of weights and structures to improve the performance of the Metamodels. To test the approach with a larger vocabulary than in previous works, we orthographically and phonetically labeled extended acoustic resources from the Nemours database of dysarthric speech. ASR tests on these resources with the proposed approach showed recognition accuracies over those obtained with standard Metamodels and a well used speaker adaptation technique. These results were statistically significant.

Research on Cognitive Impairment in Community and Home Settings

Mounting evidence demonstrates the significant impact of cognitive impairment on the lives of older adult patients and their caregivers. In addition, cognitive impairment presents challenging conditions for healthcare providers who are frequently unprepared to manage the care of these patients. These developments have spawned a wide range of research to more effectively identify and diagnose individuals with cognitive impairments, to develop better strategies to differentiate the types of cognitive impairment, and more accurately estimate the incidence and prevalence of the different types of impairments within different treatment settings. The 4 articles presented in this article represent a small sampling of recent research on these topics. Each article possesses methodological and other limitations that limit the generalizability of their findings. Nonetheless, there are important lessons to be learned from each. The first article examines the effectiveness of using a single-item measure to screen for delirium, one form of cognitive impairment. The second article presents the findings of a systematic review of research articles that estimate the prevalence of missed and delayed diagnoses of dementia. Efforts to understand factors that contribute to missed or delayed diagnoses may result in more robust strategies to improve timely diagnoses and effective interventions. The third article attempts to differentiate the prevalence of cognitive impairment that does not progress to a diagnosis of dementia. The findings suggest that, contrary to conventional thought, not every patient with cognitive impairment will ultimately have dementia. The final article illustrates the difficulties of identifying community-dwelling older adults with dementia. Once identified, the authors determined that patients and their families have wide range of unmet needs that may be addressed with better preparation of healthcare providers. Future research may produce more robust evidence on these important topics.

Adaptive psychometric scaling for video quality assessment

Video quality estimation is crucial for the efficient management of video delivery services. Particularly with the advances in screen technology and content delivery networks, getting an accurate estimation of the video quality as it is actually perceived by the user, is a key factor in delivering high quality-of-experience. Psychometric scaling provides the tools to measure the impact that different types of impairments have on the delivered quality. In contrast to the more conventional subjective rating procedures, psychometric scaling does not suffer from biases and has significantly lower variability. However, the existing psychometric methods such as Maximum Likelihood Difference Scaling (MLDS) entail a large number subjective tests. Herein we present an adaptive approach that leads to improvement in the learning rate and, in turn, to resource-efficient video delivery systems.

Simulation in user-centred design: helping designers to empathise with atypical users

Time and budget constraints frequently prevent designers from consulting with end-users while assessing the ease of use of the products they create. This has resulted in solutions that are difficult to use by a wide range of users, especially the growing older adult population and people with different types of impairments. To help designers with this problem, capability-loss simulators have been developed with the aim of temporarily representing users who are otherwise difficult to access. This paper questions the reliability of existing tools in providing designers with meaningful information about the users’ capabilities. Consequently, a new capability-loss simulation toolkit is presented, followed by its empirical evaluation. The new toolkit proved to be significantly helpful for a group of designers identifying real usability problems with everyday devices.

Para-cycling performance was rather limited by physiological than functional factors

OPINION article Front. Physiol., 15 August 2012Sec. Exercise Physiology Volume 3 - 2012 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2012.00327

Game accessibility: a survey

Over the last three decades, video games have evolved from a pastime into a force of change that is transforming the way people perceive, learn about, and interact with the world around them. In addition to entertainment, games are increasingly used for other purposes such as education or health. Despite this increased interest, a significant number of people encounter barriers when playing games due to a disability. Accessibility problems may include the following: (1) not being able to receive feedback; (2) not being able to determine in-game responses; (3) not being able to provide input using conventional input devices. This paper surveys the current state-of-the-art in research and practice in the accessibility of video games and points out relevant areas for future research. A generalized game interaction model shows how a disability affects ones ability to play games. Estimates are provided on the total number of people in the United States whose ability to play games is affected by a disability. A large number of accessible games are surveyed for different types of impairments, across several game genres, from which a number of high- and low-level accessibility strategies are distilled for game developers to inform their design.

Exploring the Experiences of “Not Being Listened To” from the Perspective of Parents with Disabled Children

Several studies report that parents of children with disabilities complain about professionals ignoring the parents’ view and understanding of the child's needs. The aim of this paper is to explore the parents’ experience of not being listened to from their own perspective. Findings are based on a longitudinal study including qualitative interviews with parents of 31 children with different types of impairments in pre-school (1999) and early school years (2002). Incidents where parents reported “not being listened to” were distinguished according to different types of conflicts or disagreements: (1) problem-defining; (2) gate-keeping; and (3) jurisdiction. The underlying problem as viewed by the parents was that their knowledge was not valued. Dilemmas and obstacles towards practising user-participation in parent–professional relationships are discussed. The findings suggest a necessity of negotiating partnership, as well as a more humble approach towards parents.

Environmental barriers experienced by urban and rural disabled people in South Africa

Impairments pose a certain degree of difficulty to disabled people, however the impact of the environment is the major cause of disability. Despite the fact that the disabling effect of environmental factors is acknowledged, little research has been done to explore the impact of the environment on varying degrees of disability and different impairments. The aim of this study was to investigate the experience of disabled people with regard to environmental barriers in an urban as opposed to a rural setting. The specific objectives were to identify which items within the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) checklist of environmental factors presented people with disability with the most barriers and to see whether the barriers were different for those living in a rural as opposed to an urban setting. The study was conducted amongst Xhosa speaking people in the Eastern and Western Cape aresa of South Africa which have, respectively, 5.8% and 4.1% disability prevalences. A descriptive, analytical, cross‐sectional study was used to gather the data. The primary data collection tool was the Xhosa version of the ICF checklist. The sample consisted of 468 respondents, with 375 living in the Eastern Cape and 93 in the Western Cape. Physical problems were reported by 54.6 % of the sample, 14.6% had had an intellectual impairment and 9.9% had visual, hearing or speech problems. Approximately 2% of the sample reported more than one impairment. The prevalence of the different types of impairments between the two areas was similar. Respondents from the urban area reported experiencing more barriers in the categories Products and technology and the Natural and built environment, while respondents from the rural area experienced more barriers with Attitudes. An equivalent number of people in the respective areas identified barriers in the Services category. In this study the face and construct validity of the ICF appeared to be acceptable and it is recommended that further studies be conducted to establish the reliability and content and concurrent validity of the instrument.