Leo Meekins-Doherty, Meredith Prain, Giorgina Elise Maxwell, Susan Silveira, Emily Shepard
{"title":"Exploring methodologies for establishing prevalence of deafblindness in children: A scoping review","authors":"Leo Meekins-Doherty, Meredith Prain, Giorgina Elise Maxwell, Susan Silveira, Emily Shepard","doi":"10.1177/02646196231212830","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02646196231212830","url":null,"abstract":"Deafblindness refers to a functional restriction of both hearing and vision, and presents at all ages. Determining prevalence of deafblindness, particularly in children, is challenging. The aim of this review was to explore and assess methodologies previously used to determine the prevalence of childhood deafblindness in both peer-reviewed and grey literature. Five databases were included in the search – Medline (OVID), PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, and PsycINFO. Thirteen peer-reviewed articles and 11 documents from the grey literature met inclusion criteria for the review. In exploring the literature on deafblindness in children, it is evident that the characteristics and needs of this population are not well described. Approaches adopted by researchers show inconsistencies in how deafblindness is defined, assessed and diagnosed, making comparison challenging. To understand the needs of this group, it is critical that the childhood deafblind population is accurately described. Recommendations are made for the assessment of the population of children with deafblindness.","PeriodicalId":51836,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Visual Impairment","volume":"54 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138979241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Esraa El-Mayah, Marwa M Zein, Bassam Essam Hassan, Eman O Abdelghany
{"title":"Assessment of level of awareness about children eye diseases and routine eye screening among a sample of Egyptian general population","authors":"Esraa El-Mayah, Marwa M Zein, Bassam Essam Hassan, Eman O Abdelghany","doi":"10.1177/02646196231217408","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02646196231217408","url":null,"abstract":"Assessment of the level of awareness and attitude among parents and the determinants regarding eye diseases and visual impairments in their children focusing on the importance of early screening of children to avoid amblyopia and its complications. Our study was a cross-sectional analytical study that included 368 participants in Egypt. A pre-tested self-administered (screen) e-questionnaire was used to collect data from the study participants via social media (Facebook and WhatsApp) groups. Parents’ knowledge about squint, refractive errors, and nasolacrimal duct obstruction was considered high (89.03%, 77.31%, and 59.98%, respectively), while knowledge about amblyopia, cataract, retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and glaucoma was considered low (58.98%, 38.53%, 36.91%, and 34.41%, respectively). The attitude concerning going for regular eye screening, wearing spectacles, and undergoing ophthalmic surgery when needed was positive in 35.3%, 77.31%, and 65.2% of parents, respectively. Physicians, social media, and friends were reported to be the preferred sources for acquiring knowledge (78%, 40.2%, and 26.9%, respectively). Participants with higher education, working individuals, and medical professionals had statistically significant higher knowledge scores about childhood eye diseases. The levels of awareness about common pediatric eye problems and the importance of early eye screening among parents were reported to be unsatisfactory. Physicians and social media as preferred sources for gaining knowledge could be used for health promotion in our community.","PeriodicalId":51836,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Visual Impairment","volume":"55 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138596287","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Smart traffic lights for people with visual impairments: A literature overview and a proposed implementation","authors":"P. Theodorou, A. Meliones, Costas Filios","doi":"10.1177/02646196221099154","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02646196221099154","url":null,"abstract":"Attempting to establish aids for individuals who are visually impaired has urged many cities to seek solutions for improving their quality of life. Namely, cities have installed sound-emitting devices into traffic lights as well as sidewalks that assist their navigation. Moreover, as cities are always striving to move forward and achieve innovations concerning navigation for disabled individuals, smart traffic lights, capable of synchronizing in real-time according to traffic and individual mobility conditions, are already being installed around the world. This is in line with the adoption of the smart city concept, which involves a set of methodologies and indicators that regulate how cities perform regarding the promotion of citizens’ quality of life. Another important principle is the techno-economic aspect indicating the need for low-cost careful planning to produce cost-efficient solutions, while additional important issues are maintenance, power efficiency, and the means to coordinate numerous devices to facilitate operation in a timely and reliable manner. In this article, we present an overview of the existing solutions for the navigation of people who are blind and visually impaired along with a requirement analysis performed on the feedback received from interviews with members of the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece both of which lead to the proposal of a new implementation that pushes the state of the art.","PeriodicalId":51836,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Visual Impairment","volume":"3 1","pages":"697 - 725"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138622290","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"External factors and their effect on the learning of English as a foreign language among students with visual impairments","authors":"Revital Nagar, Miri Krisi","doi":"10.1177/02646196221104899","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02646196221104899","url":null,"abstract":"This qualitative study addressed the external factors that influence the experience of learning English as a foreign language among students who are visually impaired (VI). Overall, 28 university students with VI were interviewed about their experience of learning a foreign language (English) both in high school and in university. Three themes, representing external factors, emerged from the interviews: parents, peers, and English teachers. Findings showed that behavioural, academic, and parental expectations, and a stable and caring home setting, fostered participants’ success in learning a foreign language. Furthermore, the study illustrated the importance of friends in aiding the success of individuals with VI, both socially and academically. Differences in the school atmosphere and culture regarding the inclusion of students with VI acted as either a promoting or impeding factor in motivating students with VI to succeed in their foreign language learning.","PeriodicalId":51836,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Visual Impairment","volume":" 6","pages":"819 - 830"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138617239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Assessing the impact of auditory media on Braille reading and writing skills: The case of elementary school students who are blind in Sudan","authors":"Hisham E Bilal Salih, T. Kakizawa","doi":"10.1177/02646196221099156","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02646196221099156","url":null,"abstract":"This study explores the impact of using auditory media in school curricula on the braille-related skills of students who are blind at a Sudanese school. Three sets of braille-related skills (6-dot braille writing, Arabic alphabet writing, and Arabic text reading) were used to evaluate and compare the students’ ability to read braille versus listening to text via audio media. The purpose of testing full cells of braille writing was to determine writing speed while that of testing braille writing of the Arabic alphabet was to examine students’ accuracy and proficiency in writing. Arabic text reading was tested to determine braille-reading speed. The three braille-related skills were evaluated for a total of 34 students in two groups (Group 1: grades 3 and 4; Group 2: grades 5–8), but the listening speed test was only administered to the second group. T-tests were used to compare the results for the braille-related tests with those for the listening speed test to determine whether braille-related skills were affected by the use of auditory media when accessing school curricula in the early grades of elementary school. The statistical results indicated there were significant differences between the two groups in 6-dot writing and Arabic text reading, whereas there was no significant difference in Arabic alphabet writing. As mastery of braille is an integrated process that requires instruction towards the parallel development of all braille-related skills, the ratio of instructional time devoted to listening compared to that devoted to braille may require adjustment.","PeriodicalId":51836,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Visual Impairment","volume":" 9","pages":"726 - 736"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138613882","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Oral health and knowledge of sighted children and children with visual impairment and their parents’ role in it: A comparative study","authors":"Soraia Ramos Cunha, Maria de Fátima Bizarra","doi":"10.1177/02646196221099152","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02646196221099152","url":null,"abstract":"Aim: The present study aims to evaluate oral health knowledge and habits of children with visual impairment by comparison with their sighted counterparts and also evaluates parental knowledge and involvement in children’s oral hygiene routines. Methods: This observational and transversal study included the participation of 68 children (34 were visually impaired and 34 were sighted), from seven schools from Lisbon. The participants with visual impairment were age and gender-matched with their sighted counterparts to minimize variations in the analysis. In all, 52.9% of children were male, with average age of 11.15 (±3.413) years [6; 18]. The children and parents completed one survey each. Children were submitted to an oral examination to evaluate oral health. Results: Participants with visual impairment showed a non-significant increase in the decayed, missing, and filled teeth index (dmft), gingival, and oral hygiene indexes. Both groups’ gingival state was mostly classified as excellent, and oral hygiene was mainly classified as excellent/good. More children with visual impairment (85.7%) needed help with teeth brushing (p = .046) and were more likely to miss dentist check-ups more often (p = .025). Also, sighted children and their parents demonstrated more knowledge about oral health. Conclusion: Children with visual impairment and their parents showed less favorable results, justifying the need to promote oral health education to this demographic.","PeriodicalId":51836,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Visual Impairment","volume":" 21","pages":"749 - 760"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138619455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Training needs of educators for students with visual impairments and additional disabilities: A qualitative inquiry","authors":"M. Grenier, Lauren J. Lieberman, Pamela Beach","doi":"10.1177/02646196231212740","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02646196231212740","url":null,"abstract":"Currently, 3% of children in the United States have a visual impairment. An estimated 50%–75% of these children have additional moderate to severe disabilities. Unfortunately, many physical education teachers and teachers of the visually impaired have difficulty including children with visual impairment and additional disabilities. A lack of appropriate training limits students’ opportunities to improve motor skills and engagement in physical activity. The purpose of this research was to determine the training needs of teachers and support staff of children with visual impairment and additional disabilities through the voices of parents and educators. Focus group interviews were conducted with findings organized under two broad sections entitled (a) barriers to participation and (b) training needs to support students with disabilities. A Universal Design for Learning framework was used to analyze the results revealing the need for a variety of trainings and the use of flexible curricula to effectively instruct and support children with visual impairment and additional disabilities.","PeriodicalId":51836,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Visual Impairment","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139236503","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Teachers’ and students’ perspectives on the extent to which assistive technology maximises independence","authors":"Megan Loveys, Cathal Butler","doi":"10.1177/02646196231212736","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02646196231212736","url":null,"abstract":"Assistive Technologies (ATs) are extensively used and integrated into society, mainstream and specialist education settings, more so with students who have learning disabilities. Everyone has a perspective on the extent to which these devices provide students with disabilities and specifically in this case study, students with visual impairments (VI) independence during their education. This case study indicates the importance of researching emerging technologies within specialist education such as tablets, multiple forms of braille, and screen readers, while utilising a constructivist paradigm to undertake the mixed methods research. This study triangulates through the use of qualitative and quantitative research tools to discover mixed views on the extent to which AT promotes the independence of students with vision impairment, ultimately discovering the extent is somewhat individualised to each and every student. This study was conducted in an English, special-mainstream partnership further education college. Four students and five teaching staff members were interviewed, alongside five classroom observations of each staff member interviewed. The foci of this article are teacher and student perspectives on the extent to which ATs provide students with VIs independence in their learning, and if ATs play a crucial role in these students’ educations. The findings revealed largely positive views surrounding ATs potential for students with VI. The extent to which the students benefit from these advantages is dependent on the individual. The students focused much of their attention on their personal feelings towards using technology, whereas the teachers elaborated on their feelings and went into detail about particular students’ successes and pitfalls when using ATs. As technology is constantly changing, the participants expressed their concerns for keeping up to date. Recommendations for further research include a longitudinal study at the college where this research took place to discover whether partnership further education facilitates inclusion.","PeriodicalId":51836,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Visual Impairment","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139240942","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Md Mozadded Hossen, Roy K Chen, Nahal Salimi, Jane L Nichols
{"title":"Social justice in higher education: The forgotten needs of students with visual impairments in Bangladesh","authors":"Md Mozadded Hossen, Roy K Chen, Nahal Salimi, Jane L Nichols","doi":"10.1177/02646196231212735","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02646196231212735","url":null,"abstract":"Students with disabilities face myriad barriers and hurdles to success in higher education settings. Institutions in developing nations often lack the necessary resources to provide accessible instruction, and the absence of clearly defined policies further impedes upholding the educational rights of such a special population. The purpose of this study was to examine how undergraduate students with visual impairments in Bangladesh felt about their experiences related to social justice and challenges in learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. A convenience sample of 133 students was recruited from two public universities. The authors developed two instruments, namely, the Social Justice Experiences in Higher Education Scale and the Social Justice Challenges in Higher Education Scale, to measure how the participants felt. The results showed that most of the participants experienced some sort of difficulty in receiving social justice in higher education. However, the differences in the group mean score on social justice experiences and challenges in higher education were not statistically significant between the male and female participants of this study. The outcomes of the study and their implications for rehabilitation research and practice have also been addressed in this paper.","PeriodicalId":51836,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Visual Impairment","volume":"7 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139260877","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Conceptualising social inclusion and examining its relationship with social competence","authors":"Ifigeneia Manitsa","doi":"10.1177/02646196231212744","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02646196231212744","url":null,"abstract":"Previous research has attempted to examine specific social aspects of the school inclusion of students with vision impairment, such as the development of social relationships with their teachers and peers and their participation in school activities. Based on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system theory, this article presents a socio-ecological model that aims to embrace the different elements of social inclusion in school. Considering the components of this socio-ecological model, the findings of an empirical study that examined the school engagement of adolescents with vision impairment and its effect on their social competence are presented. Thirty-seven adolescents, with and without vision impairment, aged 12–14 years, participated in this study. Adolescents were divided into three groups: adolescents with severe sight impairment (previously ‘blindness’), adolescents with sight impairment (previously ‘low vision’) and sighted adolescents. Participants completed a questionnaire about their school engagement and disengagement, and their parents completed a quantitative scale about their children’s social competence. There were no significant differences found between the three participant groups in terms of school engagement, disengagement and social competence. Neither school engagement nor disengagement was a significant predictor of social competence. The findings of this empirical study revealed remarkable similarities in school engagement and social competence between adolescents with and without vision impairment. These findings may also suggest that other clinical and social factors, independent of visual functioning, affect the school inclusion and social competence of adolescents with vision impairment. Overall, the socio-ecological model developed for the purposes of this research can lead to the development of evidence-based interventions that will aim to improve the social inclusion of adolescents with vision impairment. Furthermore, the rationale of the empirical study may promote further investigation of the critical role of promoting less-intrusive classroom interventions to facilitate the school inclusion of students with vision impairment.","PeriodicalId":51836,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Visual Impairment","volume":"39 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139261241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}