Studies in health technology and informatics最新文献

This paper presents the design and implementation of VRinDanger, a universally designed (UD) educational virtual reality (VR) application aimed at providing an inclusive and immersive learning experience focused on the world's deadliest animals. A mixed-methods study involving participants with diverse ages, skills, and abilities was conducted to evaluate the application's accessibility, usability, user experience, and educational effectiveness in terms of learning outcomes. The findings demonstrate that integrating UD principles into VR design significantly improves accessibility, enhances user satisfaction, and promotes engagement and retention of educational content for diverse audiences. Furthermore, the study highlights the need for cost-effective, cross-platform VR solutions and the development of VR-specific accessibility guidelines. These insights contribute to the advancement of inclusive VR design and its broader application in educational technology.

In Norway the vision and principles of Universal Design have in an amazingly short time grown deep roots in public management and laws, as well as in the general attitude. This is partly due to political will and pressure, but also to the role played by the disability NGOs. The challenges come when political processes are pushed forward without sufficient involvement, be it people with various impairments or the cultural heritage sector. This paper, built upon a Master's degree in Inclusive Architecture, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, (1) is a discourse analysis of the process of making the Akershus Castle accessible, the most important historic monument in Oslo and a site of government receptions. The case illustrates the changes in law, heritage principles, and politics, but even more the dynamics of the process that went on for more than a decade, involving the highest political and heritage authorities, the importance of words and communication, and the play for hegemony leading up to the final solution.

The growing desire to live experiences in naturalistic environments that are also opportunities for psycho-physical well-being has meant that the issue of accessibility is now involving environmental contexts that by their nature are often almost inaccessible due to both the morphology of the places and the meteorological-geographical conditions. It is evident that in such contexts the degree of accessibility cannot be fully satised by acting on the environment, it is, therefore, necessary to refer to notions such as reasonable accommodation or equivalent accessibility. In this sense, the degree of accessibility achievable involves more organizational aspects and the provision of special aids, reducing the number and scope of interventions in the physical environment. From this point of view, the sense of limitation inherent in the denition of Universal Design (which considers the greatest number of people possible) emerges avowedly, emphasizing even more specifically the difference between accessibility and usability. This paper aims to analyze how accessibility can be declined for places that by their nature are poorly accessible, what scope this has for the local population, and to propose an initial focus on the ongoing Ski-Ability Project research.

Libraries have been pinpointed as a possible hub for information and safety during a crisis. We present a workshop design to contribute to the education of librarians with the goal to make them more able to provide inclusive and accessible information in a crisis. The workshop was carried out during a conference for librarians. The results from the workshop indicate that there is a need for further knowledge about methods and tools to make information accessible, as well as practical information about crisis preparedness. The workshop presented here could furthermore be improved upon by creating tailored personas and spending more time on the activity.

Current studies at the intersection between architecture and disability focus on addressing the immediate needs of disabled individuals and often overlook the potential of built environments to create positive experiences. Additionally, conventional approaches for investigating disabled people's spatial experiences often fail to capture the inherent nuanced sensory and emotional aspects. This paper describes the process of filmmaking and the use of film to explore its contributions and limitations in the understanding on how personal and contextual factors influence individuals' positive spatial experiences. The film Places and Small Pleasures, produced by the Cluster for Spatial Inclusion at the Royal Danish Academy in collaboration with Nossell & Co, serves as a case study for a reflective inquiry. The filmmaking process involved participant interviews, transcript analysis, storyboarding, shooting, editing, and final screening. The analysis of the interviews with four selected participants revealed key spatial attributes and contextual phenomena contributing to their described positive experiences. Four distinct narratives emerged, highlighting the participants' diverse bodily conditions, emotions and feelings in their favorite places. Representations of their experiences through the film incorporated verbal and non-verbal cues, their bodily reactions, and contextual phenomena, offering an immersive sensory richness for the viewers. By capturing the embodied experiences of the four participants within their personal and spatial contexts, the filmmaking process enhanced understanding and empathy, enriching disability studies and fostering academic discourse in this domain through positive stories.

This paper examines the impact and effectiveness of educational Universally Designed (UD) Augmented Reality (AR) applications compared to traditional paper-based counterparts. The study evaluates accessibility, usability, user experience, and short-term learning outcomes in marine biology, human anatomy, and cultural history. Thirty-six participants with diverse skills and abilities, including visual impairments and dyslexia, participated in two experiments. The findings reveal that UD-designed AR applications significantly improve accessibility and usability for users with special needs and enhance learning performance for sighted users, particularly in spatial tasks. Users with dyslexia demonstrated effective information recall, while blind users could interact with and learn from the AR content without needing third-party assistive technologies, which is not possible with paper-based solutions. This study underscores the importance of incorporating UD principles in AR development to enhance accessibility and usability, ensuring that immersive technologies facilitate digital inclusion.

Universal design has played a modest role in Norwegian tourism policy, despite its potential for contributing to a more socially, economically and environmentally sustainable tourism industry. The increased interest in sustainability labeling schemes among tourism actors represents an opportunity to work towards universal design of tourism, provided these schemes encompass universal design criteria. Standards for universal design are important in creating recognizable solutions, not least for visitors who often consume services across different sectors in unfamiliar environments. Against this background, we investigated whether sustainable tourism labeling schemes include suggestions made in standards for universal design. Based on previous research on universal design in the transport sector, a coding structure was constructed and used to analyze a sample of 13 tourism-related standards for universal design and five sustainability labeling schemes used by Norwegian tourism actors. Findings show that labeling schemes for sustainable tourism to a very limited extent incorporate measures described in standards for universal design. Moreover, both labeling schemes and standards are primarily aimed at the physical environment rather than the organizational or social environments, and both dedicate little attention to employees. Nevertheless, standards for universal design comprise a much wider range of measures and user-groups. Integrating them into popular sustainability labeling schemes seems pertinent to raise awareness and foster practices that contribute to improve universal design of tourism.

In this paper, we aim to contribute to an enhanced theoretical ground for Universal Design (UD) by examining the concept of "inclusion", presenting a conceptual critique of it based on our research on categorisation and UD, and proposing a way forward. This study is based on a comprehensive analysis of a range of photographs related to inclusion and exclusion collected during five recent research projects. We employ theories on categorisation and UD to inform our critique and discussion of inclusion. The findings show that inclusion 1) entails categorisational ambivalence, 2) upholds patterns of norm and deviation, and 3) results in power being redone, rather than undone. Consequently, inclusion becomes paradoxical, where efforts to promote equity and empowerment simultaneously become another reification of existing power structures and marginalisation. To address this issue, we propose moving beyond "inclusion" to "nonclusion" and the corresponding "nonclusive design" as a foundation for UD. This entails a shift in categorisation towards design that resists categorisations of bodies, persons, and roles. We argue that such a shift can usher in a new paradigm regarding how the path towards a society where everyone belongs can be conceptualised and realised.

In the coming decades, population ageing will shape our cities and communities. In Finland, and in the other Nordic countries, the cohort of population 75 years old and older is increasing fastest in the urban areas. This demographic development will have impact on design of urban environment and housing, as well as on local services and transport. The WHO has recognized this challenge and launched the global network of Age Friendly Cities and Communities. The WHO proposes eight factors supporting older population that are interlinked. This paper focus on the three of the eight factors of age-friendliness directly related to the built environment: housing, access to outdoor environments and transport. The objective is to assess through case studies how has the Age-friendly cities framework promoted inclusive design of the cities. The research question is: How have the qualitative factors for age-friendliness been implemented in the urban environment? and How does the Age-friendly Cities framework shape the urban environment in the case study cities? The project uses qualitative case study methods involving users. The assessment of the quality of the environment is carried out with mixed methods: through city age-friendly policies, observations on site, and user participation. The analyses are based on Universal Design principals and the WHO framework. The objective is to provide further information on the practical measures to enhance age-friendliness through urban design and universally designed living environments. The overall aim is to promote sustainable and age-friendly urban environments through user knowledge and best practice examples.

In Denmark, the local disability councils are encouraged to develop municipal disability policies in alignment with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. These councils are often involved in public building and infrastructure projects. Inspired by Carol Bacchi's strategy for policy analysis, 'What's the problem represented to be? this paper studies and compares municipal disability policies and Disabled People's Organisations Denmark (DPOD)'s first policy on Universal design (UD) and accessibility. The findings reveal that the municipal disability policies predominantly focus on accessibility, with only a few addressing UD. Among those that do, there are varying interpretations of UD, such as a concept for housing. In contrast, the policy of DPOD embraces UD more comprehensively. The problem represented - 'the environment is not accessible for everyone, and everyone cannot participate' - and the use of UD as the solution indicate a paradigm shift towards inclusivity, focusing on everyone rather than just people with physical disabilities. The paper suggests that UD, as presented in the DOPD policy can be seen as an approach to spatial justice for all. This approach appears essential for the disability movement, though it is though-provoking that is has taken so long to be adopted. Better late than never.