Fichten, C. , King, L. , & Havel, A Fichten, C., King, L., & Havel, A. , in collaboration with members of the Adaptech Research Network. (2018, October). Postsecondary students with disabilities: How research informs practice. Presentation at the 4th Ed-ICT International Network Symposium, Hagen, Germany. Postsecondary Students With Disabilities: How Research Informs Practice Catherine Fichten, Laura King, Alice Havel and members of the Adaptech Research Network Retrieved from https://www.dropbox.com/s/fg8hcpez990ox41/Ed-ICTHagen.pptx?dl=1 4th Ed-ICT Symposium, Hagen, Germany October 17, 2018

Adaptech Research Network: Overview Focus College/university students & grads with disabilities Information and communication technologies Free or inexpensive assistive technologies

Who are We Talking About: Enrollment Self-reported disability: 11%-17% of students1 ≈ 2/3 not registered for campus disability services2 Mainly students with Learning disability/ADHD Mental health conditions Chronic health conditions ≈ 50% have multiple disabilities 1Fichten, C.S., Heiman, T., Havel, A., Jorgensen, M., King, L., Nguyen, M.N., & Budd, J. (2016). Will the real universal design stand up? Postsecondary students with disabilities in Canada and Israel. Manuscript submitted for publication. 2Fichten, C.S., Jorgensen, S., Havel, A., Barile, M., (2006). College students with disabilities: Their future and success. Final report to FQRSC. Montréal: Adaptech Research Network, Dawson College.

Grades College 6 year archival study1 Program Learning Disability / ADHD  All Other Disabilities No Disability n Grade Social Science 166 64% 103 70% 13,908 62% Career/Technical 32 40 71% 4,634 67% All Programs 347   285 40,262 66% 1 Jorgensen, S., Fichten, C.S., Havel, A., Lamb, D., James, C., & Barile, M. (2005). Academic performance of college students with and without disabilities: An archival study. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 39(2), 101-117.

Graduation / Persistence Students with/without disabilities graduate at the same rate1 Higher graduation rate of students with disabilities But not significantly Take an extra term 1 Jorgensen, S., Fichten, C.S., Havel, A., Lamb, D., James, C., & Barile, M. (2005). Academic performance of college students with and without disabilities: An archival study. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 39(2), 101-117.

Employment - Graduates of 3 colleges 5-10 months after graduation1   Students Working Full Time Working Part Time Looking for Work Studying Unavailable For Work Pre-University With a Disability 90 10% 4% 1% 83% No Disability 752 8% 5% 2% 84% Career/Technical 86 51% 15% 30% 540 49% 14% 3% 31% n Employed Pre-university 14% with a disability 13% nondisabled Career/technical 66% with a disability 63% nondisabled 1 Fichten, C.S., Jorgensen, S., Havel, A., Barile, M., Ferraro, V., Landry, M-E., Fiset, D., Juhel, J-C., Chwojka, C., Nguyen, M.N., Amsel, R. & Asuncion, J.V. (2012). What happens after graduation? Outcomes, employment, and recommendations of recent junior/community college graduates with and without disabilities. Disability and Rehabilitation 34(11), 917-924.

Employment: 4 Year Follow-up1 175 university & 77 college students 4 years later 193 graduated from original program 59 dropped out Employment outcome 9% not in the labor force Of those in the labor force 82% employed (94% if no disability2) Jobs of grads closely related to field of study 2Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey. (2015). Unemployment rates of 25-to 29-years-olds, by educational attainment, Canada and provinces, 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010 to 2013. Retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-582-x/2015001/tbl/tble3.2-eng.htm 1Fichten, C. S., Jorgensen, S., Havel, A., Barile, M., Ferraro, V., Landry, M.-E., Fiset, D., Juhel, J.-C., Chwojka, C., Nguyen, M. N., & Asuncion, J. V. (2012). What happens after graduation? Outcomes, employment, and recommendations of recent junior/community college graduates with and without disabilities. Disability and Rehabilitation, 34(11), 917-924. 

Specialized ICTs Used by Students with LD and Experts’ Recommendations Kurzweil 3000 6% 45% Wynn 3% 19% Dictation software 10% 65% WordQ 25% 29% Text-to-speech software 18% 38% Scanning/OCR 27% 9% Mind-mapping/concept mapping 41% Smartpen Check how items were asked

General-Use ICTs Used by Students with LD and Experts’ Recommendations Office suite 86% 71% Antidote 65% 47% Electronic dictionary 58% 2% MP3 to listen to books/texts 30% E-book 11% 0% PDF 74% Digital recorder 16% Laptop 85% 36% Smartphone/iPod etc. 69% 10%

Learning Disabilities & Universal Design Study of reading comprehension1 432 college students LD (learning disabilities) Poor readers Very poor readers Adequate readers Universal design If tasks / technologies designed to be accessible from the inception, less need for accommodations2 2 Fichten, C. S., Nguyen, M. N., King, L., Havel, A., Mimouni, Z., Barile, M., Budd, J., Jorgensen, S., Chauvin, A., & Gutberg, J. (2014). How well do they read? Brief English and French screening tools for college students. International Journal of Special Education, 29(1), 33-46.  2 Thomson, R., Fichten, C., Budd, J., Havel, A., & Asuncion, J. (2015). Blending universal design, e-learning, and information and communication technologies. In S. Burgstahler (Ed.), Universal design in higher education: From principles to practice (2nd ed.), pp. 275-284. Boston: Harvard Education Press.

From Research to Real Life Barriers students faced Prohibitive cost (>$1000) of adaptive technologies Lack of knowledge of available products Inadequate opportunities to try products before purchasing Lack of information about where to purchase products Not knowing if a product would work well for them Make sure to explain that these are for assistive/adaptive technologies

The Birth of FANDI Free and Inexpensive Technology Database (FANDI) Evolved from listing of ICTs Explain where the listing came from (i.e., suggestions/answers from students, experts/service providers, vendors)

Apple iOS for iPhone, iPad, & iPod FANDI in 2016 Built-in Features Windows 7, 8.1, & 10 Mac OSX Apple iOS for iPhone, iPad, & iPod Android devices Products Software & Hardware Windows Macintosh Mobile Applications Windows 10 Apple Android

Some of Adaptech’s Favourites ABBYY PDF Transformer Dragon Naturally Speaking Evernote Inspiration Livescribe Smartpen Notability TextAloud 3 Voice Dream Reader VuPoint Magic Wand WordQ

Product Categories (1) Adapted Keyboards Dictionary/Reference Organization/Productivity Alternative Mice Dictation

Product Categories (2) Magnification Scanning & Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Screen Reading Writing Other (including multipurpose programs)

Your Favorites What are some of your favorite free and/or inexpensive technologies?

Questions? catherine.fichten@mcgill.ca