Joan Wolforth

Multiple Perspectives on the Accessibility of E-Learning in Canadian Colleges and Universities

ABSTRACT An exploratory study identified and compared the views of 77 campus disability service providers, 38 professors, and 45 e-learning professionals from Canadian colleges and universities regarding their experiences with e-learning and its accessibility to students with disabilities. Findings indicate that all groups saw benefit in having someone who makes e-learning accessible to students with disabilities on campus and that problems related to e-learning accessibility were most likely to go to campus disability service providers and least likely to e-learning professionals. Only half of the participants indicated that professors are taught about e-learning accessibility, that there is someone on campus who makes e-learning accessible, that accessibility is a criterion for selecting new types of e-learning, and that their school has e-learning accessibility guidelines or policies. These findings suggest that important e-learning accessibility problems remain. Recommendations for colleges and universities on how to increase e-learning accessibility are provided.

Why We Need Reliable, Valid, and Appropriate Learning Disability Assessments The Perspective of a Postsecondary Disability Service Provider

This paper discusses issues regarding the validity and reliability of psychoeducational assessments provided to Disability Services Offices at Canadian Universities. Several vignettes illustrate some current issues and the potential consequences when university students are given less than thorough disability evaluations and ascribed diagnoses. The article details current service provider concerns that are leading to an erosion of confidence in both the diagnoses given and the category of learning disabilities (LD) in general. The author makes an impassioned plea asking psychology clinicians to ensure that, before making a final identification of Learning Disability, they communicate a diagnosis that is defensible, that the diagnosis is clearly grounded in empirically supported research findings, and that they can illustrate that all possible causes for lower test scores have been considered.

Book Review: Female Forms: Experiencing and Understanding Disability

challenging the notion that welfare payments entice young women to become pregnant. Since the editors make no pretense of having covered all or even the most prominent perspectives on the subject, the absence of discussion on First Nations teenage mothers is, perhaps, to be expected. However, in the province of British Columbia alone, the number of teens who have babies is four times higher than the general population, and the infant mortality rate is 2.7 times higher than that of the general population (Herbert, 1995). The overrepresentation of First Nations children in the care of the state suggests that teen pregnancy and parenting need to be taken up in Canadian research, as well as social action to improve the lives of these young mothers and their children. In summary, I would recommend this book to any practitioner, researcher, instructor or policy analyst who is interested in extending their thinking in the area of teen pregnancy and parenting.