Nathan W. Moon

Communities of participation: A comparison of disability and aging identified groups on Facebook and LinkedIn

Communication-oriented Internet technologies and activities such as social media sites and blogs, have become an important component of community and employment participation, not just in the specific function of activities, but as a link to larger communities of practice and professional connections. The occurrence of these activities, evident in their presence on Facebook, LinkedIn and other online communities, represents an important opportunity to reframe and re-conceptualize manifestation of communities especially those in which distributed networks and communities substitute for geographic proximity, offering new opportunities for engagement, especially those who might be functionally limited in terms of mobility. For people with disabilities, as well as the aging, increasingly interacting online, the readiness of social networking sites to accommodate their desire to participate in conjunction with their readiness as users to maximize the potential of platform interfaces and architecture, are critical to achieving the mediums potential for enhancing community and employment benefits. This essay explores representation/presence of disability and aging using as frames, Facebook and LinkedIn groups. Target identity/member groups on Facebook and LinkedIn were cataloged to explore the presence and representation of disability and aging identities in a socially networked setting. The groups for this study were identified using the search feature designed into the platform architecture, which allow a user to search on specifically designated entities or keywords. Findings suggest that from a policy perspective, institutions need to be cognizant of population characteristics as well as platform opportunities implementing advocacy and relevant support services for people with disabilities and older adults to full ensure engagement and participation.

Ensuring the Enfranchisement of People With Disabilities

In a representational democracy, the process of selecting people to represent the electorate is critical. To accomplish this goal, it is crucial that elections be fair and accurate reflections of the decisions of the voters. However, a significant and relatively unacknowledged constituency, people with disabilities, faces a variety of barriers to full participation in the U.S. electoral democracy. Recent research has provided evidence that how people with disabilities vote is just as important as the physical barriers they face when casting their votes. This article presents an overview of the literature addressing issues that affect how people with disabilities vote, with an especial focus on the role of election officials as both facilitators and inhibitors of voting by people with disabilities.

Policy development and access to wireless technologies for people with disabilities: results of policy Delphi research

This paper discusses the relationship between policy research and policy change, and it provides examples of the policy research outcomes informed by the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Mobile Wireless Technologies for People with Disabilities’ (Wireless RERC) policy research process. In 2005 and 2006, the center conducted empirical research, using the policy Delphi polling methodology, to probe key stakeholders’ opinions on the most significant issues surrounding the adoption and use of wireless communication and information technologies by people with disabilities. Drawing on the results of three rounds of polling, the Wireless RERC developed a set of policy options, and “fine-tuned” them using participating stakeholders from the disability community, wireless industry, and policymakers.

Assessing Stakeholder Perceptions of Workplace Accommodations Barriers Results From a Policy Research Instrument

This article presents the findings from research to identify key barriers and opportunities in the provision of workplace accommodations for employees with disabilities in the United States. Using the policy Delphi method, a multiround, iterative polling technique used to assess key stakeholder perceptions, the study probed on five areas: awareness, policy/regulatory, economic, technology, and social. For each of these areas, the Delphi panel was asked to comment on the reliability of forecasts, importance of issues, desirability of goals, and finally, the feasibility of policy options. The Delphi study concluded with a set of 22 policy options to address barriers to the provision of workplace accommodations. Many of these options take a collaborative approach, but they emphasize involvement of federal agencies such as the Office of Disability Employment Policy in the U.S. Department of Labor and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Task Force of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Access Barriers to Wireless Technologies for People with Disabilities: Issues, Opportunities and Policy Options

While the adoption of wireless technologies in the United States continues to become increasingly widespread, significant issues of access to these technologies persist for people with disabilities. In the U.S., more than 51.2 million people, constituting about 18 percent of the population, have some kind of long-term condition or disability, signalling that barriers to the adoption of wireless technologies affect a substantial population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006). Equal access to technology-related services and devices and wireless accessibility issues can be addressed by legislation and regulations, as well as options developed from disability and telecommunications policy and research.

Telework rationale and implementation for people with disabilities: Considerations for employer policymaking

BACKGROUND Telework has been promoted as a viable workplace accommodation for people with disabilities since the 1990s, when information and communication technologies (ICT) had developed sufficiently to facilitate its widespread adoption. This initial research and accompanying policy recommendations were prescriptive in nature and frequently aimed at employers. OBJECTIVE This article adds to existing policy models for facilitating successful telework outcomes for people with disabilities. Drawing upon two studies by the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Workplace Accommodations, we expound on employee-side considerations in the implementation of telework. METHODS Our policy model utilizes established typologies for policy evaluation to develop a process model that considers rationales and implementation factors for telework among people with physical disabilities. RESULTS Telework may be used as an accommodation for disability, but employee rationales for telework are more complex, involving work-life balance, strategies for pain and fatigue not formally recognized as disability, and expediency in travel and transportation. Implementation of telework as a component of workplace operations is similarly multifaceted, involving non-technology accommodations to realize job restructuring left incomplete by telework. CONCLUSIONS Our model grounds new empirical research in this area. We also renew our call for additional research on effective telework practices for people with disabilities.

Virtual Mentoring and Persistence in STEM for Students With Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of virtual mentoring for enhancing the persistence of secondary and postsecondary students with disabilities engaged in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning. The student participants (N = 189) were all engaged in STEM coursework and enrolled in a virtual-mentoring program for a span of 4 years. Persistence was measured with an online survey designed to evaluate growth across self-determination, self-advocacy, STEM aspirations, and self-efficacy (math and science). After participating in virtual-mentoring practices, the most significant improvement was demonstrated in students’ perception of self-determination and self-advocacy. Growth differences were identified across type of disability and race/ethnicity populations. Implications pertaining to STEM aspirations and self-efficacy were addressed.

Leveraging Virtual Worlds for Electronic Mentoring

The Georgia STEM Accessibility Alliance’s BreakThru electronic mentoring program responds to a National Science Foundation request for research on virtual worlds to support outcomes for students with disabilities. It also addresses student advancement through critical junctures to STEM careers, particularly from secondary to post-secondary education, and from the undergraduate to graduate level. BreakThru has developed from an exploration of technology platforms into a full-fledged mentoring program that currently enrolls 85 students and 38 mentors. The overall aim of BreakThru is to increase the persistence in STEM of students with disabilities who are enrolled in the program. Toward this end, efficacy is measured in part through enrollment and retention of secondary and postsecondary students with disabilities into virtual mentoring. BreakThru is unique among mentoring programs due to its use of the virtual world Second Life to support or implement most project activities.

Determining the Efficacy of Communications Technologies and Practices to Broaden Participation in Education: Insights from a Theory of Change

BreakThru is the core project of the Georgia STEM Accessibility Alliance (GSAA), which is supported by the Research in Disabilities Education (RDE) program of the National Science Foundation (NSF). Launched in 2010, GSAA is one of 10 RDE Alliances throughout the United States designed to broaden the participation and achievement of people with disabilities in STEM education and careers. The most distinctive feature of GSAA has been its use of virtual worlds and online communications platforms to support or implement most project activities. Empirical findings have informed the creation of a theory of change to explain how characteristics of technologically mediated mentoring practices may positively impact students’ internal characteristics across five indicators (intention to persist, increased self-advocacy, increased self-determination, decreased math anxiety, and decreased science anxiety). Successful internalization of these characteristics may be expected to increase students’ intention to persist in STEM education and support concrete steps to persist. This project seeks to fill a critical research gap and inform the field about the potential efficacy of e-mentoring programs and how they might be evaluated. It also seeks to determine appropriate methodologies and approaches for doing so.

Where the Cathedrals and Bazaars Are: An Index of Open Source Software Activity and Potential

ABSTRACT This article presents a framework to measure activity and potential for open source software development and use at a country level. The framework draws on interviews with experts in the open source software industry and numerous existing studies in the literature to identify relevant indicators. Several indices of diverse variable lists and weighting and aggregation methods were developed and tested for robustness. The results provide a first step toward more systematically understanding the current state of open source software internationally.