Distance Study for the Disabled. National and International Experience and Perspectives.

N

122

Access to Education; Accessibility (for Disabled); Adult Education; Case Studies; Comparative Analysis; Computer Uses in Education; Disabilities; Distance Education; Educational Improvement; Educational Media; Educational Needs; Educational Practices; Educational Technology; Educational Trends; Foreign Countries; Higher Education; Literature Reviews; Physical Disabilities; Severe Disabilities; Special Needs Students; Student Characteristics; Student Needs; Teaching Methods; Trend Analysis

Canada; European Union; Germany; United States

This report examines distance study for disabled individuals in Germany, the European Union, and elsewhere. The following topics are covered: current research on distance study; historical development of distance study and distance teaching universities; needs and experiences of physically, visually, and aurally disabled students at distance teaching universities; media available to help disabled students in their distance study; possible ways of structuring the personal elements in the distance study system; and practical proposals for developing the teaching-learning system so that it can enable disabled students to do independent academic work. The study concludes that, although distance education has the potential of becoming an expedient and successful means of giving individual disabled persons access to education, distance education institutions must acquire more extensive organizational and content-related competence for planning distance study for disabled students. Four levels of adapting distance study programs to the study- and learning-related needs of disabled students are identified: adapt to the individual case without systematically addressing the needs of the disabled; adapt to the individual case with systematically addressing the needs of the disabled; target group-specific, systematic development and implementation of organizational measures and aids; and target group-specific study contents. (Contains 25 tables and charts and 360 references.) (MN)

1999

ED422516