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Joyojeet Pal

Center for Information and Society University of Washington. Technology Training and Employability for People with Disabilities: Comparative experiences from four Latin American Countries. Joyojeet Pal. UW research on Technology and Disability.

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Joyojeet Pal

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  1. Center forInformation and Society University of Washington Technology Training and Employability for People with Disabilities: Comparative experiences from four Latin American Countries Joyojeet Pal

  2. UW research on Technology and Disability • AccessComputing, Disability Studies, Rehabilitative Medicine, Do-IT program • CIS Research Agenda in ICTD • Project on Technology and Employability in Latin America • Technology Training and At-risk youth • Technology Training and people with disabilities • Researchers: Michele Frix, Philip Neff, Jay Freistadt

  3. Research Approach • Countries selected based on uniform program – MS/POETA, regional spread • Qualitative research, documenting technology use and issues • Key Constructs: Technology use patterns, Employability impacts • 150 Interviews of users, administrators, policy-makers • Researchers took courses in assistive technology use on the ground • Inspection and observations participation • Simultaneous interviewing and coding in multiple countries • Iterative coding and questionnaire reframing • 1500 pages of interview transcripts

  4. Report Highlights : Policy Issues • Policy Issues: • Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala ratified UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities • Venezuela (5%), Ecuador (1 - 4%) have mandatory employment requirements • Mandatory policies increase employment prospects & perceived value of technology centers to both users and employers • Champion factor extremely important in disability advocacy

  5. Report Highlights: Social and Structural Issues • Significant boost to aspirational environment • Social issue of visibility, self perception of employability • Segue into formal work • Labor markets still getting to terms with hiring the disabled • Assurance services • Basic computer competency is major threshold • Community building, self-esteem • Mismatched expectations • Human services – job search, psychological etc. Important boost to value

  6. Report Highlights : Technology Issues • Lack of trained teachers • Technology failures major deterrent to participation • Motor • Technology unused due to lack of accessibility facilities in real work settings • Vision: • Jaws very expensive, sometimes donated • Several incompatibilities with existing (often hot) software • Auditory: • Subtitling virtually nonexistent. Limited work on speech

  7. Future Work • Full report available September 30, 2009 • Workshop on ‘Technology and Disability in Developing Regions’ in October (http://change.washington.edu/access) • Academic research on issues of technology and visibility, impact of CSR on disability • Collaboration with other groups on cross-country comparative research • Thanks: joyojeet@uw.edu

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