Analysing Disability Descriptions and Student Suggestions as a Foundation to Overcome Barriers to Learning
Open accessAbstract
Artificial intelligence can support increasingly complex conversational interactions and also has the potential to interpret meanings from free text input and make recommendations based on patterns in data. There are important opportunities to apply this to real-world problems faced in access to education. In this paper, we summarise existing research and trends linking disability support and technology, then report on a survey conducted with students with disclosed disabilities (n = 138) to explore what systems might need to do to effectively understand disabled students in their own words, and provide suggestions of technologies, strategies and resources that could be relevant to overcoming barriers to learning. Through thematic analysis, five approaches that students used to talk about their disabilities are identified (medical, functional, support, experiential and administrative), and three major types of suggestions they make around what supported them and may be useful to others are also identified (external tools, university support and practices, concerns and solutions). The survey approach and the findings of the analysis provide a potential foundation for the effective design of systems that could crowdsource a knowledge base around disabilities, hold conversations to understand disabilities and barriers and make relevant recommendations to individuals as to how they could overcome these barriers.
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AI and VR technologies assist in the integration of students with disabilities in educational processes through the customised and individual training they provide [51,52,55,58], covering educational gaps due to inflexibility of traditional materials.
“AI and VR technologies assist in the integration of students with disabilities in the educational processes, through the customised and individual training they are able to provide [51,52,55,58], covering the educational gaps that exist due to the inflexibility of the traditional materials.”
From Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality on Educational Inclusion: A Systematic Review of Technologies Supporting Students with Disabilities (2024) · cites this paper as [51]
Participants with physical (restricted mobility, manual dexterity issues) and sensory disabilities (deafness, blindness) were included in two studies [51,53].
“Participants with physical (restricted mobility, manual dexterity issues) and sensory disabilities (deafness, blindness) were included in two studies [51,53].”
From Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality on Educational Inclusion: A Systematic Review of Technologies Supporting Students with Disabilities (2024) · cites this paper as [51]
It is difficult for a widespread systematic supporting approach to be implemented [51], as not every student possesses the same resources to gain access to assistive technologies tailored to their needs.
“This is why it is difficult for a widespread systematic supporting approach to be implemented [51], as not every student possesses the same resources to gain access to these assistive technologies tailored to their needs.”
From Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality on Educational Inclusion: A Systematic Review of Technologies Supporting Students with Disabilities (2024) · cites this paper as [51]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Coughlan, T., Iniesto, F., & Carr, J. E.
- Affiliations
- Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (ES)
- The Open University (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Coughlan, Tim
- Iniesto, Francisco
- Carr, Jessica E.
- Venue
- Journal of Interactive Media in Education
- Publisher
- Ubiquity Press, Ltd.
- Published
- 2024
- Volume
- 2024
- Issue
- 1
- ISSN
- 1365-893X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4391852727
- Cited by
- 8
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4
- FWCI
- 16.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Journal of Interactive Media in Education (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Open Research Online (The Open University) (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- UNED repository (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Human Factors and Ergonomics › Digital Accessibility for Disabilities
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Disability Education and Employment
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Educational Technology in Learning
- Keywords
- disability, students with disabilities, barriers to learning, assistive technology, artificial intelligence, chatbots, student perceptions, university support, accessibility in higher education, knowledge base, recommender systems
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