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Drawing upon a unique longitudinal study, which has followed the experiences of students with vision impairment (VI) in the United Kingdom (UK) through the full university student lifecycle, we rep...

We build a framework to simulate stress dynamics in the UK corporate bond market. This quantifies how the behaviours and interactions of major market participants, including open-ended funds, dealers, and institutional investors, can amplify different types of shocks to corporate bond prices. We model market participants’ incentives to buy or sell corporate bonds in response to initial price falls, the constraints under which they operate (including those arising due to regulation), and how the resulting behaviour may amplify initial falls in price and impact market functioning. We find that the magnitude of amplification depends on the cause of the initial reduction in price and is larger in the case of shocks to credit risk or risk-free interest rates, than in the case of a perceived deterioration in corporate bond market liquidity. Amplification also depends on agents’ proximity to their regulatory constraints. We further find that long-term institutional investors (eg pension funds) only partially mitigate the amplification due to their slower-moving nature. Finally, we find that shocks to corporate bond spreads, similar in magnitude to the largest weekly moves observed in the past, could trigger asset sales that may test the capacity of dealers to absorb them.

We have developed a structural model to explain defined benefit (DB) pension funds’ investment behaviour. The model is calibrated to the aggregate UK DB pension fund and four different cohorts of funds. We use the model to estimate how pension funds can be expected to adjust their asset portfolios in the face of different exogenous shocks. Our results suggest that pension funds are sensitive to shocks that change their funding ratios — that is, the ratio of pension assets to liabilities. Deteriorations in funding ratios encourage pension funds supported by financially weaker corporate sponsors to switch some equity holdings into bonds. This is because reduced funding ratios weigh on the perceived vulnerability of already weak corporate sponsors. But similar deteriorations in funding ratios encourage funds supported by financially stronger corporates to increase their equity holdings to benefit from their higher expected returns. In contrast, shocks that result in material improvements in funding ratios — for example, resulting from a large rise in interest rates — encourage all pension funds to increase their bond holdings to ‘lock in’ those improved positions.

There is concern that young people with visual impairment do not leave school adequately prepared for the workplace. Seventy young people from the UK with visual impairment (aged 16–19) took part in semi-structured interviews exploring how they define independence and how they predict they would deal with employment-based problems. Two overarching themes emerged: (1) how active/passive the young people felt they should be in solving problems (active–passive dimension), and (2) to whom (themselves or others) the young person attributed the responsibility for problems and solutions (internaliser–externaliser dimension). The results provide evidence of the importance of teaching young people disability-specific skills at school (an ‘expanded core curriculum’) which aims to maximise young people's independence while giving them a clear understanding of the accommodations to which they are entitled.

Participatory research is a broad term covering a range of approaches that are characterised by a focus on ‘action-oriented’ research involving researchers and participants working in collaboration to bring about positive change. These approaches emphasise engagement with co-researchers and the development and implementation of context-appropriate strategies that seek to empower and transform at a number of levels. This article explores the dynamics of a multi-agency and multinational research programme that investigated the working practices of specialist teachers of children with visual impairment in Uganda and Kenya. The research utilised a range of participatory methods, including workshops and a dedicated practice journal, to provide opportunities for participants to record information about their practice and share their experiences with colleagues. The article analyses the effectiveness of the approach, with a particular focus on the ‘relational praxis' between the project partners. This analysis highlights the complex nature of the collaborative relationships when research is transnational and operates across cultural, social and environmental contexts. Considerations are offered for research design in this area.

This article considers the concept of access in the education of visually impaired children and young people, with particular reference to print literacy. The article describes implications for teaching and policy at various levels of the educational process: classroom practice; broader teaching and curriculum requirements (including service design); professional training; other system requirements (including inter‐agency working, infrastructure and potential role of special schools). The article particularly emphasises the importance of teaching students access skills, which maximises independence.

This article presents a selection of findings from a literature review of best practice models and outcomes in the education of visually impaired children. The review suggested that a key focus of research in this area has been upon the concept of ‘access’, particularly with regards to barriers children with visual impairment face in accessing visual information. Given the broad scope of the literature review, we focus upon access to print literacy as an illustrative example. The potential impact of reduced access to the curriculum and the effectiveness of teaching approaches adopted to reduce these barriers are presented. The relative merits of two approaches to improve access are contrasted: providing children with accessible material in their preferred medium (e.g., large print), and teaching children ‘access skills’ (including the use of technology). There is evidence to show that both approaches are important, but teaching children access skills has important longerterm benefits for visually impaired children and young people. In spite of this evidence, it appears that this approach to teaching may often be neglected. Links are made with other areas of the curriculum to illustrate that this dual view of access is a helpful way of conceptualising the broader educational needs of visually impaired pupils

Background/aims: Network 1000 is a UK-based panel survey of a representative sample of adults with registered visual impairment, with the aim of gathering information about people’s opinions and circumstances. Method: Participants were interviewed (Survey 1, n = 1007: 2005; Survey 2, n = 922: 2006/07) on a range of topics including the nature of their eye condition, details of other health issues, use of low vision aids (LVAs) and their experiences in eye clinics. Results: Eleven percent of individuals did not know the name of their eye condition. Seventy percent of participants reported having long-term health problems or disabilities in addition to visual impairment and 43% reported having hearing difficulties. Seventy one percent reported using LVAs for reading tasks. Participants who had become registered as visually impaired in the previous 8 years (n = 395) were asked questions about non-medical information received in the eye clinic around that time. Reported information received included advice about ‘registration’ (48%), low vision aids (45%) and social care routes (43%); 17% reported receiving no information. While 70% of people were satisfied with the information received, this was lower for those of working age (56%) compared with retirement age (72%). Those who recalled receiving additional non-medical information and advice at the time of registration also recalled their experiences more positively. Conclusions: Whilst caution should be applied to the accuracy of recall of past events, the data provide a valuable insight into the types of information and support that visually impaired people feel they would benefit from in the eye clinic.

This paper discusses the results of a study of the role of the computer in scaffolding pupils' interaction and its effects on the disabled (D) pupils' participation and inclusion in the context of socio-cultural theories and the ideals of inclusive education. The study investigated the interactions of pairs of D and non-disabled (ND) pupils working together on computer-based tasks, in mainstream primary schools in Cyprus. Twenty dyads of pupils (each comprising a D child and an ND peer) were observed and videotaped while working together at the computer. Data analyses were based on the collaborative nature of events for the non-verbal interaction and the functional–structural approaches for verbal interaction. Through application of video analyses, seven central aspects of interaction were identified: helping behaviours, motivation, self-confidence, peer-acceptance, affection, positive and negative socio-emotional status, and the input of the computer. Results of the study showed that the computer was a mediational scaffolding agent of the other six areas of the participants' interaction as it: (1) was an important interactional agent in initiating and terminating a conversation, (2) facilitated interaction and participation, as an intellectual and physical tool, (3) promoted different styles of interaction (not always positive ones) through the various input and output devices, by differentiating participation. Hence, the computer emerged as the third party in the collaborative activity which provided various opportunities and motivations for interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dotted Moon is a useful and important resource to complement the range of options available to those teaching and learning Moon. Observation of a variety of Moon readers (including those at early stages of literacy as well as more advanced readers) showed that all participants were able to decode dotted Moon characters and engage in educational activities using dotted Moon at their developmental level and no conclusive evidence was found of any of the participants finding the dotted Moon harder (or easier) to decode than lined Moon. While professionals involved in the teaching of Moon expressed some concern about the potential of dotted Moon, in particular about the quality of some of the characters, there was little evidence to support this from observations made of Moon readers. The technical system used in the project combines an Enabling Technology braille embosser and Duxbury braille translation software. This set-up could be improved further if the software incorporated a Moon font to enable users to more easily edit Moon documents. Other setups available allow the control of spacing and size of the embossed characters, and these are also worthy of further investigation.

This article describes how the World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF), 2001, was used as a framework for the design of the interview schedule used in the Network 1000 project. It is argued that the ICF offers a vocabulary to enable visually impaired participants to describe their lives in terms of participation and potential barriers to social inclusion. The article presents interview data from 960 visually impaired people who were surveyed about their use of computers (amongst other things). Results show that computer use is clearly linked with age, with older visually impaired people far less likely to use computers. It is argued that, while technology may offer many benefits (including access to information and a route into employment), many visually impaired people do not see the relevance of ICT, perceive individually based barriers to the use of ICT (e.g. their visual impairment), and perceive socially based barriers to the use of ICT (e.g. cost, availability and accessibility of technology, and issues related to training). Importantly, it appears that different barriers may be more common amongst different groups.

Background/Method While a number of ECSSs have developed in the 1990s, a recent RNIB survey concluded that there was a ‘patchy level of provision’ in the UK. Nevertheless, it was also apparent that there was no clear way of measuring the impact of such services. This exploratory study gathered interview data from staff working in 9 eye clinics and related social services departments in England. The interviews explored 60 professionals' perceptions of ECSS impact. Additionally, 20 service users (aged 50 years and over) from three of the clinics were interviewed. Results The suggested benefits of ECSSs were as follows: (1) improved access (through prioritisation of patients to external support services); (2) increased speed of access to these services; (3) a suggestion of improved patient throughput within the clinic; (4) a greater awareness within the hospital of issues related to low vision patients; (5) users emphasised access to someone who could listen to them as well as providing information about the registration process or services available. Nevertheless, the evidence underpinning these propositions is largely anecdotal or based upon specific case studies. Quantitative data to enable statistical analysis were almost universally missing. Additionally, while some patients reported benefits of the ECSS, many did not have a clear understanding of different elements of the overall services (medical and social) they receive. Conclusions Conclusive evidence as to the impact of ECSSs would most likely require a prospective study which tracked patients through the various services.

This article outlines the progress of a newly-commissioned three year study known as Network 1000. It is a three-year project funded through the Community Fund and is being carried out by the University of Birmingham on behalf of Vision 2020. The project’s aim is to create a panel survey of 1000 visually-impaired people to be interviewed regularly over the three-year period, and hopefully beyond, enabling their changing needs and circumstances to be monitored over time. The findings will be used to influence policy-makers and service-providers, and will also be disseminated to a wider audience of people with an interest in visual impairment. Building on the longitudinal nature of the project enables the project team to develop a methodology that is both democratic and inclusive. The underlying research philosophy is one of inclusion and participation and in this respect the people this research affects the most - those who are visually impaired - are involved in all stages of the research process. People with a visual impairment have played a key role in generating the data and the themes that will drive the construction of the main survey instrument. The article is divided into five sections that describe the progress of the project to date: first, it briefly outlines the background to the project; second, it describes the underlying philosophy behind the democratic approach to inclusion and participant involvement; third, it presents preliminary results from generative interviews; fourth, it discusses how the team will recruit participants to the project with particular reference to the two-stage sample design that has been adopted; and finally, it describes how this two-stage approach will be operationalized. The article concludes by outlining the next phase of the project and with a short reflection on the research process to date.

Previous research has shown that, on average, children with low vision lag their sighted peers in general reading development (in terms of speed, accuracy and comprehension). This study sought to examine this apparent lag by comparing the reading profiles of 25 normally sighted readers (mean age 8 years 8 months) with 25 low vision readers. The children were tested using a reading test (the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability, NARA) and were matched on the reading accuracy score produced by the test. Therefore in terms of the reading accuracy scores (and reading ages) derived from the NARA both groups were the same. The low vision readers were on average older than the normally sighted children (mean = 10 years, 5 months). When the reading profile (i.e. accuracy, comprehension and speed) was examined in the same analysis no significant effect was revealed [d.f. = 1, 48; F = 0.05; p > 0.1], but a general lag for these children is suggested (in keeping with previous research). However, a closer analysis of the reading error profile revealed the most common reading errors made by all readers in the analysis were either mispronunciations or substitutions. The low vision readers were more prone to making substitution errors than mispronunciations and the reverse was true for normally sighted readers [d.f. = 1, 48; F = 7.1; p < 0.05]. This indicates that the reading strategies adopted by low vision readers may differ from those of normally sighted readers of the same apparent reading ability.

There have been many efforts to conceptualise literacy, both in terms of its essence and component parts, but it has proved difficult to define. This paper considers work that is undertaken with children and older learners with sensory needs in order to promote the early stages of literacy. Recent government initiatives aimed at fostering literacy development have caused teachers of children with sensory needs to re-examine their practice. The paper discusses early literacy as part of children's attempts to communicate and describes children with sensory needs engaging in a range of activities that are termed ‘literacy’ by those working with them. By taking into account these activities, the authors endeavour to throw light on the broader questions around concepts of literacy.

This paper, the second of two, summarises findings of a recent research project looking at the mobility and independence (M&I) needs of children with visual impairment who are educated in mainstream schools. The first paper (Pavey, Douglas, McLinden & McCall, 2003) outlined the development of a mobility and independence curriculum framework recommended to be the basis of provision by services in the UK. This second paper suggests ways that these mobility and independence skills could be delivered to children within and beyond mainstream education by outlining a number of recommendations intended for agencies and professionals involved in providing such a service (either directly or in managing the service). These particularly focus upon issues of funding, development of service delivery and policy documents, management of people and agencies, and the training of professionals.

This paper, the first of two, describes a recent research project that investigated the mobility and independence (M&I) needs of children with visual impairment who are educated in mainstream schoo...

This paper summarises the reading ability data collected from 476 children with low vision using the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability (NARA). The project aimed to generate standard reading ages for pupils with low vision using the NARA reading test. This would enable children's reading to be assessed against their partially sighted peers as well as their fully sighted peers. Standardised reading ages were generated using a linear regression technique to smooth the data. The data shows that the average reading ages for accuracy, comprehension and speed for the sample are generally below their chronological age when the comparison is made with their fully sighted peers. Guidelines for using the NARA with low vision students are presented.

Acknowledgements: This research was funded by the RNIB. We would like to thank the staff and students who took part in the study.

Acknowledgements: This study was funded by the RNIB. We would like to thank the staff and students who took part in this study and Claudia Evans for her help in the data collection.

This paper examines some of the models used for conceptualizing the possible developmental implications of blindness and severe visual impairment. It takes up the question of the significance in infancy of certain skills and proficiencies, especially motor, that may be impeded by the lack of vision. The paper then addresses such issues for the school age child as access to literacy, with the emphasis being on ways of mitigating the potentially educationally handicapping consequences of visual disability. Educational technology is cited as one of the principal means available to teachers for meeting these challenges, and examples are given of procedures and devices that are being explored. A central argument is that for psychologists, teachers, and educational technologists the search must be to pinpoint the specific and changing needs of the individual learner.

This poster describes two related research projects: the first explores the delivery of mobility and independence (MI and the second builds upon the findings of the first project, by developing online resources aimed at professionals and others involved in the delivery process. The first project involved drawing upon the experiences and expertise of professionals employed by services involved in the delivery of M&I education across the UK, and culminated in a number of findings and practical recommendations intended for professionals working with children in mainstream schools. The second project, funded by the NLB, took the findings and recommendations from the first project and made them into a freely available online resource, to aid professionals in assessing their own practice and to develop new or existing mobility and independence services in which they are involved.

This poster presents an update and initial findings from an ongoing survey of 1000 visually impaired people in Great Britain. Methods The project started in March 2004. It aims to develop a random sample of 1000 registered visually impaired people (with weighted stratification for age). The process of recruitment is underway. The recruited participants will be surveyed for their needs, circumstances and opinions on a number of topics. The intention is that this survey will build upon work carried out by the RNIB, except in this case the sample will be maintained with the aim of collecting longitudinal data. The year 1 survey is designed to collect general demographic information, including that related to their self-reported level of vision, health, and access to services. Uniquely, there are also a series of questions related to the broad areas of employment, ILS, ICT, leisure, travel and transport, and education. Through these questions participants will comment about their participation in society and any barriers to this participation. The results of the year 1 ‘generative questions’ will enable priorities for future questions to be set. Results and conclusion The data is in the process of being collected and this poster presentation will give an opportunity to share early findings of this large scale ongoing survey.

The effect of text-plus-text versus text-plus-picture computer presentation conditions, and the students' cognitive styles, on learning performance was investigated. In the text-plus-text condition, the learning material content described the working of car braking systems. The text-plus-picture condition consisted of text with additional pictorial information. Fifty-nine 15-16-year-old students in a secondary school were randomly assigned, within sexes, to one of the conditions. Having worked through the computer presented material, they were given a post-test overall learning performance. Immediately following this, they did the Cognitive Styles Analysis (CSA) (Riding, 1991) which measures an individual's position on two cognitive style dimensions; Verbal-Imagery and Wholist-Analytic. It was found that the Verbal-Imagery cognitive style and presentation condition interacted in their effect on overall learning performance (p < .05). In the text-plus-picture condition Imagers were superior to Verbalisers, while the text-plus-text condition Verbalisers did better than Imagers. It was also observed that Imagers used more diagrams to illustrate their answers than Verbalisers. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for instruction.

This paper explores the neglected area of categories of individual difference in human cerebral function. During thinking and decision making, it is hypothesised that different people process the same information in different ways, using different areas of the brain. Recent work suggests that individuals can be categorised into a small number of consistent groups of thinking, or cognitive, style. The different ways of processing reflect two basic dimensions of cognitive style. A simple computer‐presented method of determining cognitive style has been developed. It is probable that these styles have an underlying cerebral basis. The styles are likely to be related to cerebral orientation. The specialisation of one cerebral hemisphere for verbal function and the other for visuo‐spatial has been long established. Hemispheric specialisation has been associated with the right hemisphere being the location of the visuo‐spatial and the left the verbal function, although evidence for this has been sometimes confl...

A replication of Bransford and Johnson's (1972) experiment on contextual prerequisites was carried out with the additional inclusion of cognitive styles as independent variables. A total of 77 10‐ and 11‐year‐old subjects (year 6, primary school) were asked to read a short prose passage on the topic of washing clothes. Half of the subjects were told the title of the passage before reading it and half after. All subjects attempted to free recall the passage. They had also completed the Cognitive Styles Analysis (CSA) (Riding, 1991), thus providing their position on the two fundamental cognitive style dimensions: Wholist‐Analytic and Verbal‐Imagery. It was found that the Wholist‐Analytic cognitive style and title‐passage order interacted in their effect on recall (p < 0.05). Whilst Wholists performed best when the title was presented before reading the passage, the order made no difference for other individuals. This suggested that this cognitive style reflects the way individuals organise information.