Universal Accessibility: Autistic Students and e-Readers
For this week's National Autism Month blog, current WSU SLIS student Sylvia Bly gives us a research proposal and describes the current research regarding autism and e-readers from the perspective of the school media specialist. Enjoy and don't forget that our series on Autism and Libraries continues next Monday!
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E-books have become more popular within the last 10 years. At the same time, more students with autism and related disorders have entered the school system and require library services. It is believed that one of the ways to reach the autistic student is by using computers. Tony Attwood (1998) writes that computers are appealing to Asperger's Syndrome students because the computer is logical, is consistent, and the student does not have to struggle to understand the social problems that dealing with another human can create. Asperger's Syndrome is a "milder" form of autism that affects the social end of the spectrum, but not necessarily the academic end.
For many children with autism, having an e-reader available that not only has the ability to display books electronically, but also pictures and photos can assist these children in learning. For most children, story time gives the educator a perfect opportunity to teach using an e-reader as a tool (Halvorson, 2006). In the case of autistic children, it has been shown that these children often learn best through visual media of some kind.
Some of the features of an e-reader can be incorporated in an autistic student's work in the classroom, but depending on the various features that the e-reader has available, this may pose a problem. Patterson (2010) writes that the e-reader kept the student on course by reducing the amount of choices that the student had in e-books. However, the e-reader also allowed the student to change font size, use the text to audio format, and change other features such as the screen size, which could make it difficult for individuals to read. Depending on the type of reading material, such as mathematical computations, this could make the task harder for the student to complete (Zhang, 2011).
For students with autism that have trouble with text, audio can be an option, but this comes with other, legal problems in making the audio e-book available on the e-reader (Kerscher & Fruchterman, 2002). It has been found that many publishers are concerned with audio book rights and piracy. As such, many publishers have asked major software companies to turn off this feature when their material is downloaded from the Internet. This can pose a problem for students who rely on this option for learning material.
Behler and Lush (2011) mention that their study was a failure in assisting persons with disabilities. Their particular study examined those students with dexterity issues or visual impairment issues. However, the director of the Libraries Office of Services for Persons with Disabilities indicated that they are still interested in e-reader capabilities, but would like to see them made specifically with students with autism in mind (Behler & Lush, 2011).
Finally, Siegenthaler, et al. (2010) mentions in their study of five different e-readers that, depending upon the e-reader selected, there can be issues in usability. Some types of media, such as newspapers, can be difficult to read on the Kindle. However, the same e-reader that has e-ink technology did well. Others, such as the Nook, have a color option that provides readers with a visual experience in their reading enjoyment.
What do you think about the use of e-readers for autistic students? Have you seen it in action?
Check out our other blogs in the Libraries and Autism series:
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References and Links:
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Retrieved from http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=94.
Attwood, T. (1998). Asperger's syndrome: a guide for parents and professionals. London ; Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Behler, A., Lush, B. (2011). Are you ready for e-readers? The Reference Librarian, 52(1/2), 75-87. doi: 10.1080/02763877.2011.523261.
Halvorson, H. (2006). Asperger's syndrome: how the public library can address these special needs. Children & Libraries, 4(3), 19-27. Retrieved from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.
Kerscher, G., Fruchterman, J. (2002). The soundproof book: exploration of rights conflict and access to commercial ebooks for people with disabilities. First Monday [http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/959/880], 7(6).
Newschaffer, C.J., Croen, L. A., Daniels, J., Giarelli, E., Grether, J. K., Levy, S. E., Windham, G. C. (2008). The Epidemiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders*. Annual Review of Public Health, 28(1), 235-258. doi: 10.1146/annurev.publheatlh.28.021406.144007.
Patterson, S. (2010). Enacting change: a study of the implementation of e-readers and an online library in two Canadian high school classrooms, Liber Quarterly, Vol. 20 Iss: 1, pp. 66 - 79.
Siegenthaler, E., Wurtz, P., Groner, R. (2010) Improving the usability of e-book readers. Journal of Usability Studies, 6(1), 25-38.
Zhang, Y., Beckman, R. (2011). E-book usage among chemists, biochemists and biologists: findings of a survey and interviews, Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, Spring 2011.
Zimerman, M. (2011). E-readers in an academic library setting. Library Hi Tech, 29(1), 91-108. doi: 10.1108/07378831111116930