---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 15:16:14 -0500
From: t j luther <otr@VMS2.MACC.WISC.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list EASI <EASI@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Subject: request for research participants
Note: This message is being posted to these lists: Easi, Blind-L, uaccess,
and l-hcap.
You are invited to participate in a detailed investigation of how
Internet use by persons with visual impairments increases functional
abilities in work roles. The study will take place over the next
several months and will be conducted via Internet in the form of
three short-answer questionaires each requiring between thirty
minutes and one hour to complete. We'll be asking about what
equipment you are using, what barriers you have encountered in
using the Internet, and what work-related activities you perform via
the Internet. We will have an additional set of follow-up questions
to ask after the initial questionaires have been completed.
The researchers for this project are Theresa Luther and Mary
Feldman, two occupational therapy students at the University of
Wisconsin - Madison, who are senior honors thesis recipients. We
believe that models of people who are enriching their lives using the
Internet will provide a useful example to the occupational therapy
profession and other rehab/medical professions. This study may
suggest creative and imaginative solutions to many people who are
unaware of the power of communication and connection via the
Internet. Furthermore, increasing awareness of such technology
may lead to new rationales for funding of services, training, and
equipment. The individuals who agree to participate in this study
will benefit also by sharing their ingenuity, accomplishments, and
difficulties with the wider audience who will read the research
results.
How will we achieve these benefits? We intend to make our
research results widely available. We will participate in a campus
forum in the Spring of 1996. We will report our results to fellow
students in our school newspaper; submit information for
publication to professional journals; and possibly present findings in
a national occupational therapy convention. We will also post
results to the Internet so that participants, members of the visually
impaired community, and other interested parties may review and
comment on our study. If you agree to participate, your name will
be kept confidential, and when we publish the results of this study,
you will not be identified by name. Participants have the option to
withdraw from the study at any time without consequence.
If you are a person with a visual impairment who is using the
Internet for work and this sounds interesting to you, please send us
a reply. Give us a brief account of what you do on the Internet and
what equipment you use. Please respond by February 23, 1996. We will reply
to all by March 1. Send responses to: otr@macc.wisc.edu.
Thanks, Mary and Theresa
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