Accessibility and Product Ecosystems

Products, including assistive and accessible technologies, do not exist in isolation. They are all part of rich product ecosystems; they inhabit specific niches of economics, functionality, and technology, and they interact with other products. The concept of product ecosystem goes beyond technological interoperability. For accessibility to advance, we must understand more about the interactions among products. This article sketches an explanatory approach that may be useful in understanding how accessible technologies thrive, survive, or fail within their ecosystems.     

A Descriptive Analysis of Elite-Level Racquetball

In this study, we used social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, &; Hackett, 1994) to examine the development of female athletes' career interest in coaching and, specifically, the impact of contextual factors (female coaching role models, working hours, and perceived discrimination) on coaching self-efficacy and outcome expectations. Participants were 205 predominantly White, heterosexual female student athletes. A path analysis indicated that role models and working hours predicted coaching self-efficacy, which predicted coaching outcome expectations. Additionally, coaching self-efficacy, coaching outcome expectations, and contextual factors predicted coaching interest. Practical implications are discussed as well as suggestions for further research in this relatively unexplored area.     

基于标准的评核：教育领域人力资本和能力提升的工具与方法

本文概述了一种评核概念和理论，即基于标准的评核。这种评核模式通过把学生的成绩和他们的知识、课程标准联系起来，给学生的学习成绩赋予意义。它有效地将评核的焦点从对成绩排名的关注（仅仅把学生的表现与同学相比较）转移到了对学生学习进步的关注上来。本文关注这一转变过程，并为这一评核方式的实施提供可能的策略。同时，本文认为这一评核体系将会对教育中人力资本和能力提升产生深远的影响。