Browsing by Subject "accessibility"

The aim of this study was to examine accessibility in folk high schools from the perspective of students with disabilities or learning difficulties. Accessibility in education means that psychological, sociological and physical environment enables equal study opportunities. Therefore the focus in this survey was on equal study opportunity deficiencies. Folk high schools are an essential subject for accessibility research as they follow the equal educational policy of liberal adult education. This study is a part of Liberal adult education -research project (2010-2012), which is the first accessibility research in Finnish liberal adult education. The equality-based claim of accessibility together with the need to separate the experiences of students with disabilities and learning difficulties from common experiences led naturally to comparative research frame. Firstly, experiences of the experimental group (students with disabilities or learning difficulties, N=278) were compared to experiences of the comparison group (students representing the educational majority, N=498). Secondly, experiences within the experimental group were examined according to gender, need of support and educational background. This study was mostly quantitative survey study. Data was collected from folk high school students with an inquiry created for this study. Data-analysis was mainly made by using analysis of variance (GLM) and test of Kruskal-Wallis. Qualitative data was analysed as an additional element by quantification. Equal study opportunity deficiencies were found in teaching and studying, other people's awareness and attitudes, own attitudes, information and peer group, where the experimental group found significantly more accessibility deficiencies than the comparison group. The most considerable difference was found in teaching and studying, wherein also the quality of deficiencies was explained differently between the groups. Within the experimental group women experienced more accessibility deficiencies than men. Also regular and great need of support and low educational background were connected with the experience of greater accessibility deficiencies. As a conclusion it seems that the equality-based accessibility in folk high schools could be improved especially by differentiating teaching and learning. This study also proved general need for more exact definition of the intention of accessibility: is the priority to develop common quality or equality of education, and is the aim to remove the barriers or advance support to overcome them.