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The purpose of this paper is to examine the early stages of change and the way that stories can open up forms of collaborative dialogue and creative thinking among divergent stakeholders on known but “intractable” problems by enabling multiple voices to be heard in the co-construction of future possibilities for change. The empirical focus is on a project undertaken by two organizations located in Australia. The organizations – AAC, a large aged care provider and Southern Disability Services, a disability support service – collaborated with the researchers in identifying and re-characterizing the nature of the problem in the process of storying new pathways for tackling the transitioning needs of people with intellectual disabilities into aged care services.

An action research approach was used in conducting interviews in the case organizations to ascertain the key dimensions of the presenting problem and to identify change options, this was followed by an ethnographic study of a Pilot Project used to trial the provision of disability day service programmes within an aged care setting.

A key finding of the study centres on the importance of stories at the early stages of change in widening the arena of innovative opportunities, in facilitating collective acceptance of new ideas and in initiating action to resolve problems. The paper demonstrates how stories are used not only in retrospective sensemaking of existing problems but also in giving prospective sense to the possibilities for resolving protracted problems through innovative solutions that in turn facilitates a level of collective acceptance and commitment to opening up new pathways for change.

The paper focuses on problem characterization during the early stages of change and bring to the fore the often hidden notion of time in utilizing concepts from a range of literatures in examining temporality, stories and sensemaking in a context in which future possibilities are made sense of in the present through restorying experiences and events from the past. On a practical and policy front, the paper demonstrates the power of stories to mobilize commitment and action and presents material for rethinking change possibilities in the delivery of aged and disability care.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the journey of a young person with severe and complex communication needs from no formal expressive communication system, to a point where he is motivated and able to use a text based voice output communication aid for a range of communication functions, in a variety of settings, and with a range of communication partners.

The paper is a descriptive single case study, documenting long‐term changes in speech, language, and communication needs and use, and discontinuation of use, of range of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) tools.

The paper describes the different AAC interventions and their success or otherwise in supporting the young person. It also describes key educational and therapeutic aspects of his management. Changes in the young person's interaction, language and literacy skills, and how his family and the professionals around him perceived the changes in his communication are highlighted.

The paper is a description of one person without a known underlying diagnosis of his severe and complex communication impairment and might, therefore, be of restricted use when generalized.

There are few published longitudinal descriptions concerning how, why, and when young people use or discard AAC tools. This paper highlights the multiple and various factors of the factors that can be at work when actually providing intervention.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate an idea of producing an assistive and augmentative communication (AAC) tool that uses natural human computer interfacing to accommodate the disabilities of children with cerebral palsy (CP) and assist them in their daily communication.

The authors developed a prototype that recognizes the real time detected emotions display on the face and send alerts to the caretakers through Short Messaging System (SMS) or loud speaker.

The evaluation result shows that the proposed prototype recognizes real time facial expressions from the children with CP with an average of 79.4 per cent, and a maximum of 88.3 per cent (standard deviation of 7.4 per cent) on ten children with CP. Evaluations were also conducted to investigate the effectiveness of the prototype to deliver critical expression messages to their caretakers. The result showed that 98.5 per cent of SMS was sent successfully to the caretakers (pre‐defined mobile phone number) with an average waiting time of 8.3 seconds.

The paper demonstrates the potential of the proposed prototype to assist children with CP to communicate with their caretakers in real time.

This naturalistic study adapted exploratory school practice in order to support empirically‐informed decision making in the provision of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technologies for children with autism.

Research was conducted with three boys with autism and little speech, as part of a curricular literacy lesson. A mixed method approach, involving observational coding and staff diaries, identified how the boys used computer‐based voice output communication aids (VOCAs), also called speech generating devices (SGDs) and how the technology impacted on their communication and language. The boys were observed in initial lessons (“baseline” sessions), without the VOCA present and in sessions in which the VOCA was available (“intervention” sessions).

VOCAs were used for two main communicative purposes; naming and giving information, with aids being used primarily to support curricular, task‐related communication. Existing modes of communication continued to be used when access to the VOCA was available. In addition, all three boys showed an increase in Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) after the VOCA was introduced. The findings suggest that computer‐based VOCA technology can augment children's communicative participation in lesson activities. Specific patterns of change were also recorded in the boys' communication, suggesting individualised responses to this technology.

This paper extends the empirical base for clinical decision making by reporting the use of high tech VOCAs by school age children with autism for additional forms of communication, beyond those described elsewhere. It adds to the evidence that interventions which include access to a computer VOCA can have a positive impact on the language complexity of children with autism. It describes the potential of VOCAs to provide an enabling and inclusive technology in a classroom setting.

This chapter describes the results of an exploratory study that examined parents’ experiences with the law as they obtained funding for speech generating devices for their children with communication disabilities, either through public health insurance, private health insurance, or a public school. Exploring legal consciousness: Experiences of families seeking funding for assistive technologies for children with disabilities. Law, Policy, and Society Dissertations. Paper 17. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2047/d20000265). The study explored how parents engaged with the law and how their experiences and perceptions about the law compared to the formal law. This research was based on sociolegal theory, particularly the concept of legal consciousness, which examines how people think and act in relation to the law as a consequence of social interactions, and analyzes how law in action compares with the formal law. Sociolegal theory broadens the definition of law to include “the meanings, sources of authority, and cultural practices” (Ewick & Silbey, 1998, p. 22) as well as the formal law.

Similar to other sociolegal research, this study collected personal narratives of law using grounded theory methods to identify themes within those narratives. The narratives revealed that while parents expressed varieties of legal consciousness, there was one overarching theme: the law provided a framework for parents to envision rights, discuss rights, and claim rights. While few parents invoked formal legal mechanisms to solve grievances, the law created a rights consciousness among parents which empowered them to acknowledge and validate the notion of rights and entitlements.

Research begins with a question that begs to be answered. The research question must be well articulated and specific. Once the research question is established, the methodology is chosen. Thus, it is the research question that determines the methodology. In the field of special education, many methodologies have been used to answer research questions. For example, Stoner et al. (2006c) used a single subject design to determine the effectiveness of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) for adults with intellectual disabilities. Quasi-experimental methodology may be the appropriate methodology for determining the effectiveness of intervention with a group of students. The effectiveness of two math curricula for students at risk was conducted by Woodward and Brown (2006) using quasi-experimental research. If the research question centers on attitudes or opinions of a large group of individuals, then quantitative research may be used. Brown, Welsh, Haegle Hill, and Cipko (2008) reported on preservice teacher attitudes about teaching students with learning disabilities (LD). However, if one wants to broaden and enhance understanding and to fully and deeply comprehend the perspectives of individuals, then qualitative methodology would be used. For example, through the use of qualitative methodology, two studies (Bailey, Parette, Stoner, Angell, & Carroll, 2006a; Bailey, Stoner, Parette, & Angell, 2006b) described the perspectives of members of individual education plan (IEP) teams and perspectives of family members regarding augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) use in public schools. The findings of these studies (a) offered in-depth understanding of the process of obtaining AAC devices, (b) identified barriers and facilitators to AAC device use, and (c) provided strategies for effective use of AAC devices.

Supporting students transitioning from high school into college continues to be a challenge for academics and policy-makers. Composition assignments that include Kuh’s (2008) High Impact Practices (HIP) and the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) rubric and HIP tenets of Civic Learning and Community Engagement (Fig. 1), help foster opportunities for empathy, which develops students’ abilities to think critically, write well, and succeed in college and beyond. While effective college teaching and instruction are necessary, increasing enrollments, and increasing percentages of First-Year Composition (FYC) students requiring supportive composition courses compound the difficulties of the effort. According to AAC&U, “a global community requires a more informed, engaged, and socially responsible citizenry” (2009, p. 1; Finley & McNair, 2013). In other words, educators and employers believe that “personal and social responsibility should be core elements of a 21^st-century education” (AAC&U, 2009, p. 1). This conceptual content analysis study framed by HIP analyzed 10 FYC syllabi from different composition faculty at one urban Hispanic public four-year university (SMU) in Southern California during the 2015–2016 academic year in the context of the university’s mission statement embracing Civic Learning and Community Engagement for FYC students.

This study aims to examine the degree of consciousness of forensic accounting (FA) in Jordan. This study surveys practitioners and academicians about their views and thoughts toward the expected role of using FA techniques to detecting and preventing fraud practices and shedding more light on advantages and obstacles of using the FA techniques.

To collect the data, a questionnaire was constructed and distributed to the study population which consists of accounting academics, students and accounting practitioners.

The results of this study show evidence that both students and professionals have a lower level of awareness on the FA concept and its importance. The results also confirm there is a significant correlation between, fraud prevention and detection, advantages of the application of FA, the training courses toward the application of FA and the application of FA in the context of Jordan. It has also been confirmed that there is a number of significant factors hinders this implementation in Jordan.

The findings of this study offer many policy implications for regulators and policymakers on the needed relevant information to address and implement FA in education and practice, thereby activating the FA concept in Jordan.

The primary motivation of this study is driven by the limited and inconclusive research on the FA as a monitoring tool, notably there is a high possibility of fraud and misstatement practices due to the agency conflict. This study is the first of its kind to discuss this topic in the context of Jordan. The need to integrating the accounting education within accounting profession regarding FA becomes an urgent need to develop the awareness level of practitioners when it comes to practice of FA.

The aim of this study is to explore short‐term outcomes of communication aid provision from the perspective of children with complex communication needs.

A total of ten children were interviewed at two time points. The first interviews took place before or within two weeks of the arrival of a new communication aid. A second follow‐up interview was carried out between six and ten weeks later. Initial interviews explored children's views concerning their ability to engage in school activities that they deemed important but difficult to achieve. First interviews also examined children's self‐perceptions related to their self‐efficacy and self‐esteem, and perceptions of others' attitudes towards themselves. Children's views concerning the likely impact of the new communication aid on taking part in activities and their self‐concepts were also explored. The follow‐up interviews asked children to reflect on the short‐term impact of the new communication aid.

Children reported expected and unexpected positive changes at follow‐up. Notably, unanticipated and undesirable changes were also reported.

The paper addresses the critical issue of early outcomes following communication aid provision from the viewpoint of children themselves.

The purpose of this study is to identify the determinants that could impact corporate digital entrepreneurship for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of India. The study also investigates the moderating role that adopting artificial intelligence (AI)-customer relationship management (CRM) capability and strategic planning has in corporate digital entrepreneurship.

With the inputs from literature and theories, a model has been developed conceptually. The model has been validated by partial least squares structural equation modeling technique with consideration of 315 usable respondents. The effects of the moderators have also been investigated by multigroup analysis.

The study highlights that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and willingness to change significantly impact corporate digital entrepreneurship for the SMEs of India. The study also highlights that the two moderators have significant impacts on the relationships between corporate digital entrepreneurship and its predictors.

This study has developed a unique model, which provides effective inputs to the entrepreneurs of SMEs of emerging economies. These inputs will help entrepreneurs to frame their policies to improve the existing traditional practices and processes that could be transformed into more digitalization for improving efficiency of their corporate digital entrepreneurial activities.

There are no studies which investigated how perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and willingness to change could impact corporate digital entrepreneurship with the moderating effects of adoption of AI-CRM capability and strategic planning, as concerns SMEs of emerging economies. In this regard, this study is deemed to be a unique attempt.