Information Sources: Educational Institutions

ADAPTECH PROJECT

Dawson College
3040 Sherbrooke West
Montreal, Quebec
H3Z 1A4

Tel: (514) 931-8731 Ext. 1546 (voice)
Fax: (514) 931-3567
TTY:
Toll Free:
E-mail: adaptech@dawsoncollege.qc.ca
Contact: Catherine S. Fichten, Ph.D., Dawson College

Organizational Notes:

The Adaptech Research Network consists of a team of academics, students and consumers. We conduct bilingual research on the use of computer, information, and adaptive technologies by Canadian college and university students with disabilities. We are based at Dawson College and are funded by both federal and provincial grants. Our work is guided by an active and enthusiastic cross-Canada bilingual Advisory Board.

Our goal is to provide empirically based information to assist in decision making that ensures that new policies, software and hardware reflect the needs and concerns of a variety of individuals: college and university students with disabilities, professors who teach them, and service providers who make technological, adaptive, and other supports available to the higher education community.

: http://www.adaptech.org

ADAPTIVE TECHNOLOGY RESOURCE CENTRE

Faculty of Information Studies 140 St. George Street
Toronto, Ontario
M5S 3G6

Tel: (416) 978-5240
Fax: (416) 971-2629
TTY:
Toll Free:
E-mail: jutta.treviranus@utoronto.ca
Contact: Jutta Treviranus, Director, ATRC

Organizational Notes:

: http://www.utoronto.ca/atrc

CAMBRIAN COLLEGE

The Glenn Crombie Centre for Disability Services
Room 2517A
1400 Barrydowne Road
Sudbury, Ontario
P3A 3V8
Tel: (705) 566-8101 ext. 7219
Fax: (705) 566-5452
TTY:
Toll Free:
E-mail:
Contact:

Organizational Notes:

: http://homepages.cambrianc.on.ca/pathways

CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY

Department of Computer Science
1455 de Maisonneuve West
LB 901
Montreal, Quebec
H3G 1M8
Tel.: (514) 848-2424 ext.3000
Fax: (514) 848-2830
TTY:
Toll Free:
E-mail:
Contact: Dr. T. Radhakrishnan, Professor

Organizational Notes:

Affiliation: Concordia University, Computer Science Department. About 30 full time professors engaged in research. Two of them are directly interested in research areas relevant to the physically handicapped: Dr. T. Radhakrishnan and Dr. C. Y. Suen. The Chairman of the Department is Professor G. Martin.

1. Speech based software and hardware systems to assist the visually handicapped and the learning disabled. Research is focused on User Interface aspects and in providing seamless interaction with displayed objects;
2. Braille display (soft Braille) and the design of affordable personal braille embossers based on the microprocessor technology;
3. Time-sharing a single (set of) system for simultaneous use in classroom teaching for visually handicapped children in developing countries. This is in the direction of technology transfer;
4. Application of AI techniques and knowledge based systems approaches to present multimedia documents to the visually handicapped;
5. Interaction aids for the motor handicapped using speech recognizers and dialogue controllers;
6. Concordia has set up a Centre for the Services of Disabled Students which has all the modern equipment and offers some (non-credit) training courses. It also employs some physically disabled individuals. Director, Leo Bissonette.

: http://encs.concordia.ca

DISABILITY RESOURCE CENTRE

University of British Columbia
1860 East Mall, Room 1874
Vancouver, British Columbia
V6T 1Z1
Tel: (604) 822-5844
Fax: (604) 822-6655
TTY:
Toll Free:
E-mail:
Contact:

Organizational Notes:

All areas of access to post-secondary education by persons with disabilities.

: http://www.students.ubc.ca/access/drc.cfm

McGILL UNIVERSITY

School of Communication Sciences and Disorders
Beatty Hall
1266 Pine Avenue West
Montreal, Quebec
H3G 1A8
Tel.: (514) 398-4137
Fax: (514) 398-8123
TTY:
Toll Free:
E-mail: scsd@mcgill.ca
Contact: Dr. Shari Baum, Director

Organizational Notes:

Faculty research interests include the study of normal and disordered speech, language and hearing processes in children and adults, and the clinical applications of that knowledge to assessment and intervention.

: http://www.mcgill.ca/scsd

NATIONAL CENTRE FOR AUDIOLOGY

The University of Western Ontario
Elborn College - Room 2300
London, Ontario
N6G 1H1
Tel.: (519) 661-3901
Fax: (519) 661-3805
TTY:
Toll Free:
E-mail: jamieson@nca.uwo.ca
Contact: Dr. Donald Gerald Jamieson, Director

Organizational Notes:

The National Centre for Audiology (NCA) was created in 1999, by The University of Western Ontario, with support from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund, and private donors. A comprehensive, research, teaching and clinical centre, the NCA focuses on the evaluation and the improvement of hearing health care services. The NCA's assistive technology projects include

1. the Desired Sensation Level (DSL) Method for selecting amplification characteristics for personal hearing aids
2. Listen-Hear, a software system for helping children who wear hearing aids or have a cochlear implant to develop spoken language
3. HATS, a novel hearing aid test and measurement system for use with modern DSP hearing aids; and
4. IVANS, a system for the analysis of vocal function and the diagnosis of voice disorders.

Previous work in NCA labs also lead to the development of CSRE - a software system for speech sampling, editing, playback, measurement, analysis, synthesis, and testing using PCs which is used in more than 50 countries. NCA projects are undertaken in collaboration with specific industrial and clinical partners, to ensure that the technology developed is applied rapidly to the benefit of consumers. Three NCA researchers (D. Jamieson, R. Seewald and V. Parsa) are also members of the Hearing Team of ORTC, described in a separate entry. The focus of the ORTC Hearing Team is the development, evaluation and production of improved technologies to assist hard of hearing person communicate with others.

: http://www.uwo.ca/nca

ST. MARY'S UNIVERSITY

Atlantic Centre of Research, Access and Support for Disabled Students
923 Robie Street
Halifax, Nova Scotia
B3H 3C3
Tel.: (902) 420-5452
Fax: (902) 496-8122
TTY:(902) 425-1257
Toll Free:
E-mail:
Contact: Dr. David Leitch, Director

Organizational Notes:

The Atlantic Centre of Research, Access and Support for Disabled Students is university-affiliated agency networking provincially, nationally and internationally. The staff is responsible for assisting students with disabilities successfully complete their post-secondary education. Centre is involved in the support of persons with disabilities in higher education and the economic integration of those persons.

: http://www.smu.ca/administration/atlcentre/welcome.html

UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTRÉAL

Groupe d'acoustique de l'Université de Montréal
Ecole d'orthophonie et d'audiologie
PO Box 6128 - Succursale Centre-ville
Montreal, Quebec
H3C 3J7
Tel: (514) 343-7559
Fax: (514) 343-5740
TTY:
Toll Free:
E-mail:
URL:
Contact: Louise Getty, Director

Organizational Notes:

Development and implementation of a rehabilitation program for persons affected by occupational deafness: psycho-social intervention within a public health perspective. Adaptation of work stations to the constraints imposed by hearing loss: development of clinical procedures for measuring ability to hear; development of a computerized model to predict ability to detect sound from noise with hearing loss. Assessment of the efficiency of alarms in noisy environments; development of the software to design or adjust signals to suit the constraints of the sound environment. Assessment of hearing disabilities and psycho-social disadvantages associated with deafness: development of a trans-cultural questionnaire.

: http://www.eoa.umontreal.ca

UNIVERSITÉ DE SHERBROOKE

Department of physiology and biophysics
Faculty of Medicine
3001 - 12e Ave. Nord
Sherbrooke, Québec
J1H 5N4
Tel: (819) 564-5301
Fax: (819) 564-5399
TTY:
Toll Free:
E-mail:
Contact:

Organizational Notes:

Production of tactile illustrations for the visually impaired. Computer editing of black and white photographs to retain only dimensional information,an original procedure which correctly translates the levels of grey in an image by elevations that can be felt by the fingers. This means elimination of all tones which do not express variation of illumination according to the distance of the objects in the image.

: http://www.USherbrooke.ca/physiologie_biophysique

UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À MONTRÉAL

Groupe de recherche sur la langue des signes québecoise
PO Box 8888, Stn Centre-Ville,
Montreal, Quebec
H3C 3P8
Tel: (514) 987-0028
Fax: (514) 987-7994
TTY:
Toll Free:
E-mail:
Contact: Diane Merette

Organizational Notes:

1. Description of "langue des signes québécoise" (LSQ).
2. Study of deaf persons' written French, to assist in the teaching of language to deaf students. This will also help in developing teaching strategies to improve written French skills among deaf students.
3. "Conception d'un système expert d'aide à l'écriture à l'intention des personnes ayant une déficience auditive" project, aimed at creating workshops that use an expert system to assist in the improvement of the quality of written language.

: http://www.unites.uqam.ca/langues

UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

Department of Educational Psychology
6-102 Education North
Edmonton, Alberta
T6G 2G5
Tel.: (780) 492-5245
Fax: (780) 492-1318
TTY:
Toll Free:
E-mail:
URL:
Contact: Prof. Mary Ann Bibby

Organizational Notes:

Focus is specifically on hearing impairment. Research priorities are mental health, demography, language and cognition. The three main objectives for the centre were to establish an endowed chair of Deafness Studies; to develop and test models for postsecondary programs for the hearing impaired; and to establish a consortium of postsecondary agencies providing deaf and hard of hearing students with improved opportunities to participate in postsecondary education. The networking and advocacy aspects are, perhaps, unique. They represent a formal and cooperative venture between consumer group organizations and the University. Mental health and deafness has been identified as a research priority at the University of Alberta for the next decade. Language, communication and interpreter research is multifaced and wide ranging. Research into educational practice is a key part of the research program, and many of the MEd and PhD theses focus on such topics. An adjunct professor is using computer-based technology to teach lip reading skills to both students and adults.

: http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/edpsychology

UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

Developmental Disabilities Centre
6-123 Education North
Edmonton, Alberta
T6G 2G5
Tel.: (780) 492-4505
Fax: (780) 492-1318
TTY:
Toll Free:
E-mail:
Contacts: Dr. Dick. Sobsey; Director

Organizational Notes:

Its current activities are: research, student training, publications, and limited clinical services related to learning disabilities, mild and severe mental retardation. Its recent research topics have included:

1. The nature of cognitive processes
2. Assessment of cognitive abilities as an alternative to intelligence assessment
3. The nature and measurement of reading and writing disabilities
4. Decline in intellectual functions of individuals with Down's Syndrome due to aging
5. Attention and attention deficit
6. Cognitive assessment of blind persons
7. Sexual abuse of persons with mental handicap
8. Cross-cultural research especially on planning and decision making
9. Remediation and cognitive re-education of reading-disabled children.

: http://www.ualberta.ca/~jpdasddc/index.html

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

School of Rehabilitation Sciences
T-325 Third Floor Koemer Pavilion
2211 Wesbrook Mall
Vancouver, British Columbia
V6T 2B5
Tel.: (604) 822-7392
Fax: (604) 822-7624
TTY:
Toll Free:
E-mail:
Contact:

Organizational Notes:

University offers bachelor's programs in occupational therapy and physical therapy and a masters program in rehabilitation sciences.

Basic and applied research related to:

1. Disability, Rehabilitation, and Society
2. Exercise Science and Rehabilitation; and
3. Neurorehabilitation and Motor Control. Sample projects include work tolerance and functional capacity of people with chronic lung disease. Experiences of immigrant women with accessing health services; screening test for infants in fetal alcohol syndrome clinic; long term follow-up of rehab experience with people who have had a stroke; efficacy of devices to prevent decubiti; community living experiences of people with spinal cord injuries; etc.

: http://www.rehab.ubc.ca

UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK

Institute of Biomedical Engineering
P.O. Box 4400
Fredericton, New Brunswick
E3B 5A3
Tel.: (506) 453-4966
Fax: (506) 453-4827
TTY:
Toll Free:
E-mail: hudgins@unb.ca
Contact: Bernard Hudgins, Director

Organizational Notes:

The Institute of Biomedical Engineering is involved in a broad range of research activities related to biomedical engineering. These activities range from basic research in biomedical engineering to the design and development of myoelectric control systems for artificial arms. The Institute operates a clinical facility which fits amputees with myoelectric arms. Other research at the Institute includes the following: gait analysis, biomedical instrumentation, signal processing, spinal cord monitoring, ergonomics, psychological development in limb deficient children, voice recognition and communication, exercise physiology, and mobility.

: http://www.unbf.ca/eng/ME

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

The McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology
39A Queen's Park Crescent East
Toronto, Ontario
M5S 2C3
Tel.: (416) 978-7026
Fax: (416) 978-5324
TTY:
Toll Free:
E-mail: mcluhan.program@utoronto.ca

Contact: Derrick de Kerckhove

Organizational Notes:

The McLuhan Program's mandate is to encourage understanding of the effects of technology on culture and society from theoretical and practical perspectives, and thus to continue the ground-breaking work initiated by Marshall McLuhan. To this end, the Program offers courses, conducts and supports research, and draws together members of the University community whose interests lie in the inter- and trans-disciplinary studies of communications, culture and technology. Through its research, course offerings, publications, speaking engagements, and experimentation in new and old media, the Program serves as an enabling connective force among the University of Toronto, other academic institutions throughout the world, governments, industry, artists of all types and the general public.

: http://www.mcluhan.utoronto.ca

UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO

Department of Computer Science
Middlesex College
London, Ontario
N6A 5B7
Tel.: (519) 661-3560
Fax: (519) 661-3515
TTY:
Toll Free:
E-mail:
Contact: Dr. Helmut Jurgensen, Professor

Organizational Notes:

The main theme is computer-facilitated information access for the blind or visually impaired individuals. Special emphasis is placed on access to scientific and engineering documents involving complicated notations and graphics. Group experiments with combinations of various interactive media including tactile graphics, voice input and output, and gesture input. Group also focuses on developing a teaching environment for blind students of computer science

: http://www.csd.uwo.ca