Highest Rated Papers

This study aims to analyze the academic literature on reading skills of visually impaired individuals using bibliometric methods. A total of 419 academic publications from 1981 to 2025, sourced from the Web of Science database, were examined using the bibliometrix package in R Studio. The analysis evaluated annual publication trends, influential authors, institutions, keywords, and thematic clusters. Findings highlight the prominence of technological approaches and interdisciplinary collaboration in the field. Notably, studies focusing on artificial intelligence and assistive technologies aim to enhance the accessibility of reading processes. Additionally, research emphasizing the impact of educational interventions for children underscores the importance of early support for visually impaired individuals. The integration of AI-supported tools with Braille, audiobooks, and tactile technologies has improved accessibility. Geographic analysis reveals that publications are predominantly concentrated in developed countries (e.g., USA, UK, China), indicating a need to enhance research capacity in developing nations. Thematic analysis identifies accessibility, education, and technological adaptations as key focus areas. The study seeks to contribute to the development of more inclusive reading strategies for the visually impaired. Future research should prioritize applied studies on integrating AI-driven technologies with pedagogical approaches and encourage multilingual data analyses.

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Dignity and the Importance of Acknowledgement of Personhood for People With Disability

Kelsey Chapman, Angel Dixon, Carolyn Ehrlich, Elizabeth Kendall

Qualitative Health Research·2023·12 citations

Exploring the intricate relationship between individual and collective experiences, this study explores dignity from the perspectives of people with disability. Using an extreme citizen science approach, we engaged people with disability as active partners in gathering data through qualitative surveys and focus groups. Framework Analysis was employed to ensure the validity of findings while privileging the voices of people with lived experience of disability. Dignity was contingent on the acknowledgement of personhood and the delivery of human rights. Our research identified five key aspects to maintain and protect dignity: (1) acknowledging personhood; (2) recognising people with disability as decision-makers of their lives; (3) realising the right to access information; (4) maintaining the right to privacy; and (5) eliminating or minimising barriers to accessibility and inclusion. Undignified experiences that resulted from a lack of acknowledgement negatively affected participants’ wellbeing, and healthcare settings were identified as particularly challenging environments for dignity. These findings have significant implications for healthcare systems and services within an international and interdisciplinary context. They emphasise the need for adaptable, flexible services, co-designed with people with lived experience of disability. Addressing organisational constraints, resource limitations, and expectations is paramount to ensuring dignity is maintained through the acknowledgement of personhood and safeguarding of human rights.

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CONDIE%2C%20Graham%20Alastair M.Res. 2016

Unknown Author

No abstract available

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Global trends in Braille literacy and assistive technologies: A bibliometric analysis (1985–2024)

Azizah Awang, Intan Farahana Abdul Rani, Kway Eng Hock

British Journal of Visual Impairment·2025

This study investigates global research trends in Braille literacy and assistive technologies from 1985 to 2024, highlighting persistent challenges such as limited access to cost-effective solutions, disparities in research participation, and inadequate teaching resources for visually impaired learners. Despite advancements in technology, barriers including high costs and lack of infrastructure hinder equitable implementation, particularly in low-resource settings. Using bibliometric analysis of 225 publications from Scopus, this research identifies trends, geographic contributions, and thematic advancements. This study is a scientific paper that presents an analysis of research on strategies for improving reading and writing among the blind, and results show that research in this area is increasing, with the highest contribution coming from the United States, Canada and Malaysia. Emerging trends such as “e-learning” and “3D printing” indicate that technology is playing a significant role in providing alternative strategies for teaching Braille reading and writing, thus, this study has the potential to bring about a paradigm shift in teaching and learning among the blind. This study is significant as it not only identifies key research findings but also recommends the use of low-cost materials to develop motor skills and tactile sensitivity, and this can ensure a wider access to individuals from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Furthermore, it also recommends the development of pedagogical books to facilitate initial reading and writing of Braille, because this study is based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4, which advocates for ensuring that all individuals have equal access to quality education. The study recommends collaboration and ideas which can be scaled up; therefore, this is necessary to ensure the effective learning and reading of the blind, so it is essential to implement these recommendations to achieve the desired outcomes.

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On the Impossible: Disability Studies, Queer Theory, and the Surviving Crip

Courtney W. Bailey

Disability Studies Quarterly·2019·12 citations

Drawing on my personal experiences with chronic pain, depression, and abuse, this essay critiques both the anti-cure strand in disability studies and the anti-relational strand in queer theory. I argue that anti-cure politics evokes a fantasy of the naturally impaired body-mind, a kind of disabled normate, which ultimately abjects those who cannot transcend their disabilities. Queer theory's willingness to embrace negativity provides a useful counter-point to this impluse, yet its turn to negativity produces its own problems, most clearly articulated in its anti-relational strand. This strand relies on psychoanalysis as a closed symbol system divorced from history, politics, and materiality and touts the self-annihilating queer as the site of revolution. Both the disabled normate and self-annihilating queer risk replicating the mind/body dualism that undergirds Western culture's View from Nowhere and liberal humanism's sovereign subjectivity. Inspired by concepts like the queer art of failure, dignity in shame, the feminist killjoy, and cruising utopia, I ultimately suggest the figure of the "surviving crip" as a generative alternative to dominant culture's super-crip, anti-cure's disabled normate, and the anti-relational, self-annihilating queer. Far from a perfect solution, the figure of the surviving crip is a starting place, a heuristic for critical-political ethics, and an invitation to other reworkings and other reckonings.

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