Access to Information and persons with special needs

Albert K. Boekhorst

Content

Access to information Information Literacy Being disabled in the knowledge society

To survive, relax, develop etc.

People, organisations and nations need knowledge on:

Themselves Their physical environment Their social environment

Information Space

Observation: objects & processes Conversation: persons Consultation: stored, recorded information

‘memory institutions’

Both real and virtual

Personal information space

Information Needs

Environment

Social role

Personal

characteristics

Personal Information

needs

Barriers

Economic Political Affective Cognitive Personal characteristics

‘Survival of the Fittest’

Those who are better than others capable to satisfy their information needs in an effective and efficient way, are more capable to survive and develop themselves than … those with less advantageous traits ...

After Charles Darwin

"...it is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change...“

Therefore a need to be ‘Information Literate’

Informatisation process

Ongoing control over natural forces ‘technization Ongoing differentiation: social and technical ‘differentiation’ Expanding of interdependency networks ‘globalisation’

©akb Reinwardt 2006 9

Effects for people

Exponential growth of information, information media, information channels and information services

Growth of technology, tools and applications to retrieve, process and disseminate information

Changes in communication patterns and behaviour

‘Connected’ 24/7

21st century

Working ‘In the Cloud’

In how many clouds?

Working ‘In the Cloud’

Information literacy Increasing complexity of environment

leads to need for more skills to select, retrieve and process information

External factors create backlog

American Library Association (1989) Information literacy is a set of abilities

requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information

Further

2003 Prague Declaration "Towards an Information Literate Society" and

Information Society 2005 Alexandria Declaration

Beacons of the Information Society 2012 UNESCO / IFLA Recommendation

Aspects

1. Recognition information need

2. Translation information need into query

3. Identification suitable information source

4. Application knowledge of relevant ICT

5. Selection, integration, dissemination of found information.

6. Continuous evaluation

recognize information need

formulate information query

knowledge information sources

knowledge of ICT appliations

selection intergration dissemination

K K’

E1 E2 E3 E4

E5

1 2 3 4 5

1 E1 = evaluation moment= knowledge product

SCONUL 7 pillars of information literacy

Recognise information need

Distinguish ways of addressing gap

Construct strategies for locating

Synthesise and create

Organise, apply and communicate

Compare and evaluate

Locate and access

Info

rma

tion

Litera

cy

Basic Library Skills

&

IT Skills

http://www.sconul.ac.uk/

Related terms

Information competencies

User training

Library orientation

Information skills

Information fluency

Bibliographic instruction

User education

Information literacy

Harris & Hodges (1995)

Adult literacy Advanced literacy Basic literacy Biliteracy Community literacy Computer literacy Critical literacy Cultural literacy Emergent literacy Family literacy

Functional literacy Informational literacy Marginal literacy Media literacy Minimal literacy Restricted literacy Survival literacy Visual literacy Workplace literacy

IL and Media Literacy

Expert meetings UNESCO Paris June 2008

Teacher Training Curricula for Media and information Literacy

Bangkok November 2010 Towards Media and Information Literacy Indicators

3 concepts

The ICT concept: Information literacy refers to the competence to use ICT to

retrieve and disseminate information. The information (re)sources concept:

Information literacy refers to the competence to find and use information independently or with the aid of intermediaries.

The information process concept: Information literacy refers to the process of recognizing

information need, the retrieving, evaluating, use and dissemination of information to acquire or extend knowledge.

Information inequality

Participating majority Information elite

Excluded

Information Rich - Poor

personrich

poor

enviro

nm

ent

richpoor

A = Information Rich person in Information Rich environment

A

C = Information Rich person in Information Poor environment

C

D = Information Poor person in Information Rich environment

D

B = Information Poor person in Information Poor environment

B

C’ A’

How: by learning

In the socialisation process: ‘By doing’ Formal education Informal education

Becoming information literate

Cannot be learned in a distinct subject Integrated in any subject Coordination between ‘teachers’ & ‘librarians’

So far ‘Information literacy’

Is a container concept It’s a dynamic concept Being ‘Information Literate’ is a competence:

a critical Attitude about: What am I doing? What for am I doing this? With what am I doing this?

Knowledge about: the organization and quality of information resources and -channels acquiring access to information

Skills: being able to use required skills and technology Part of Life Long Learning

Disabilities: Umbrella term

Impairments Activity limitations Participation restrictions

World report on disability

About 15% of the world's population lives with some form of disability, of whom 2-4% experience significant difficulties in functioning. The global disability prevalence is higher than previous WHO estimates, which date from the 1970s and suggested a figure of around 10%. This global estimate for disability is on the rise due to population ageing and the rapid spread of chronic diseases, as well as improvements in the methodologies used to measure disability.

http://www.who.int/disabilities/world_report/2011/en/index.html

Disability: Umbrella term

Physical Cognitive Mental Sensory Emotional Developmental or some combination of these.

Communication development

Oral Writing / Printing Telegraph / Telephone Digital

Revelant for IL

Seeing Hearing Movement

E-Accessibility

Refers to the ease of use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as the Internet, by people with disabilities. Web sites need to be developed so that disabled users can access the information. For example: for people who are blind, web sites need to be able to be interpreted by

programmes which read text aloud and describe any visual images; for people who have low vision, web pages need adjustable sized fonts

and sharply contrasting colours; and for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, audio content should be

accompanied by text versions of the dialogue. Sign language video can also help make audio content more accessible.

http://www.abilityhub.com/index.htm

Stephen William Hawking

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imowUYQnVSY&feature=youtu.be

U.S. President Barack Obama talks with Stephen Hawking in the Blue Room of the White House before a ceremony presenting him and fifteen others the Presidential Medal of Freedom on 12 August 2009. The Medal of Freedom is the nation's highest civilian honour.http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=imowUYQnVSY&feature=youtu.be

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