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Purpose: (1) to analyze training characteristics of recreationally active wheelchair users during handcycle training, and (2) to examine the associations between training load and change in physical capacity.

Methods: Former rehabilitation patients (N = 60) with health conditions such as spinal cord injury or amputation were included. Participants trained for five months. A handcycling/arm crank graded exercise test was performed before and after the training period. Outcomes: peak power output per kg (POpeak/kg) and peak oxygen uptake per kg (VO2peak/kg). Training load was defined as Training Impulse (TRIMP), which is rating of perceived exertion (sRPE) multiplied by duration of the session, in arbitrary units (AU). Training intensity distribution (TID) was also determined (time in zone 1, RPE ≤4; zone 2, RPE 5–6; zone 3, RPE ≥7).

Results: Multilevel regression analyses showed that TRIMPsRPE was not significantly associated with change in physical capacity. Time in zone 2 (RPE 5–6) was significantly associated with ΔVO2peak, %ΔVO2peak, ΔVO2peak/kg and %ΔVO2peak/kg.

Conclusion: Training at RPE 5–6 was the only determinant that was significantly associated with improvement in physical capacity. Additional controlled studies are necessary to demonstrate causality and gather more information about its usefulness, and optimal handcycle training regimes for recreationally active wheelchair users.

This two-page summary resource compiles key data on the CRPD-compliance of Official Development Assistance (ODA)-funded programmes. This analysis was originally published in Inclusion International's 2020 report, Excluded from the Excluded, which revealed that 36% of projects that included people with intellectual disabilities in 2018 used methodologies that promoted segregation.

This summary resource profiles key data on the CRPD compliance of ODA-funded programme methodologies by thematic area - including livelihoods, education, emergency response, and service provision programmes. The summary resource also shares key recommendations for organizations implementing programmes to ensure CRPD-compliance.

Background: The identification and treatment of psychiatric disorders in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and ID presents many challenges. We describe the development of a professional network, together with a standardized protocol for clinical assessment, designed to promote clinical competence and professional development in eight clinical centers responsible for providing mental health services to autistic individuals with ID across all four health regions of Norway. Specic aims to describe: (1) patterns of psychiatric and behavior problems in patients treated by the network, (2) patterns of change over time, and (3) the relationship between psychiatric disorders and behavior problems.

Method: A standardized protocol was used to assess individual progress in 132 patients (inpatients and outpatients) with autism and ID over 2 years (at referral (T1), after 1 year (T2), and after 2 years (T3)). Changes in psychiatric symptoms and behavior problems were assessed with the Psychopathology in Autism Checklist (PAC) and Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC).

Results: Patients showed signicant (p < .001) improvements from T1 to T2 on the psychosis, depression and anxiety subscales of the PAC, but no signicant improvement on the obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) subscale. Improvements were maintained from T2 to T3. Patients showed signicant (p < .01) improvements on the ABC total score and on all ABC subscales except inappropriate speech from T1 to T2; these improvements were maintained from T2 to T3.

Discussion: The combination of a professional network and a standardized protocol for clinical assessment has promise as a strategy for improving professional competence and facilitating specialized mental health services for autistic individuals with ID and psychiatric disorders across an extensive geographical area.

Purpose: The study aimed to compare the effects of balance training on balance confidence and its relationship with social participation among clients with stroke.

Method: A pre- and post- experimental group design was used. Stroke survivors who met the inclusion criteria were consecutively assigned to two groups (task- oriented and biofeedback). Participants in the task-oriented group received task- oriented activities for 20 minutes and the biofeedback group received intervention in correckta (equipment used for balance training) for 20 minutes, along with conventional occupational therapy - 5 sessions per week, for 12 weeks. Balance Confidence Scale was used for measuring balance confidence, and Frenchay Activities Index (FAI) was used to measure social participation. Statistical calculations were performed with SPSS version 16.0 package. Statistical tests were carried out with the level of significance set at p≤ 0.05.

Results: The findings suggest that both the biofeedback and task-oriented groups showed significant improvement in balance confidence and there was no statistically significant difference between the groups. There was a moderate to good relationship between balance confidence and social participation.

Conclusions and Implications: There is evidence that many stroke survivors have low balance confidence. Therapists should assess the balance confidence of their clients and encourage them to participate in these beneficial interventions.

Questions de recherche

1 / Dans quelle mesure le handicap — en interrelation avec le genre — influence-t-il les parcours de scolarisation des filles handicapées?

2 / Quelles spécificités liées aux types et au degré de handicap (physique, visuel, auditif, intellectuel) peuvent être observées?

3 / Quelles sont les spécificités liées à l’âge des filles handicapées?

4 / A quels enjeux, notamment en matière de protection de l’enfance, les jeunes filles handicapées sont-elle exposées ?

5 / Quelles spécificités contextuelles émergent dans les trois pays, objet de l’étude et dans les différents terrains d’étude?

6 / Quel rôle joue la religion et les croyances populaires dans l’accentuation des discriminations à l’égard des filles handicapées?

7 / Quels éléments facilitateurs (familiaux/communautaires/institutionnels/politiques/etc.) pour l’éducation des filles handicapées pourraient être identifiés dans les différentes zones d’étude?

Questions de recherche

1 / Dans quelle mesure le handicap — en interrelation avec le genre — influence-t-il les parcours de scolarisation des filles handicapées?

2 / Quelles spécificités liées aux types et au degré de handicap (physique, visuel, auditif, intellectuel) peuvent être observées?

3 / Quelles sont les spécificités liées à l’âge des filles handicapées?

4 / A quels enjeux, notamment en matière de protection de l’enfance, les jeunes filles handicapées sont-elle exposées ?

5 / Quelles spécificités contextuelles émergent dans les trois pays, objet de l’étude et dans les différents terrains d’étude?

6 / Quel rôle joue la religion et les croyances populaires dans l’accentuation des discriminations à l’égard des filles handicapées?

7 / Quels éléments facilitateurs (familiaux/communautaires/institutionnels/politiques/etc.) pour l’éducation des filles handicapées pourraient être identifiés dans les différentes zones d’étude?

This report presents findings from telephone interviews with 87 members from Disabled People’s Organisation (DPO) partners and 10 DPO/Self-Help Group (SHG) leaders from organisations with 1,998 members in 10 districts across 7 provinces of Cambodia, to ask about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on persons with disabilities.

Three patterns emerge from these interviews: there is a pattern of compounding vulnerability to violence; a pattern of significant livelihood loss that is felt differently by disability type and gender; and a link between livelihood loss and pronounced increase in economic and psychological violence against women and girls with disabilities.

Evidence from these interviews suggests that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, some women with disabilities are at increased risk of violence and suffering a dramatic loss in household earnings. Reported violence risk increase is mostly psychological and economic, higher among older respondents and most pronounced among those who already experienced medium to high risk of violence before COVID-19.

This report presents the findings from a rapid global survey of persons with disabilities and other stakeholders which took place between April and August 2020. The organisations behind the study seek to “catalyse urgent action in the weeks and months to come,” as transmission rates of COVID-19 continue to rise in many countries and persons with disabilities are again subjected to restrictions which have already had severe consequences.

The report analyses over 2,100 responses to the survey from 134 countries around the world. The vast majority of responses were from individuals with disabilities and their family members. Within the questionnaire responses respondents provided more than 3,000 written testimonies documenting the experiences of persons with disabilities and their family members during the pandemic. The qualitative and quantitative data provide in-depth, comprehensive insights into the experiences of persons with disabilities and the consequences of government actions or inactions on the rights of persons with disabilities.

The report is organised around four themes which emerged during the process of analysing responses received to the survey. These themes are:

1. Inadequate measures to protect persons with disabilities in institutions

2. Significant and fatal breakdown of community supports

3. Disproportionate impact on underrepresented groups of persons with disabilities

4. Denial of access to healthcare

A webinar was held to mark the launch of the report

There are many different perspectives for understanding autism. These perspectives may each convey different levels of stigma for autistic individuals. This qualitative study aimed to understand how autistic individuals make sense of their own autism and experience the stigma attached to autism. The study used critical grounded theory tools. Participants (N1⁄420) discussed autism as central to their identity, and integral to who they are. While participants thought of autism as value neutral, they expressed how society confers negative meanings onto autism, and thus, them. The findings also indicate that different understand- ings of autism confer different levels of stigma. Participants expressed constant exposure to stigma and managed this stigma in different ways. Such methods included reframing to more positive understandings of autism, the reclamation of language, and using concealment and disclosure stra- tegically. The implications of these findings are discussed further in the article.