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Produced by the Disability Inclusion Helpdesk. A summary of the latest evidence on disability inclusion in international development from programmes and researchers around the world are highlighted:

·         Access to health: the missing billion

·         Sexuality and disability for children and youth in China

·         Analysing INGO practice 

·         Disability and technology

·         Disability and inequality in Liberia 

·         Pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood in Nepal 

·         Violence against women and girls with disability in Nepal

Brief overviews are provided of policy and news from the UK, various UN organisations, Asia Pacific Social Protection Week and South Africa.

Brief updates of DFID's (UK Departments for International Development) funded programmes are given including: Disability Inclusive Development (DID) Programme; Inclusion Works; The Disability Catalyst Programme; Programme for Evidence to Inform Disability Action (PENDA), Innovating Pathways for Employment Inclusion (IPEI)

This study explored how participation constitutes and is constituted by practices of power in group homes for people with intellectual disability. The study used disciplinary power as theoretical perspective and was based on 50 h of observation in two group homes with a total of 15 residents. The analysis identifies practices of power and their relationship to individual agency and participation. The results show that institutional structures construct practices of power that define codes of conduct for the group home residents and their possibility for participation. This study offers implications for the daily lives of residents in group homes for people with intellectual disability.

Purpose: To analyse physical activity of patients during their hospital stay and to explore the relationship between physical activity and barriers to physical activity.

Methods: This was a secondary analysis of physical activity data for patients admitted to the internal medicine and surgical wards. Physical activity data, collected with a wireless patch sensor, was operationalized as time spent lying, sitting/standing, and walking. Barriers to physical activity included patients’ pain levels, the use of urinary catheters, intravenous tubing, oxygen lines, drains, and level of dependence. Regression analysis explored the relationship between physical activity and barriers to physical activity.

Results: Physical activity data were collected in 39 patients (aged 27–88, mean 54 years) during hospital stay. Patients were admitted for a median of 10 d (interquartile range [IQR]: 7–15 d). These patients were lying for a median of 12.1 h (7.6–17.7), sitting/standing 11.8 h (6.3–15.7), and walking 0.1 h (0–0.3) per day. Time lying during the day related to pain levels (β = 0.4 h per unit increase in pain, p < 0.01) and drain use (β = 3.1 h, p < 0.01).

Conclusions: Patients spent the most time during the hospital stay lying in bed. Improved pain management and decreased drain use may be worth exploring to increase inpatient physical activity.

Background: 

Assistive technology has been used to mitigate reading disabilities for almost three decades, and tablets with text-to-speech and speech-to-text apps have been introduced in recent years to scaffold reading and writing. Few scientifically rigorous studies, however, have investigated the benefits of this technology.

Purpose: 

The aim was to explore the effects of assistive technology for students with severe reading disabilities.

Method: 

This study included 149 participants. The intervention group received 24 sessions of assistive technology training, and the control group received treatment as usual.

Results: 

Both the intervention and control groups improved as much in 1 year as the normed population did. However, gains did not differ between the groups directly after the intervention or at 1 year of follow-up.

Conclusions: 

The use of assistive technology seems to have transfer effects on reading ability and to be supportive, especially for students with the most severe difficulties. In addition, it increases motivation for overall schoolwork. Our experience also highlights the obstacles involved in measuring the ability to assimilate and communicate text.

With the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in 2006, disability as an issue of human rights and international law can no longer be ignored. The history of this convention can be traced back to the 1970s, when disability was framed in United Nations (UN) declarations as a human-rights issue at the global level. One of the recurrent topics of debate during this trajectory was the right of people with dis- abilities to found a family. This right was far from self-evident and was evaluated very differently by various stakeholders.

This study follows the right to have a family in UN disability policy since the 1970s. The history of the family in relation to disability at the global level has been a neglected field of enquiry compared to other concepts such as gender and race. This study investigates how and why the right to found a family was framed in the Declarations on the Rights of Mentally Disabled Persons (1971) and Disabled Persons (1975), the International Year of Disabled Persons (1981), the International Decade of Disabled Persons (1983 − 1992), the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (1993) and the UNCRPD in 2006.

The trajectory of the right of people with disabilities to found a family that emerges from these cases shows a change in the 1990s from a social-policy to a human-rights approach towards disability – which reflects a broader trend in global and local histories of human rights. In the case of reproductive rights of people with disabilities this change meant that the emphasis was laid more on providing a legal protection for the individual against the interference of others (so-called negative freedom) than on enhancing the opportunities for disabled people to practice their (positive) freedom.

Introduction: 

Sensor-feedback systems can be used to support people after stroke during independent practice of gait. The main aim of the study was to describe the user-centred approach to (re)design the user interface of the sensor feedback system “Stappy” for people after stroke, and share the deliverables and key observations from this process.

Methods: 

The user-centred approach was structured around four phases (the discovery, definition, development and delivery phase) which were fundamental to the design process. Fifteen participants with cognitive and/or physical limitations participated (10 women, 2/3 older than 65). Prototypes were evaluated in multiple test rounds, consisting of 2–7 individual test sessions.

Results: 

Seven deliverables were created: a list of design requirements, a personae, a user flow, a low-, medium- and high-fidelity prototype and the character “Stappy”. The first six deliverables were necessary tools to design the user interface, whereas the character was a solution resulting from this design process. Key observations related to “readability and contrast of visual information”, “understanding and remembering information”, “physical limitations” were confirmed by and “empathy” was additionally derived from the design process.

Conclusions: 

The study offers a structured methodology resulting in deliverables and key observations, which can be used to (re)design meaningful user interfaces for people after stroke. Additionally, the study provides a technique that may promote “empathy” through the creation of the character Stappy. The description may provide guidance for health care professionals, researchers or designers in future user interface design projects in which existing products are redesigned for people after stroke.

While inclusion has generally been accepted as orthodoxy, a knowledge – practice gap remains which indicates a need to focus on inclusive pedagogy. This paper explores how teachers in the Republic of Ireland primary school were supported to develop inclusive pedagogy to meet the needs of learners with special educational needs (SEN). It is underpinned by a conceptual framework which combines an inclusive pedagogical approach and key principles of effective professional development (PD) arising from the literature, which informed the development of a professional learning community (PLC) for inclusive practice in a primary school. The impact of the PD on teachers’ professional practice was explored using an evidence-based evaluation framework. Analysis of interview and observation data evidenced that engagement with inclusive pedagogy in a PLC, underpinned by critical dialogue and public sharing of work, positively impacted teacher attitudes, beliefs, efficacy and inclusive practice. This research offers a model of support for enacting inclusive pedagogy.

Purpose: 

Access to an appropriate wheelchair is a human right. Only between 5–15% of people who need a wheelchair have access to one. One of the key barriers to access is the lack of appropriately trained rehabilitation professionals. The objective of this study was to evaluate basic manual wheelchair provision knowledge in final-year physiotherapy undergraduate students in two programs in Colombia.

Materials and methods: 

Students took the International Society of Wheelchair Professionals Wheelchair Service Provision – Basic Test which was administered online and in Spanish. The minimum score to pass the test is 70%; it assesses seven domains: Assessment; Prescription; Products; Fitting; User training; Follow-up, maintenance, and repairs; and Process.

Results and conclusions: 

One-hundred sixteen students took the test and no one passed the test. The highest median domain scores were in Assessment and Process while the lowest were in Fitting and Products. The limitations of this study include that this sample does not represent all physiotherapy programmes or students in Colombia, there may be potential errors in the Spanish translation of the outcome measure, and students encountered Internet connectivity issues during the test that may have impacted their scores. Immediate interventions are required to improve teaching and students’ learning outcomes related to basic manual wheelchair provision in these two programs. This study may serve as a foundation for future regional or national studies that assess the situation of wheelchair provision training in rehabilitation programs that will inform improvement actions. This manuscript is also available in Spanish as Supplemental Material.

Due to the increase of economic immigration over the last few decades, South Korea has rapidly become a multi-ethnic society. The number of students with a multicultural background (SMBs) has increased more than tenfold in the past ten years. Research has revealed that despite physical inclusion of SMBs in general classrooms, SMBs tend to struggle at school as a result of language difficulties, academic underachievement, and social isolation. Shedding light on the Salamanca thinking, this study aims to investigate how teachers’ experiences of SMBs vary according to school cultures. Thirteen teachers from three schools (with different school cultures) were invited to participate in qualitative semi-structured interviews. It was revealed that the teachers, who worked in the different school cultures, expressed differently with regard to (1) teachers’ reasoning about SMBs’ struggles, (2) teachers’ professional knowledge and strategic practices, (3) collaboration with a multicultural education supervising teacher (MEST), and (4) dependency upon external support. The school judged to be contributing to ‘true’ inclusion was characterised by ample support from a MEST and the creation of an inclusive learning environment for SMBs as a whole-school approach. What can further ‘true’ inclusion of SMBs in elementary schools and the implications thereof are discussed.