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Purpose: To explore whether the personal assistance (PA) activities provided by the Swedish Act concern- ing Support and Service for Persons with Certain Functional Impairment in 2010 and 2015 promote par- ticipation in society according to Article 19 of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

Methods: Register data and data from two questionnaires were used (N1⁄42565). Descriptive statistics and chi-square (McNemar’s test) were used to describe the basic features of the data. Mixed binominal logistic regression was used to examine correlation between gender and hours of PA between 2010 and 2015.

Results: Despite an increase in the number of PA hours, more care activities and a reduction of most PA activities representing an active life were found. The result was especially evident for women, older peo- ple, and for a particular person category.

Conclusions: The results offer evidence of a shift to a medical model and indicate a risk of social exclu- sion due to fewer activities representing an active life. An increase on average of 16h of PA over the period studied does not guarantee access to an active life and may indicate a marginal utility. The noted decline of PA for participation in society enhances the importance of monitoring content aspects to fulfil Article 19 of the UNCRPD.

This article examines the role of advocacy organizations and their use of social media within the field of disability in Sweden. How do the organizations negotiate digital media, and what are the (intentional or unintentional) consequences related to the use of social media? With focus on the representatives of advocacy organizations, we study how they reflect and act in order to balance various motives, and what challenges and ambiguities that arise. On one hand, there is a perceived need to be online and communicate with members and the surrounding society. On the other hand, digital communication induces a divide between those who have the resources to take part in such communication, and those who do not – in terms of digital competence, economy, age, cognitive abilities, technical equipment and digital connection. The heterogeneity of resources and target groups inevitably challenges both the ideals of inclusion and intentions of advocacy organizations.

Many pupils with disabilities receive schooling in segregated contexts, such as special classes or special schools. Furthermore, the percentage of pupils educated in segregated settings has increased in many European countries. Studies suggest that there is high commitment to the general ideology of inclusive education among teachers in ‘regular’ education in many countries. This survey study investigates the views of teachers in segregated types of school about education. A questionnaire was sent out, in 2016, to all Swedish teachers (N = 2871, response rate 57.7%) working full time in special classes for pupils with intellectual disability (ID). On a general level results show that there is a strong commitment to preserving a segregated school setting for pupils with ID, a limited desire to cooperate with colleagues from ‘regular schools’ and a view that schooling and teaching are not quite compatible with the idea of inclusive education. The results highlight the importance of investigating processes of resistance within segregated schools to the development of inclusive schools and education systems. We argue that, while research and debate about inclusive education are important, both are insufficient without analyses of existing types of segregated schooling.

Today’s society promises that people with disabilities can access anything, but in practice there are numerous obstacles, and the ways in which people deal with them can be easily missed or taken for granted by policy makers. This article draws on a project in which researchers ‘go along’ people with disabilities in Sweden who demonstrate and recount accessibility troubles in urban and digital settings. They display a set of mundane methods for managing inaccessibility: (a) using others, (b) making deals and establishing routines, (c) mimicking or piggybacking conventions, (d) debunking others’ accounts and performing local politics. The employment of these shared but tailored methods shows the difficulties to be accepted that people with disabilities still face, as well as the wide-ranging tension that exists between the grand rhetoric of inclusion and modest results. The tension implies that people with disabilities are required to be creative.

• Declarations and policies often say that people with disabilities should have access to anything, but in practice this is not the case.
• This study investigates what people with disabilities actually do when they have trouble accessing various places or resources. The results show their common and practical ways, and these ways are often taken for granted, overlapping, and combined.
• People with disabilities ask others to support them when they face troubles to access places or resources, they make deals with important actors and they develop routines. They also observe, imitate and follow others’ actions, to pick out precisely those ways that suit their needs.
• When people with disabilities find their ways in today’s society they also act with words. They argue against other people’s excuses or justifications for not providing access.
• The study has found a lot of frustration among people with disabilities who get blocked, excluded or delayed. This gives them motives to engage in politics.

Purpose: This study’s purpose was to explore how people on sick leave manage societal norms and values related to work, and how these influence their perspectives of themselves throughout the rehabilitation process.

Materials and methods: This was a longitudinal interview study with a narrative approach, comprising 38 interviews with 11 individuals on long-term sick leave. Data collection was conducted in two phases and analysed iteratively through content analysis.

Results: The results suggest that work ethics and societal norms influence individuals’ views of themselves and the sick leave and rehabilitation process. Conforming one’s personal values to the work norm can create internal conflicts and cause feelings of shame for not being able to live up to the established norm. The strong work norm may create unrealistic expectations, which in some cases may result in constraining the return to work process.

Conclusion: To transform a sick leave narrative into a positive one, societal norms and their influence on identity needs to be recognised. Stakeholders involved in the process can contribute to a positive transformation by not only supporting return to work, but also to acknowledge and help people manage their self-image as having a disability that limits their ability to work.

Studies worldwide indicate that sexual minority students often face different forms of bullying in everyday life at school, and young people growing up in communities with conservative values, such as in rural areas, are often in a particularly vulnerable position. Nonetheless, there is an absence of studies addressing the everyday lives of sexual minority students in rural schools. Drawing on interviews with students in the ninth grade of a rural lower secondary school in Sweden, the current study has investigated experiences of violence and harassment routinely directed at sexual minority students at school. The results indicate that the local gender regime is strongly framed by heteronormative values that position non-heterosexual students as the Other. Sexual minority students are exposed to homophobic name-calling on a daily basis, and threats and physical violence are also common. To fit in and to ‘survive’ in school, sexual minority students are forced to accept the homophobic name-calling and are sometimes also forced to physically fight back. This study concludes that it is important that schools address issues around violence directed towards non- heterosexual students, and that ways to create a more inclusive and safe school environment be identified.

Objective: To explore the presence of pain, how pain was addressed by physicians and parents, and how pain affected everyday life in young children with cerebral palsy (CP).

Methods: Children with CP, aged 5–10 years, participated in this cross-sectional study. Data were collected from medical records spanning a period of two years and by a standardized parental interview that included six structured questions and the Pain Interference Index.

Results: A total of 118 children, with a mean age of 7.4 years (SD 1.5), participated in the study. The parents of 81% of these children were interviewed. Pain was reported in 52% of the children, and pain was present at all severity levels. The prescription of analgesics was documented in 25% of these children’s medical records. Fifty-nine percent of the children with pain received analgesics from their parents. Pain restricted the children’s everyday lives particularly concerning sleep, school work and being with friends.

Conclusions: Half of this group of young children with CP were reported to have pain. Pain restricted the children's everyday lives and seemed to be under-treated. If pain can be addressed early, the children's everyday lives are likely to be improved.

Research indicates that occupation is important for well-being in people with mental illness, but this has not been extensively studied among those with severe psychiatric disabilities. Social contacts may possibly play a more vital role for them. This study aimed to explore how aspects of occupation and social interaction were related with well-being factors in that group, while controlling for the influence of clinical factors. People with psychiatric disabilities living in congregate supported housing (CSH; N = 155) responded to questionnaires addressing occupation, social contacts and well-being aspects, such as subjective health, quality of life, self-mastery, and personal recovery. A comparison group with psychiatric disabilities who lived in an ordinary flat or house and received outreach housing support (N=111) completed the same instruments. The two groups were compared regarding their pattern of associations between occupation, social contacts, and well-being. Associations between occupation and well-being in the CSH group showed that general satisfaction with everyday occupations in particular was related to all aspects of well-being, whereas activity level and occupational balance were not related to well-being. The relationships were fewer and weaker, in comparison to the group in ordinary housing with outreach support. Indicators of social contacts were basically unrelated to well-being. The study contributes to occupational science by showing that the role of a high activity level for well-being, although important, should not be overemphasized. Future research should focus on narratives to get the voices of people residing in CSH and on exploration of how individually/socially performed occupations are associated with well-being.

n the 1970s, grassroots disability movements in many countries changed the thinking around disability and disability politics. Nonetheless, they were also part of larger political upheavals in the western world. How were they inspired by the socialist, feminist, and gay and lesbian movements? In addition, how did they relate to non-disabled allies? Organisations in Denmark and Sweden are investigated and compared to early disability-rights movements in the United Kingdom. Independently of each other, all groups developed materialist models, although only in Sweden and the United Kingdom did this lead to a linguistic distinction between ‘impairment’ and ‘disability’. Danish activists would rather use provocative language, while developing a social understanding of disability. They were also the only ones to discuss gender and sexuality. There are more similarities than differences between the movements, although the Danish specificities contributed to improvements in how Danes with disabilities can develop a positive sex life.

• In the 1970s, new political ideas grew about ways of living, equality between the sexes, gay and lesbian rights, and sexual freedom. New groups started to talk about how to understand disability.
• This article investigates whether the new disability groups in Denmark and Sweden talked about these ideas and whether they involved non-disabled people.
• Danish and Swedish disability groups are compared to early disability rights organisations in the United Kingdom. The Danish and Swedish disability groups were more open to non-disabled members than groups in the United Kingdom.
• The article also found that the Danish group discussed sexuality a lot. In Sweden and the United Kingdom, the disability groups did not talk about sex at all.