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Purpose

Telehealth provides psychotherapeutic interventions and psychoeducation for remote populations with limited access to in-person behavioural health and/or rehabilitation treatment. The United States Department of Défense and the Veterans Health Administration use telehealth to deliver primary care, medication management, and services including physical, occupational, and speech-language therapies for service members, veterans, and eligible dependents. While creative arts therapies are included in telehealth programming, the existing evidence base focuses on art therapy and dance/movement therapy, with a paucity of information on music therapy.

Methods

Discussion of didactic and applied music experiences, clinical, ethical, and technological considerations, and research pertaining to music therapy telehealth addresses this gap through presentation of three case examples. These programmes highlight music therapy telehealth with military-connected populations on a continuum of clinical and community engagement: 1) collaboration between Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA and the Acoke Rural Development Initiative in Lira, Uganda; 2) the Semper Sound Cyber Health programme in San Diego, CA; and 3) the integration of music therapy telehealth into Creative Forces®, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Results

These examples illustrate that participants were found to positively respond to music therapy and community music engagement through telehealth, and reported decrease in pain, anxiety, and depression; they endorsed that telehealth was not a deterrent to continued music engagement, requested continued music therapy telehealth sessions, and recommended it to their peers.

Conclusions

Knowledge gaps and evolving models of creative arts therapies telehealth for military-connected populations are elucidated, with emphasis on clinical and ethical considerations.

This document provides recommendations for rapid response solutions for federal and state governments to close the real and anticipated gaps in the COVID-19 outbreak and public health emergency-related continuity of operation for people with disabilities, older adults, and people with access and functional needs. Our recommendations include contingency plans for disability and aging services, supports, and programs funded directly with federal or state funds or through federal assistance to state, local, tribal and territorial governments and non-government providers.

A USA based blog providing a guide for entrepreneurs and business owners with disabilities. It includes information on business plans, marketing strategies, funding, training and networking. The US PASS (Plan to Achieve Self-Support) program and the requirements for it are outlined. There is a list of resources for people living with specific disabilities who are interested in self-employment including people with visual, hearing, developmental and mobility disabilities.

A table is provided of the top 15 US airports giving notes on restrooms, pet relief areas, parking for people with disabilities and wheelchair services. Advantages of the use of specific credits cards by disabled people when travelling by plane in the USA are highlighted.

This paper outlines the need for greater connectivity & accessibility in less developed countries. Following this, the authors present the benefits of various different ‘mHealth’ solutions, presented through case studies. The report concludes by outlining some of the constraints holding back greater ‘mHealth’ innovation, including financing and sustainability issues

This Study aimed to increase knowledge and data on evacuation characteristics of vulnerable people and with a special focus on blind and visually impaired people.

An experimental program designed to obtain data on walking speeds horizontally and descending stairs, interaction between participants and their interaction with the building environment. Experiments were conducted in different buildings including office buildings, an institutional building and a tunnel. In total 148 people have participated in the experiments. Parallel to the evacuation experiments participants were interviewed not only about their experience with the experiments but also their use of different building types and the difficulties they meet.

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has the potential both to enhance access for people with disabilities and to contribute to creating barriers. What we now call the digital divide actually began long before the introduction of computers — barriers have existed and still exist today with telephones, television, the Internet and other information technology. It is important to remember that people with disabilities have many different accessibility needs and that there are different ways to make technology accessible and that new accessibility needs emerge as technology changes. This paper looks at the state of accessibility policy in the U.S. in several technology infrastructures that may provide some lessons and directions for increasing inclusive information and communication technologies worldwide. For instance, if the many provisions involving technology in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities are to have real and substantive meaning, policy and implementation at the infrastructure level must occur.

Disability, as a product of person–environment interaction, is particularly sensitive to catastrophic events and disasters. Disasters are specific to a physical location, as are the resources needed to handle the aftermath of the event. Geographic information systems (GIS) technology provides the ability to spatially coordinate resources from separate systems, which is vital for emergency management. GIS provides the capacity to go beyond surveillance and identification of at-risk people with disabilities to actively address the spatial nature of the person–environment interaction. GIS may provide the basis for further investigation and development of the science of environmental factors in the person–environment interaction. Mapping resources, and not just people, in the environment can change the perception and portrayal of people with disabilities in disaster incidents from people with “special needs” to people and organizations that are community contributors. Disability policy advocates, working at the state level, need to get disability-relevant geospatial data into the critical infrastructure used for emergency planning and response. A map showing the proximity of available resources demonstrates the importance of GIS to people with disabilities by identifying available resources in disaster response and recovery.

Journal of Disability Policy Studies, Vol 17, No 4