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In 2015, Humanity & Inclusion HI began the project: “Empowering persons with disabilities to contribute to equal access to basic social services and local policymaking processes in under-resourced areas of Ayeyarwady and Mandalay”. The project supported Disabled Peoples Organizations and other civil society groups to participate in the development of inclusive regional policies and programmes, and to promote good practices contributing to greater access to services for persons with disabilities. An aim was also to document, publish and disseminate these good practices throughout Myanmar, increasing awareness and understanding in order to sensitise people to disability inclusion and influence policy change. Rather than focusing on what is not working, this report seeks to shift attention to what has worked locally and how it could be replicated in other parts of the country, providing constructive, practical recommendations to decision-makers, service providers and other community groups in Myanmar. The report is related to two projects. The second is “Advocacy for Change: Fostering protection and rights of men and women with disabilities in Myanmar”. 

There are global recommendations. There are seven good practices:

• Related to education:  Case Study I: Promoting Inclusion of children with disabilities in Middle Schools of Ayartaw. Case Study II: How the development of the teacher training promotes inclusion of all children in education
• Related to economic life: Case Study III: How partnerships between private companies and organizations of people with disabilities can improve access to employment and vocational training
• Related to social/community life: Case Study IV: Giving the Myanmar Deaf Community access to information.  Case Study V: How parental advocacy can make a difference
• Related to political life: Case Study VI: Community advocacy in obtaining the National Registration Card. Case Study VII: Supporting people with disabilities to participate in Myanmar elections

Purpose: To study the knowledge and beliefs about ear and hearing healthcare among mothers from a rural community.

Method: In 1 week, 6 focus group discussions were conducted across 6 villages of a district in Tamil Nadu in southern India. The participants were 60 mothers who had children below 5 years of age.

Results: Mothers in this rural community had information about some aspects of ear and hearing healthcare. They were aware that use of hairpins and safety- pins to clean ears was harmful; they were knowledgeable about ways to identify hearing ability (child responds to name call, verbal instructions, and startles at loud sounds); and, conditions like consanguinity and malnutrition of expectant mothers were recognised as risk factors for hearing loss. However, misconceptions also existed. The practice of pouring herbal juices to remove insects in the ear continued; there was the perception that all children with a hearing problem were “deaf”, and a lack of awareness about the possibility of partial/unilateral hearing loss. Regarding the age of identification, mothers believed that a child’s ability to speak and the ability to hear was pertinent to assess hearing. None of the mothers related normal speech development to normal hearing.

Conclusion: For the success of a community-based hearing screening programme, it is important to utilise the existing knowledge of the mothers, and simultaneously attempt to fill in gaps in knowledge and clarify misconceptions. These measures will facilitate greater compliance from the community in achieving the goals of early identification and early intervention for problems of hearing loss.

Purpose: By exploring the level of knowledge about HIV/AIDS and attitudes towards persons with HIV/AIDS among deaf people in Ghana, this article aims to identify and correct possible gaps in awareness.

Method: A participatory sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs assessment was conducted, targetting deaf people who were fluent in the Ghanaian Sign Language (GSL). The study design was a two-phase, sequential, mixed methods approach. Three focus groups assisted in the development of a survey, which was then implemented for needs assessment data collection. The 179 study participants consisted of 26 focus group participants, 152 survey respondents and 1 key informant. Of the focus group participants, 7 were executives of Ghana National Association of the Deaf (GNAD), 10 were adult males, and nine were adult females. Apart from the key informant, all the participants were deaf persons.

Results: The study indicated that many respondents still had misconceptions about HIV/AIDS and had difficulty identifying preventive methods, but their attitudes towards persons with HIV/AIDS was generally positive.

Conclusion: More attention needs to be paid to the requirements of the deaf community and to designing HIV/AIDS programmes and services that are deaf-friendly and accessible.