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Purpose: The hospitality industry is labour intensive. Currently, in India, hotels have a high employee attrition rate. This study aimed to explore the attitudes of hotel managers towards recruiting persons with disabilities as employees, a move which could benefit all concerned.

Method: A structured survey instrument was sent to 31 employers in star category hotels.

Results: Employers’ attitudes have a significant influence on the recruitment of persons with disabilities. While the intention to hire persons with disabilities is positively associated with quality of work, loyalty, and dependability, it can also be negatively associated with lack of skill, work experience, poor time management and absenteeism.

Conclusion: It is concluded that employers hire person with disabilities to work in hotels as they are more reliable and loyal towards the organisation. This attitude from the side of employees with disabilities will also help to overcome the problem of high employee attrition that has a deleterious effect on profitability in the service industry.

Limitation: The data is collected from hotels in a single city, which may limit the generalisation of the findings.

Purpose: For a better understanding of the possible impact of impairments and disabilities on the life of individuals with lower limb amputation,it is important to explore the levels of Life Accomplishment (LA), Social Functioning and Participation (SFP) among them.The present study, set in South-Eastern Nigeria, aimed to study these levels and the influence of selected clinical and demographic variables on these constructs.

Method: This cross-sectional survey involved 60 individuals with lower limb amputation (46 unilateral, 14 bilateral) recruited from all the five South-Eastern Nigerian States. The Social Functioning Questionnaire (SFQ), Participation Scale and Life Habit Questionnaire were used for measuring levels of social functioning, social participation and life accomplishment, respectively. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics of frequency count, percentages, mean and standard deviation. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to test the hypotheses. Alpha level was set at 0.05.

Results: Most of the participants (51.7%-58.3%) had low levels of social functioning across SFQ domains. Most of them (61.7%) had severe participation restrictions, and they all had reduced life accomplishments. Participants with bilateral amputation had poorer levels of social functioning (P<0.0001), participation restriction (P<0.0001), and life habits accomplishment (P<0.0001) than their counterparts with unilateral amputation. Individuals with below-knee amputation had significantly better levels of social functioning (P<0.0001) and participation (P<0.0001) than those with above-knee amputation. Participants with prosthetic mobility aids had significantly better levels of social functioning (P<0.0001) and participation (P<0.0001) than those with no prosthetic mobility aids. There was no significant difference in the levels of social functioning and participation between male and female participants, but female participants had statistically significant (P<0.0001) higher scores in nine out of twelve life habit domains than their male counterparts.

Conclusion and Implications: Low social functioning, severe participation restrictions, and reduced life accomplishments were prevalent among individuals with lower limb amputation, particularly amongthose with bilateral and above- knee amputations. There is a need to routinely evaluate the studied constructs among individuals with lower limb amputation. The provision of prosthetic aids may help to improve their levels of life accomplishment, social functioning and participation.

The right of persons with disabilities for equal access to education and educational resources is enshrined by international and country-specific anti-discrimination laws. Taking the Ethiopian context as an example, this paper sought to identify barriers of access to educational resources and explored ways for removing them. Seventeen students with visual impairments studying at Hawassa University were selected for semi-structured interviews. Moreover, five individuals working at the disability centre and the university library were interviewed. The results of the interviews were analysed thematically using the International Classification of Functioning, Disabilities and Health (ICF) as a framework. Access and accessibility problems that emanate from the learners’ diverse background, lack of educational resources in alternative formats, lack of institutional tools (policy, procedure, guidelines, etc.) to bridge the gap between law and practice, and the digital divide were among the problems identified and discussed. At the end, the paper showed how libraries, revitalised as learning and information commons, could help to ensure the accessibility of educational resources and help learners with disabilities to acquire skills that may help them in their studies and their future undertakings.

Background: Despite a global commitment to the right to education for persons with disabilities, little is known about how to achieve inclusive education in practice, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where the majority of the world’s people with disabilities reside. Moreover, although exclusion from education is magnified by intersecting gender and socioeconomic inequalities, there is especially little knowledge regarding what approaches to inclusive education are effective amongst girls with disabilities living in resource-poor settings.

Objectives: The objective of this article was to assess the impact of an inclusive education intervention led by a non-governmental organisation (NGO) on the educational attainment of girls with disabilities in the resource-poor Lakes region of Kenya.

Method: A quasi-experimental design was employed, where the literacy and numeracy educational attainment of the intervention and control groups was compared over two time points a year apart (Time 1 and Time 2; total matched N = 353). During this period, activities pertaining to six core components of a holistic inclusive education model were implemented.

Results: Relative to the control group, girls with disabilities in the intervention group reported a greater increase in literacy and numeracy attainment, adjusted for grade and level of functional difficulty.

Conclusion: Findings suggest that the intervention was successful in engendering additional improvements in the educational attainment of girls with disabilities from the resource-poor Lakes region of Kenya. Results highlight both the applicability of NGO-led interventions in settings, where national implementation of inclusive education is constrained, and the potential of taking such interventions to scale.

African Journal of Disability, Vol 9, 2020

Background: People with spinal cord injury (SCI) often have great need for healthcare services, but they report access challenges. Primary care access to people with SCI has not been explored in Botswana.

Objective: This study aimed to identify barriers and facilitators that users with spinal cord injuries experience in accessing primary care services in the greater Gaborone area, Botswana.

Methods: A quantitative, cross-sectional, observational study was conducted. Data were collected with a structured questionnaire from 57 participants with traumatic and non-traumatic SCI. Descriptive and inferential analysis was performed.

Results: The male to female ratio was 2.8:1. The mean age of participants was 40 years (standard deviation 9.59). Road traffic crashes caused 85% of the injuries. Most participants visited primary care facilities between 2 and 10 times in the 6 months before the study. Participants were satisfied with the services (63%) and felt that facilities were clean (95%) and well maintained (73.5%). Preferential treatment, respect, short waiting times and convenient hours facilitated satisfaction with services. Availability was hampered by insufficient provider knowledge on SCI as indicated by 71.9% of participants, and shortage of consumables (80.7%). Structural challenges (42.1% could not enter the facility by themselves and 56.5% could not use the bathroom) and lack of height-adjustable examining couches (66.7%) impeded accessibility. Cost was incurred when participants (64.9%) utilised private health services where public services failed to address their needs.

Conclusion: Primary care services were mostly affordable and adequate. Availability, acceptability and accessibility aspects created barriers.

African Journal of Disability, Vol 8, 2019

Purpose: The main objective of this paper was to assess environmental accessibility for people with vision, hearing and speech disabilities in Mongolia, with particular focus on public buildings and public transportation.

Methods: A standardised internationally-used questionnaire, consisting of 29 questions, was used for the accessibility of public buildings assessment.  The questionnaire results were grouped into categories and descriptive statistics were obtained. To determine quality and accessibility to public transportation a standardised sheet, consisting of 51 questions from the internationally accepted SERVQUAL, was used. This model is commonly used for measurement of the discrepancies between actual performance and customer expectations.

Result: Assessment of public buildings in Mongolia revealed that they were moderately accessible for people with vision, hearing and speech disabilities. The assessment of public transportation found that the discrepancy between actual performance and customer expectation is the highest across all indicators for people with hearing and speech impairments.

Conclusion: The research findings indicated a strong need to pay closer attention to the current environmental unfriendliness and inaccessibility faced by people with vision, hearing and speech disabilities.

Purpose: In low- and middle-income countries, reliable and disaggregated disability data on prevalence, participation and barriers is often not available. This study aimed to estimate disability prevalence, determine associated socio-demographic factors and compare access in the community between people with and without disability in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand, India, using the Rapid Assessment of Disability Survey.

Methods: A cross-sectional population-based survey was conducted on a sample of 2431 adults, selected using a two-stage cluster randomised sampling technique. The survey comprised an interviewer-administered household survey and an individual survey measuring disability, wellbeing and participation.  For each person with disability, an age and sex-matched control (without disability) was selected. In addition to prevalence, the difference in participation and barriers faced by people with and without disability were analysed.

Results and Conclusions: The prevalence of disability was 6.8% (95% CI 5.8-7.8) with significant associations with age, sex, economic status, education and employment. Psychosocial distress (4.8%) and mobility impairment (2.7%) were the most common disabilities identified. The study showed that people with disabilities had significantly less access to services than those without disability, and the barriers reported most often were lack of information, transport and physical inaccessibility.

Purpose: Rehabilitation with assistive devices is of great benefit to people with limb disabilities, enabling them to lead independent and productive lives. While assistive devices improve the quality of life of persons with lower limb disabilities by facilitating activities of daily living, there are also many barriers to their use. This study aims to describe these barriers among community-dwelling persons with lower limb disabilitiesin central Sri Lanka.

Methods: A community survey was conductedmong adults between 18 and 59 years of age, to find persons with lower limb disabilities in Kandy Municipal Council area, in the central province of Sri Lanka. This was followed by purposive sampling to select a sub-sample of 12 individuals with unilateral lower limb disabilities for a qualitative study using in-depth interviews. Unilateral lower limb disabilities were identified using a clinical examination and World Health Organisation Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0). A qualitative thematic content analysis was used to evaluate the interview text.

Results: Participants described several barriers in using assistive devices, such as unaffordable assistive technology like wheelchairs and artificial limbs, unavailability of appropriate assistive technology, difficulties associated with repair and maintenance, and problems in accessibility. Limited knowledge of modern technology also restricted their choice of better devices. Psychological barriers and stigma in using assistive devices directly affected their social lives and day-to-day activities as well.

Conclusion and Implications: People with lower limb disabilities face multiple barriers in using assistive devices. These barriers need to be addressed by improving local infrastructure and accessibility facilities, public awareness and funding, and ensuring continuous supply and maintenance services.

Purpose: Environmental factors restrict the extent to which people with disabilities can participate in society. The reduction of environmental barriers will increase their participation in the social, educational and vocational spheres of life. With the use of a valid and reliable tool - the Craig Hospital Inventory of Environmental Factors (CHIEF) questionnaire - this study aimed to evaluate the environmental barriers faced by wheelchair users in Bangalore city, India.

Method: A convenience sample of 100 wheelchair users, between 16 and 40 years of age, and working in different institutions in Bangalore, participated in the study. The CHIEF questionnaire was administered to each participant. It consisted of multiple questions pertaining to the 5 components of environmental barriers faced by wheelchair users: Accessibility, Accommodation, Resource availability, Social support and Equality. Percentage values for the responses in each component were calculated.

Results: The results showed that 52% of wheelchair users faced problems in Accessibility on a daily basis, and 77% of them felt the problem was big. With respect to Accommodation, 41% faced problems once a month and 50% of them felt that this was a big problem. The maximum percentage of participants did not face problems in Resource availability (43%), Social support (50%) and Equality (59%), and therefore these aspects were not felt to be a big problem.

Conclusion: An understanding of the environmental barriers faced by wheelchair users can provide guidance in mapping policies and strengthening laws which would help to improve their quality of life.