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Purpose: The study focussed on the effect of Abacus training on numerical ability (comprising of counting and mathematical operations) of children with hearing loss.

Method: 90 students with hearing loss were sampled from 6 special schools in Mumbai, India. A quasi- experimental study was employed using two group pre-test and post-test design. Data were collected using the Numerical Ability Test (NAT) as an instrument. Six null hypotheses based on the objectives were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance using t-Test - Assuming Equal Variances.

Results: The findings revealed that the experimental group which was instructed through Abacus showed higher proficiency in numerical ability as compared to the control group instructed through the conventional method. Gender as a variable seems to influence the mean achievement of numerical ability of students with hearing loss. While girls and boys did not differ in simple tasks such as counting, boys were found to be better in mathematical operations and overall numerical ability.

Conclusions: The Abacus teaching method results in higher mathematical achievements among students with hearing loss. Gender also plays an important role in mathematical learning, as evidenced by boys demonstrating more numerical ability than girls in the study sample.

Purpose: Disability is a global health and a global development concern. To address both issues, a community-based rehabilitation (CBR) approach is increasingly recommended to meet a spectrum of needs, especially for people with disabilities. It is first necessary to understand the perceptions of local, frontline providers, in order to design effective measures for implementing CBR programmes. This paper aimed to understand the conceptions of Primary Healthcare Providers (PHPs) - serving a sub-urban, socially-vulnerable territory in Brazil - about: 1) disability, 2) rehabilitation, and 3) the possible local implementation of a CBR strategy, including any anticipated barriers.

Method: Cross-sectional, exploratory qualitative research was based on focus groups conducted between 2013 and 2016. It involved a total of 78 PHPs serving the western region of the Ribeirão Preto municipality in São Paulo, Brazil. Data analysis was based on Habermas’ critical hermeneutics approach.

Results: PHPs understood disability mostly within the biomedical paradigm. Similarly, the predominant conception of rehabilitation was focussed on enabling individuals’ capacity, more than their environment. For local CBR implementation, the barriers that were anticipated were: 1) difficulties in managing and running action across sectors, and 2) the broader socio-political environment that hardly empowers civil society and is affected by power differentials.

Conclusion and Implications: While local PHPs identified important CBR implementation barriers which are contextual in nature, the predominant conceptions of disability and rehabilitation (i.e., biomedical, impairments-based) also act as a barrier. Contextual and cognitive barriers must both be addressed when envisioning a local CBR implementation

Aim: Good practices have been documented by International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) to promote disability inclusive development and encourage the replication or scaling up of good practices that use rights based approaches. This study aimed to investigate the extent to which Core Concepts of human rights are illustrated in disability inclusive development good practices related to health.

Methods: This study analysed case studies of disability inclusive development good practices focusing on health that are available in the public domain using EquiFrame, an established content analysis framework in benchmarking health and social policies.

Results: A total of 42 health related good practices were identified from 3 different INGOs working in the field of disability inclusive development. The highest occurring human rights Core Concepts were; access 55%, individualised services 48%, capacity building 45% and participation 38%. The Core Concepts with the lowest levels of commitment were; autonomy 3%, cultural responsiveness 3%, accountability 3%, and efficiency 3%. Privacy and autonomy were not mentioned at all. The quality of reporting of the core concepts of human rights was low as they did not state specific programme actions or intentions to monitor Core Concepts.

Conclusion: Level of commitment to Core Concept coverage and quality of reporting was low. EquiFrame was successfully extended to analyse disability inclusive development good practices focusing on health. Its use in further analysis of inclusive good practice is advised.

Implications: These results can be used for advocacy in disability inclusive development and to guide programme staff training and documentation of disability inclusive development good practices.

Purpose: Conflict and disability are closely associated; it is therefore significant to examine strategies at the grassroots-level for restoring the human rights of people with disabilities living in post-conflict societies. The aim of this study is to reveal the impact of and issues with community-based rehabilitation (CBR) in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka that was ravaged by civil war from 1983 to 2009.

Methods: The research was implemented in October 2016, in collaboration with a local NGO in the Mullaitivu district. A mixed-methods approach was followed, which included quantitative analysis of the NGO’s registration database of people with disabilities in the area (n=964), group interviews with 9 community rehabilitation committees (CRCs) of people with disabilities and their family members (n=118), and semi-structured interviews with clients of the CBR programme (n=5). Thematic analysis was applied to the narrative data.

Results: The quantitative analysis on clients of the NGO revealed that 60.9% of disabilities were related to war. Livelihood assistance was the most common type of self-reported need (44.6%). The qualitative analysis revealed that in communities with inadequate local resources, CRCs that had access to livelihood assistance made a positive impact on the socioeconomic conditions of people with disabilities and their family members. Potential issues were observed, such as the expectation of and dependence on the financial aid without self-help. Some people with disabilities would not attend CRCs if there were no financial benefits. As most of the participants had war-related disabilities, it is also possible that participation of people with intellectual and psychiatric disabilities unrelated to war may not have been promoted in some CRCs.

Conclusions: The CBR programme has had positive impacts on the living conditions of participants, albeit with some potential issues such as financial expectations and aid dependency. The authors argue that empowerment of people with disabilities and addressing socioeconomic inequality should be considered simultaneously.

Background: Persons with disabilities continue to be excluded from professions in South Africa despite legislation on non-discrimination and equity. Objectives: We sought to identify both the opportunities and obstacles that students with disabilities face in professional degrees.

Method: Selected texts from the South African and international literature were analysed and synthesised.

Results: Students with disabilities are afforded opportunities to graduate into professions through the current climate of transformation, inclusion and disability policies, various support structures and funding. These opportunities are mitigated by obstacles at both the higher education site and at the workplace. At university, they may experience difficulties in accessing the curriculum, disability units may be limited in the support they can offer, policies may not be implemented, funding is found to be inadequate and the built environment may be inaccessible. Fieldwork poses additional obstacles in terms of public transport which is not accessible to students with disabilities; a lack of higher education support extended to the field sites, and buildings not designed for access by people with disabilities. At both sites, students are impacted by negative attitudes and continued assumptions that disability results from individual deficit, rather than exclusionary practices and pressures.

Conclusion: It is in the uniqueness of professional preparation, with its high demands of both theory and practice that poses particular obstacles for students with disabilities. We argue for the development of self-advocacy for students with disabilities, ongoing institutional and societal transformation and further research into the experiences of students with disabilities studying for professional degrees.