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The process of developing an expert guided indicator framework to assess governments’ efforts and progress in strengthening rehabilitation in line with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is described.  A systems methodology - concept mapping - was used to capture, aggregate and confirm the knowledge of diverse stakeholders on measures thought to be useful for monitoring the implementation of the Convention with respect to health related rehabilitation. Fifty-six individuals generated a list of 107 indicators through online brainstorming which were subsequently sorted by 37 experts from the original panel into non overlapping categories. Forty-one participants rated the indicators for importance and feasibility. Multivariate statistical techniques where used to explore patterns and themes in the data and create the indicators’ organizing framework which was verified and interpreted by a select number of participants.

Globalization and Health (2018) 14:96
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-018-0410-5

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.

Representing between 0.2% to 2% of the population, persons with deafblindness are a very diverse yet hidden group and are, overall, more likely to be poor and unemployed, and with lower educational outcomes. Because deafblindness is less well-known and often misunderstood, people struggle to obtain the right support, and are often excluded from both development and disability programmes. This initial global report on the situation of persons with deafblindness seeks to start a dialogue between international disability rights and development stakeholders, and is based on research undertaken by the World Federation of the Deafblind (WFDB) combining the largest population-based analysis of persons with deafblindness conducted to date (disaggregation of 22 population-based surveys from low, middle and high-income countries), an academic literature review, two surveys conducted among members and partners of WFDB and Sense International. Women and men with deafblindness from across the world took part in the Helen Keller World Conference in June 2018, and were consulted to confirm the findings and elaborate on the recommendations for this report.

Data and discussion are presented on people with deafblindess and: inequality; poverty; work; education; health; participation on political and public life; and social life. Datasets are included. 

This ‘policy brief’ outlines findings on Assistive technology and Products (AP) needs, unmet needs and access patterns arising the Rapid Assessment of Disability (RAD) study conducted in 2016 and 2017, in partnership between the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and Humanity & Inclusion (HI) Bangladesh, with technical oversight from the Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne, Australia. The study was part of the HI project: Towards Global Health: Strengthening the Rehabilitation Sector through Civil Society funded by the European Union. Findings from the 4254 adults surveyed in the two districts are reported here.

The purpose of this component of the RAD study was to learn about the usage of AP, characteristics of AP users, barriers to use of AP, unmet and met needs of AP, and to highlight major policy implications for AP service provision, in two target areas of Kurigram and Narsingdi. The survey includes an adapted version of Washington Group (WG) ‘short set’ of Disability Questions. A modified version of the WHO’s draft Assistive Technology Assessment Tool (needs module) – or the ‘ATA-needs’, was also implemented. Findings from this study also helped modify and improve the draft ATA-needs tool

The Disability Data Portal provides a snapshot of the data globally available on people with disabilities in 40 countries. The portal also identifies where there are gaps in the current body of data. 

The portal was designed for the Global Disability Summit, held on 24 July 2018, and focusses on data relating to four thematic areas: inclusive education, stigma and discrimination, technology and innovation, and economic empowerment. 

The portal presents key development indicators relevant to the Summit themes, mostly drawn from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), along with others relevant to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)

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

Purpose: The study was conducted to examine the relationship between arm and leg motor impairment in stroke survivors and participation restriction, post rehabilitation, within the Tamale metropolis.

Method: The participants were 102 stroke survivors from the Tamale metropolitan area, who had undergone at least 3 months of rehabilitation. Upper limb motor assessment was followed by lower limb motor assessment based on the Manual Muscle Test. Levels of participation restriction were measured using the London Handicap Scale. Correlation analysis of motor impairment and participation restriction were done using Spearman rank correlation analysis.

Results: The mean age of post-stroke participants was 62.08 years (95% CI= 59.77-64.39), with men comprising 67.65% and 32.35% women. The Spearman rank correlation co-efficient between arm motor impairment and participation was 0.8343, depicting a strong positive relationship between the aforementioned variables. The correlation between leg motor impairment and participation yielded 0.8013. Conversely, leg motor impairment was found to have a stronger relationship with participation restriction in comparison to arm motor impairment.

Conclusion and Implications: The strong relationship between limb motor impairment and participation restriction suggests that clinicians and disability experts involved in rehabilitation should take cognisance of the social implication of motor impairment in order to make informed decisions. Further to this, arm and leg assistive devices could be useful in reducing the levels of participation restriction among persons with stroke within the Tamale metropolis.

Limitations: A major limitation is that motor impairment was assessed solely on the ability to perform voluntary movement (muscle power). Sensory disturbances and motor coordination difficulties also have the potential to influence participation restriction, so the exclusion of stroke survivors who are unable to communicate implies that external validity of the research is limited.

Four factsheets concerned with Washington Group Questions (WGQ) produced in conjunction with the Disability Data in Humanitarian Action programme.

Aspects addressed are: collecting data at the household level; collecting data on persons with mental health difficulties and understanding temperality and causality when using the WGQs.

The importance of online communities for parents of people with disabilities has been discussed by many scholars in the fields of Digital and Disability Studies, showing, for instance, the importance of social support and the formation of social ties. In order to contribute to this scholarship, this paper explores how collective identity models are built and circulated by parents of autistic people in one of the biggest Brazilian online communities about the subject, ‘Sou autista… conheça o meu mundo’ (I am autistic…get to know my world). The results were obtained through a digital ethnography, based on participant observation and an exchange of information with the members of the community studied. Based on the data collected, the study concludes that the collective identity models that circulate in this community can be grouped into legitimising, resistant, and project identities, as postulated by Castells (2010). The different views reflect how parents see autism and represent the ways it is treated in Brazilian society.

Disability and the Global South, 2018 Vol.5, No. 1