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The WHO Disability-Inclusive Health Services Training Package is a companion to the “WHO Disability-Inclusive Health Services Toolkit: A resource for health facilities in the Western Pacific Region” published by WHO in 2020. This package offers a range of additional training materials including presentations, workbooks and videos that will allow users to develop the foundational skills and understanding of the Toolkit for its implementation. Together the Toolkit and Training Package will help ensure equitable access to health services, best-quality outcomes and improved quality of life for all people with disabilities to achieve universal health coverage.

The WHO-UNICEF Global Report on Assistive Technology (AT) reveals that more than 2.5 billion people need one or more assistive products, such as wheelchairs, hearing aids, or apps that support communication and cognition. Yet nearly one billion of them are denied access, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, where access can be as low as 3% of the need for these life-changing products.

The Global Report provides the best available evidence about the barriers currently preventing access, how access can be improved, and how enabling environments and AT can enable persons with disabilities to enjoy their human rights while generating a tremendous return on investment for governments. The report also makes 10 key recommendations for concrete actions that will improve access to AT, for everyone, that needs them. 

Access to assistive technology for children with disabilities is often the first step for childhood development, access to education, participation in sports and civic life, and getting ready for employment like their peers. Children with disabilities have additional challenges due to their growth, which requires frequent adjustments or replacements of their assistive products.

The World Report on Hearing (WRH) has been developed in response to the World Health Assembly resolution (WHA70.13), adopted in 2017 as a means of providing guidance for Member States to integrate ear and hearing care into their national health plans.

Based on the best available evidence, this report presents epidemiological and financial data on hearing loss; outlines available cost-effective solutions and sets the way forward through ‘Integrated people-centered ear and hearing care’ (IPC-EHC). The report proposes a set of key H.E.A.R.I.N.G. interventions that must be delivered through a strengthened health system to realize the vision of IPC-EHC. 

The WRH was developed in collaboration with experts and stakeholders in the field of ear and hearing care who informed the report’s strategic direction and ensured that it reflects a range of cultural contexts and approaches to hearing care. The report is global in its reach while keeping a special focus on low- and middle-income countries, where the number of people with hearing loss is not matched by the availability of services and resources.

This survey handbook provides guidance for planning and implementing hearing loss surveys, including information on possible data collection tools. The survey handbook aims to enable countries – particularly low- and middle-income countries – to gather data by planning and implementing population-based epidemiological surveys.

The main uses of data collected by such surveys are:

• to provide an accurate picture of hearing loss prevalence in a given area, which could be a country or an area within the country (e.g. district or state);
• to provide an overview of the most common probable causes of deafness and hearing loss in the study area;
• assess global and regional prevalence and trends

Using this survey handbook for data collection will help to ensure comparability of data collected through studies conducted in different countries and by different investigators. This will facilitate the estimation of global prevalence and the examination of hearing loss trends over time.

The aim of this research was to assess the outcome of children with ear and hearing disorders 3 years after initial diagnosis, in terms of referral uptake, treatment received and satisfaction with this treatment. It also aimed to assess the social participation of the affected children, specifically, their ability to make friends and communicate needs, and their enrolment at school

752 children had been diagnosed in 2013 as having a hearing impairment and 307 (40.8%) children were traced for follow-up in 2016. 

Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Volume 97, Number 10, October 2019, 645-728

http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/BLT.18.226241

This toolkit provides practical guidance to support Member States, industry partners and civil society groups in the use and implementation of the WHO-ITU H.870 Global standard on safe listening devices and systems. The WHO-ITU Global standard is the result of a collaboration between the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and has been developed in response to the growing prevalence of hearing loss and the threat to hearing posed by unsafe listening. The WHO-ITU Global standard has been developed using an evidence-based and consultative process, with the participation of experts in the field of sound, audiology, acoustics, communication, and smartphone technology

This report makes the case that integrated people-centred eye care is the care model of choice and can help meet the challenges faced. Chapter 1 highlights the critical importance of vision; describes eye conditions that can cause vision impairment and those that typically do not; reviews the main risk factors for eye conditions; defines vision impairment and disability; and explores the impact of vision impairment. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the global magnitude of eye conditions and vision impairment and their distribution. Chapter 3 presents effective promotive preventive, treatment, and rehabilitative strategies to address eye care needs across the life course. Chapter 4 starts by taking stock of global advocacy efforts to date, the progress made in addressing specific eye conditions and vision impairment, and recent scientific and technological advances; it then identifies the remaining challenges facing the field. Chapter 5 describes how making eye care an integral part of universal health care (including developing a package of eye care interventions) can help address some of the challenges faced by countries. Chapter 6 presents IPEC and explains the need for engaging and empowering people and communities, reorienting the model of care based on a strong primary care and the need for coordinating services within and across sectors; and creating an enabling environment. The report ends with five recommendations for action that can be implemented by all countries to improve eye care. 

A short factsheet about deafness and hearing loss covering key facts, causes (congenital and acquired), impact (functional, social and economic), prevention, identification and management and WHO response. 

This fact sheet provides key facts and an overview about autism spectrum disorders. Associated epidemiology, causes, assessment and management, social and economic impacts are briefly covered. The human rights of people with ASD are discussed and the WHO Resolution on autism spectrum disorders (WHA67.8) is introduced.