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Views and Experiences of People with Intellectual Disabilities to Improve Access to Assistive Technology: Perspectives from India

BOOT, F H
GHOSH, R
DINSMORE, J G
MACLACHLAN, M
2021

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Purpose: People with intellectual disabilities are deeply affected by health inequity, which is also reflected in their access to and use of assistive technology (AT). Including the perspectives of adults with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers, together with the views of local health professionals, suppliers of AT and policy-makers, this paper aims to provide an overview of factors influencing access to AT and its use by people with intellectual disabilities in Bangalore, a southern region of India.

 

Method: Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 15 adults with intellectual disabilities (ranging from mild to profound) and their caregivers, and with 16 providers of AT. This helped to gain insight into the current use, needs, knowledge, awareness, access, customisation, funding, follow-up, social inclusion, stigma and policies around AT and intellectual disability.

 

Results: Access to AT was facilitated by community fieldworkers and services to reach out and identify people with intellectual disabilities. Important barriers were stigma, and lack of knowledge and awareness among parents. Factorsrelated to continued use were the substantial dependence on the care system to use AT, and the importance of AT training and instructions for the user and the care system.

 

Conclusion and Implications: The barriers and facilitators related to AT for people with intellectual disabilities differ from other populations in need. The findings of this study can be used to inform and adjust country policies and frameworks whose aim is to improve access to AT and enhance the participation of people with intellectual disabilities within their communities.

“Our children have the right to an education too”: Strategies employed by Orange Farm Caregivers of Children with Disabilities in Pursuit of the Right to a Basic Education

Elphick, Jean
De SasKropiwnicki, Zosa
Elphick, Rosalind
2016

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Purpose: This paper aims to understand the agency that caregivers who participated in a CBR empowerment component programme exercised, in order to promote the rights of their children with disabilities to a basic education.

 

Methods: An interdisciplinary theoretical framework and qualitative methodology were used to examine the agency and the opportunity structures within which the caregivers operate. Focus group discussions, case study interviews and secondary Programme data were analysed using manual thematic analysis.

 

Results: Thousands of children with disabilities in South Africa are effectively denied the right to a basic education as a result of discriminatory norms, stigmatising discourses and unjust power relations. Yet, a group of caregivers have successfully advocated for their children with disabilities in the township of Orange Farm, Gauteng. Their lobbying has contributed to the establishment, by the State, of a new school.

 

Conclusion and Implications: The findings suggest that human rights advocacy movements, as well as disability organisations, would do well to recognise and encourage the power and agency possessed by caregivers of children with disabilities. Catalysing civic action and providing opportunities for active citizenry and self-help seem to nurture increased efficacy and competence at navigating systems and accessing rights. While advocacy organisations may act as proxy agents, direct and collective agentic strategies should be nurtured. 

 

In implementing inclusive education, policy makers and the Department of Education should recognise the role that caregivers of children with disabilities can play, and the potential contribution that their motivation, resourcefulness, and disability-related knowledge can make.

A Transect Walk to Establish Opportunities and Challenges for Youth with Disabilities in Winterveldt, South Africa

LORENZO, T
MOTAU, J
2014

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Winterveldt was one of the 9 sites included in a national study to determine the livelihood strategies of youth with disabilities, undertaken by the Occupational Therapy Departments of 6 Universities in South Africa. Community-based rehabilitation (CBR) programmes were initiated in Winterveldt in the 1990s by non-governmental organisations and the Occupational Therapy Department at the University of Limpopo - Medical University of South Africa (MEDUNSA).

 

Purpose: This paper describes the use of a Transect Walk to identify aspects of context that contribute to the vulnerability of youth with disabilities with regard to their livelihood strategies.

 

Method: Transect Walk was employed as a participatory rapid-appraisal tool to gather data. Convenience sampling was used to identify 11 participants, including three youth with disabilities. Field notes and observations were analysed deductively for themes related to the 5 categories of livelihood assets.

 

Results: The findings describe the natural and built environment, the access to health, educational and financial services, and the social attitudes of people in this community towards youth with disabilities. The discussion uses the 5 CBR components as a framework to explore strategies for enhancing the assets of youth with disabilities, namely, empowerment, social, health, education, and livelihood.

 

Conclusions: There is significant development that could be maximised if youth with disabilities were aware of their rights and were able to access services and resources. The implication for local government is to create an inclusive environment in which youth with disabilities are able to participate in mainstream youth development opportunities.

Empowerment in Community-based Rehabilitation and Disability-inclusive Development

KUIPERS, P
2014

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Purpose: This paper seeks to contribute to discussion on the understanding and measurement of empowerment of people with disabilities in developing countries. A novel, text analysis approach was used to depict the way in which empowerment is characterised in conventional measures in Western settings. This was then compared with depictions and analyses of the way in which empowerment is characterised in documents that have more relevance to developing countries.

 

Method: First, computer-based content and concept analysis was applied to three key empowerment measures. This was compared with analysis of responses to a recent online survey of empowerment conducted by the United NationsDepartment of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA). Visual representations in the form of “word clouds” were generated to depict key concepts within each data source. Second, to provide specific detail regarding how empowerment has been described in documents which relate to developing countries, more detailed computer-assisted lexical analysis was performed on the text of responses to the UN-DESA survey, and on the text of the Empowerment component of the CBR Guidelines.

 

Results: Initial “word clouds” illustrated considerable discrepancy between concepts inherent in the three most relevant empowerment measures when compared with responses to the UN-DESA survey relating to empowerment in a development context. Subsequent lexical analysis depicted greater specificity and ranked the concepts associated with empowerment in key disability and development-related documents.

 

Conclusions: Conventional Western measures of individual empowerment may not adequately encompass the broader social, economic and community orientation of empowerment as described in documents from disability and development circles. Further research is required to substantiate these novel and speculative indications.

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