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The starting point is that integration in schools is positive for disabled children. It provides pointers on how integrated education initiatives can happen. These are under the headings selection, preparation, training, support and implementation

A unique resource book for anyone working in community-based services. The 17 chapters have been written by experienced practitioners drawn from various disciplines and across the continents. The chapter are grouped into three main sections - service foundations, meeting needs and developing services - and cover issues as diverse as family involvement, mobilising communities; fund-raising and evaluating services. Since its publication in 1995, the book has been widely used in training courses around the world. It is now available free-of-charge on the internet thanks to the gracious permission of the publishers, Lisieux Hall Publications

An overall comparison between the two situations - 1986 and 1993 - reported here and in the previous report allow for some guarded optimism. Most countries provided some information on policies but varied greatly in the amount of detail offered. Special educational provision is more firmly located within regular education, at school and the administrative levels, than before and has greater legislative underpinning. Within the policy statements, themselves, the most common strands related to : developing the individual's potential, integration and necessary steps for implementation. Regarding legislation, most countries did include special needs provision in the same regulatory framework as general education; the most common reason given for excluding particular children was severity of disability. Much remains to be done and there is no room for complacency. Many countries face fiscal and personnel constraints, and maintaining let alone increasing existing investment in special educational provision will not be easy. A word of caution : even where resources are not the central issue, the pressures created by the general school reforms taking place in many countries may reduce the priority given to speical educational provision. However, progress has been made, despite the many difficulties.

The World conference on special needs education: access and quality launched the concept of inclusive education. The Salamanca statement is a major international policy document, outlining the global consensus on the needs for educational reform and the policies and strategies needed to include disabled children in the education system

Routine screening for hearing impairment in childhood is now widespread in industrial countries, although there is considerable controversy over the most efficient techniques and procedures. In most developing countries, however, routine screening programmes for hearing impairment do not currently exist. The problems involved in implementing screening programmes in developing and industrial countries are very different, and in selecting screening procedures for a particular population the following factors have to be taken into consideration: the environmental test conditions; the availability of resources for equipment and the training of testers; the local attitudes towards disability; the level of hearing impairment. We suggest that in developing countries children should be screened at school entry using a simple field audometer and that the external ear be inspected for the presence of a discharge. There is an urgent need to develop reliable and simple screening procedures for infants and young children; where possible, all children should be screened for severe or significant hearing impairment before the age of 2 years. No screening should, however, be implemented until appropriate follow-up services are available.

In almost every society, women who are disabled are devalued, firstly because of their gender, and secondly because of the myths and misconceptions about impairment. This book is about women's experience of disability and the impact on them of double discrimination