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This literature review seeks to gain a better understanding of the particular challenges faced by people with intellectual disabilities and those with mental health issues in Palestine and the refugee settings in Lebanon. An overview of the Palestine and Lebanon contexts is presented. Mental health and intellectual disability in situations of risk and the disproportionate impacts are discussed.  Access to and inclusion in disaster risk reduction (DRR) and humanitarian response are also discussed.

Inclusion remains a key political agenda for education internationally and is a matter that teachers across subject communities and phases of education are challenged to respond to. In physical education specifically, research continues to highlight that current practice often reaffirms rather than challenges established inequities. This paper critically explores the understandings of inclusion that contribute to this situation and addresses the challenge of advancing inclusion in physical education from conceptual and pedagogical viewpoints. DeLuca’s [(2013). “Toward an Interdisciplinary Framework for Educational Inclusivity.” Canadian Journal of Education 36 (1): 305–348] conceptualisation of normative, integrative, dialogical and transgressive approaches to inclusion is employed as a basis for critical analysis of current practice and for thinking afresh about inclusive practice in physical education in relation to curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Analysis informs the presentation of a set of principles that are designed to assist teachers and teacher educators to transform inclusive practice in physical education and in doing so, realise visions for physical education that are articulated in international policy guidelines and contemporary curriculum developments.

This paper expresses wonder about how bodies in motion can lead towards an understanding of lived meaning in silent lifeworlds. In such lifeworlds, expressions are without words, pre-symbolic, and thus embodied. To address the wonder, phenomenological philosophy and phenomenological methodology were employed to frame an approach that acknowledges lives with disabilities as qualitatively different from, and yet not inferior to, nor less imbued with meaning than, lives without.

The paper focuses on spatiality as decisive in determining possibilities for persons to express their perspectives through a wide range of movements. Movements take place in the continuum between the spatiality of positions as objective bodily sensations and the spatiality of situations as embodied interactions with others and the world. Thus, in order to access the perspectives of students with severe and multiple disabilities, transitions between and movements within different spaces are examined.

Approaching an educational everyday life where students are restricted in the possibilities available to them for moving in and out of spaces, the study reported points to the importance of recognizing the relationship between subjective movements and the spaces enveloping them as what creates a spatiality that is meaningful to the subject. It is accordingly suggested that choosing which spaces to include in educational contexts are formative choices that express a view of humanity. The paper also emphasizes the importance of recognizing temporality as a pedagogical resource when detecting and acting upon students’ changing expressions.

Aim:  A cluster randomized cross-sectional survey to assess the prevalence of disability and access to support services was conducted in Albay Province, the Philippines in April 2016.

Method:  The population-based survey methodologies developed by the Washington Group of the United Nations Statistical Commission and UNICEF were utilized.  A sample of 70 barangays (the 3rd level administrative division in the Philippines) was selected as clusters, with probability proportional to size, and 30 households were selected randomly in each barangay to be surveyed.

Results:  The estimated prevalence of disability using the standard criteria of the Washington Group and UNICEF among children (2-17 years old) was 2.0% and for adults (≥18 years old) it was 6.5%.  The estimated prevalence of disability was higher in rural than in urban areas.  Deficiencies in the performance of existing services were identified; access by children with disabilities to support services was lowest in rural highland and rural plain barangays.

Conclusions: There was a large unmet demand for support services addressing the needs of persons with disabilities in Albay Province, especially in rural highland areas.  Persons with disabilities were disadvantaged in access to education and employment; many had not been educated in their basic rights.

Implications:  To identify, educate and fully support persons with disabilities, community-based rehabilitation (CBR), health and other rehabilitation services must communicate effectively with each other, their current work should be mapped and analysed, their comparative strengths identified, and their future work coordinated.  It is a priority to educate persons with disabilities and their families about their rights, and facilitate their access to support services; this requires increased investment in communication targeting persons with disabilities and the communities, especially rural.  Providers caring for persons with disabilities need to work in partnership to identify unreached persons with disabilities.  Prevalence surveys, with stronger focus on the profiles and performance of CBR and related services, would add to the evidence-base to improve the quality and coverage of services for persons with disabilities.

Purpose: This study aimed to assess the implementation of an online parent training programme in Bangladesh, designed to enhance parental knowledge of autism and neurodevelopmental disorders and related interventions. In addition, study participants were expected to become “Master Trainers” with the intention of training other parents in their local communities.

Method: This survey study assessed parental knowledge and programme effectiveness, such as potential online learning barriers, cultural sensitivities, and general course content feedback after each unit.

Results: The programme had an 81% completion rate (with parents completing all but one unit) with an average programme knowledge score of 86%. Parents felt that the course content was moderately difficult, the length of the units was appropriate, and the units were culturally sensitive. They requested more detailed lessons, specific case studies, and adaptation of the curriculum for older children.

Conclusion: The pilot programme merits the next phase of development, which includes local adaptation and translation. However, the findings are limited by the small sample size.

Purpose: To develop a scale for the assessment of gross and fine motor skills of the children with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities so that their skills could be assessed and accordingly interventions in physical activities could be specifically designed for them.

Method: Thirty-eight items for the Test of Motor Proficiency scale was developed after initial try out, pilot study and final try-out by the researchers. Fifty children with mild intellectual disabilities (n = 26), and moderate intellectual disabilities (n = 24) aged between 6 to 17 years fulfilling inclusion and exclusion criteria were selected from special schools in Jammu district, J&K (India).The Test of Motor Proficiency was administered on the selected sample.

Results: Internal consistency as calculated through Cronbach's Alpha was .906, indicating very good reliability. There was a highly significant correlation between the two independent assessments in inter-rater reliability r (48) = .95, p< .05 and  also within the domains of motor proficiency, Visual-Motor control r (48) =.728, p< .05, Upper limb speed and dexterity r (48) = .98, p< .05 , Running speed and agility r (48) =.99, p< .05, Bilateral coordination   r (48) =.96, p< .05, Strength r (48) =.95, p<.05, upper limb coordination r (48) =.62, p< .05. Concurrent validity of Test of Motor Proficiency was established against BASIC- MR; the correlation of BASIC-MR (M = 151.92, SD = 18.08, N = 50) and Test of Motor Proficiency (M = 49.22, SD = 12.23, N = 50) was highly significant r (48) = .76, p< .05. The construct validity assessed through test retest was r (48) =.97, p< .05.

Implications: The Scale can be used in the assessment of gross and fine motor skills of children with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities for clinical and research purposes.

This paper explores connections between affect studies and critical disability studies. Our interest in affect is sparked by the beginnings of a new research project that seeks to illuminate the lives, hopes and desires of young people with ‘life-limiting’ or ‘life-threatening’ impairments. Cultural responses to these young people are shaped by dominant discourses associated with lives lived well and long. Before commencing our empirical work with young people we use this paper to think through how we might conceptualise affect and disability. We present three themes; ontological invalidation in neoliberal-able times; affect aliens and crip killjoys; disability and resistant assemblages.

Since late 2009, Greece has been dealing with the effects of a debt crisis. The neoliberal principles embedded in the three structural adjustment programmes that the country accepted have required radical cuts in health care funding, which in turn have led to widening inequalities in health. This article focuses on access to health care for people with disabilities in Greece in the context of these structural adjustments. We investigate possible differences in unmet health care needs between people with and without disabilities, using de-identified cross-sectional data from the European Health Interview Survey. The sample included 5400 community- dwelling men and women aged 15 years and over. The results of the logistic regressions showed that people with disabilities report higher unmet health care needs, with cost, transportation, and long waiting lists being significant barriers; experience of all barriers was positively associated with low socio- economic status. These findings suggest that a section of the population who may have higher health care needs face greater barriers in accessing services. Austerity policies impact on access to health care in both direct and indirect ways, producing long-term disadvantage for disabled people. Social policies and comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation might help to address some of the barriers this population faces.

This book presents new research on disability, health, and wellbeing in four countries (Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda) . The primary focus is empirical. It also makes a conceptual contribution as it presents a new model of disability based on the human development and capability approach. It addresses four questions: 

• How should disability be defined to analyse and inform policies related to wellbeing?
• What is the prevalence of functional difficulties?
• What inequalities are associated with functional difficulties?
• What are the economic consequences of functional difficulties? 

Detailed data analysis using large-scale household survey datasets is combined with an interactional model of disability based on Amartya Sen’s capability approach.

DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-53638-9

First of book series: the Palgrave Studies in Disability and International Development