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How well is aid targeting disability?

WALTON, Dan
December 2019

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A blog explaining and categorising how international aid has been allocated to projects in a primary or a secondary disability component. It further classifies disability-relevant projects according to their particular focus on one or more of two areas:

Inclusion and empowerment projects have a focus on ensuring people with disabilities are included in benefits on an equal basis to people without disabilities.
Economic empowerment projects are a subset of inclusion and empowerment projects that have the deliberate purpose of improving employment opportunities and rights for people with disabilities.

 

The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the UK government or members of the Inclusion Works consortium.

Inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action. Case studies collection 2019. 39 examples of field practices, and learnings from 20 countries, for all phases of humanitarian response

PALMER, Tom
et al
December 2019

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Published at the same time as the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action, this report aims to support their uptake and promote learning by example. This report presents 39 short case studies on inclusive practices for persons with disabilities in humanitarian action and disaster risk reduction (DRR). It is designed for humanitarian stakeholders with limited experience of working with and for persons with disabilities, as well as for organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) planning to engage in humanitarian action and DRR. The report draws lessons from field practices, but does not provide technical guidance. The IASC Guidelines are the reference document to seek in-depth theoretical and technical information

 

The case studies focus on:

  • Inclusive disaster risk reduction and preparedness
  • Collecting and using disability disaggregated data for assessments and programming.
  • Participation of persons with disabilities and their representative organizations in humanitarian response and recovery
  • Removing barriers to access humanitarian assistance and protection.
  • Influencing coordination mechanisms and resource mobilization to be inclusive

 

The evidence presented in this report was identified in 2017-2018 through a desk review of publicly available reports and internal documents on projects implemented by CBM, HI and IDA members, as well as their partners and affiliate members. Field visits to Lebanon, Jordan, Kenya, Nepal, and the Philippines conducted in 2018 also informed the case-study collection and documentation

Integrating geospatial data and measures of disability and wealth to assess inequalities in an eye health survey: An example from the Indian Sunderbans

MOHANTY, Soumya
et al
December 2019

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The Sunderbans are a group of delta islands that straddle the border between India and Bangladesh. For people living on the Indian side, health services are scarce and the terrain makes access to what is available difficult. In 2018, the international non-governmental organisation Sightsavers and their partners conducted a population-based survey of visual impairment and coverage of cataract and spectacle services, supplemented with tools to measure equity in eye health by wealth, disability, and geographical location. Two-stage cluster sampling was undertaken to randomly select 3868 individuals aged 40+ years, of whom 3410 were examined

 

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Dec; 16(23): 4869

doi: 10.3390/ijerph16234869

Understanding the mobile disability gap Insights on mobile phone access and usage by persons with disabilities in Kenya and Bangladesh

ARANDA-JAN, Clara
BOUTARD, Alizee
December 2019

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This research aims to bridge the knowledge gap and to understand the potential of mobile phones as assistive technologies (ATs) for persons with disabilities in Kenya and Bangladesh. This report presents, for the first time, an evaluation of the gap and barriers to mobile phone ownership experienced by persons with disabilities, as well as the usage patterns of four main mobile-enabled services (voice, SMS, mobile internet and mobile money) and the role of mobile phones to enable access to basic services, such as education, healthcare, transportation, employment and financial services. Finally, the report explores the characteristics of access and usability of mobile products and services along the customer journey.

Disability Data Lab learning paper: a practical guide to disability data

JENKINSON, Astrid
et al
December 2019

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The Bond Disability and Development Group (DDG) has commissioned this learning paper to summarise discussions which took place at the DDG’s Data Lab workshop, held in London on 22 October 2019, and to be used as a reference document going forward. This first workshop focused on why organisations need to collect disability data; what tools are available and practical ways in which these can be used. This learning paper provides a summary of these discussions and can act as a guide and reference tool for organisations looking to be more inclusive in their programming, generally, and in their data collection practices, specifically. A number of case studies and numerous resource references are provided.

Promoting employment opportunities for people with disabilities: Quota Schemes (Vol. 2)

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION (ILO)
December 2019

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Employment quotas represent one of the most frequently used policy measures to promote work opportunities for persons with disabilities. Slightly over 100 countries around the world currently provide for employment quotas in their national legislation. While some countries have had employment quotas for many decades, others have introduced them recently, revised them or are planning to introduce them. There is no standard approach.

 

The previous publication (Volume 1) summarizes published information on quota schemes, to highlight elements of existing systems that are effective in promoting employment opportunities and making recommendations for approaches to take in introducing new systems or revising existing systems. In this document (Volume 2), an overview is provided of quota schemes by country and the extent to which quota schemes are in place alongside anti-discrimination legislation.

 

 

What I think of school: perceptions of school by people with intellectual disabilities

VALENTIM, António
VALENTIM, Joaquim Pires
2019

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For people with intellectual disabilities who do not enter the labour market, school is usually the main chapter of their socialization with the wider society. Nevertheless, little is known about their long-term perceptions of this period. We conducted interviews and focus groups on the school experiences of 16 Portuguese adults with intellectual disabilities. Results show differences between older and younger participants in their accounts of social relations and educational methods, which result from changes in special educational policies in Portugal. Overall, members of both groups evaluate their school experience positively. Our results indicate that although there is a move towards more inclusive schools, discrimination is still prevalent. These results are discussed in terms of their psychosocial consequences, as well as their implications for educational policies, and inclusion. This study contributes to a better understanding of the school experiences of people with intellectual disabilities and how policies impact them.

Instating settings of emergency education in Vienna: temporary schooling of pupils with forced migration backgrounds

PROYER, Michelle
BIEWER, Gottfried
KREUTER, Linda
WEIß, Jekaterina
2019

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In the year 2015, Austria was one of the main European destinations of displaced persons. According to education authoritiesaround 15,000 children with a forced migration background of school age who arrived in Austria over the course of a few months from late2015 to the beginning of 2016 called for immediate and partly temporary solutions. Due to Austrian legislation and unlike other countries,every child living in Austria between the ages of six to fifteen (or for nine years of schooling) is entitled to receive compulsory education. Though the school administration of Vienna generally promotes an inclusive approach to education in regular schools, schools inneighbourhoods with a large refugee population were reportedly unable to provide appropriate and adequate education for all children. Inresponse, the local school authority in Vienna decided to establish temporary classrooms in refugee accommodations. This article describesand analyses the emergence of new educational structures from the point of view of university students and lecturers who took part in theone and a half years of its implementation. The article thereby aims to document specific perspectives on educational emergency measuresat a certain point of time. In both the primary and secondary sectors, the emergence of a new temporary field of specialised and exceptional education were observed and recorded in a thick description of dynamic processes of trans-institutional, trans-organisational, transprofessional, communal, and individual development. Thus, the article presents a multifaceted picture of problems in refugee education under exceptional circumstances. The findings illustrate how insufficient educational opportunities for those falling outside the age of compulsory schooling – in particular, preschool children as well as youth older than fifteen – diminish possibilities for the inclusion of these children within and beyond education.

Standing alone: sexual minority status and victimisation in a rural lower secondary school

ODENBRING, Ylva
2019

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Studies worldwide indicate that sexual minority students often face different forms of bullying in everyday life at school, and young people growing up in communities with conservative values, such as in rural areas, are often in a particularly vulnerable position. Nonetheless, there is an absence of studies addressing the everyday lives of sexual minority students in rural schools. Drawing on interviews with students in the ninth grade of a rural lower secondary school in Sweden, the current study has investigated experiences of violence and harassment routinely directed at sexual minority students at school. The results indicate that the local gender regime is strongly framed by heteronormative values that position non-heterosexual students as the Other. Sexual minority students are exposed to homophobic name-calling on a daily basis, and threats and physical violence are also common. To fit in and to ‘survive’ in school, sexual minority students are forced to accept the homophobic name-calling and are sometimes also forced to physically fight back. This study concludes that it is important that schools address issues around violence directed towards non- heterosexual students, and that ways to create a more inclusive and safe school environment be identified.

Teachers talk on student needs: exploring how teacher beliefs challenge inclusive education in a Norwegian context

AAS, Hanne Kristin
2019

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This study explores teacher talk in the early phase of a project in a Norwegian elementary school where Lesson Study is used as a method for professional development. The study focuses on inclusion and aims to explore what beliefs about student needs and teacher role and responsibilities become evident, and how these beliefs can challenge development towards a more inclusive practice. To this end, content analysis is applied to audio recordings of teacher teams’ planning meetings. Despite an overall positive attitude towards inclusion, and inclusive structures in the school, findings point at factors in teachers’ beliefs that can challenge the inclusion process. These factors are: student needs understood as individual problems, adaptation understood as individualised and laborious and a limited view on teacher role, where their responsibility mainly regard academic learning.

The impact of disability on partnership formation in Sweden during 1990-2009

NAMATOVU, Fredinah
HÄGGSTRÖM LUNDEVALLER, Erling
VIKSTRÖM, Lotta
2019

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Evidence suggests that disability negatively affects people’s propen- sity to find a partner. Persons with disabilities that eventually find a partner do so later in life compared to the average population. There is a lack of studies on the differences in partnership opportu- nities for persons with disabilities compared to those without dis- abilities in Sweden. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of disability on partnership formation and to assess whether partner- ship formation varies as a function of individual demographic and socio-economic factors. We use nationwide data available in the Swedish Initiative for Research on Microdata in Social and Medical Sciences (Umeå SIMSAM Lab). We follow persons born from 1973 to 1977 when they were from 16 to 37 years of age and analyze their data using logistic regression. Our findings indicate that regardless of whether a person started to receive a disability pension at an early age or later, it was associated with lower odds for partnership forma- tion. For persons who started receiving disability pension from 16 to 20 years of age, chances for partnership formation reduced with increase in age of partnership. Individuals that started to receive disability pension later were more likely to form partnership prior to receiving disability pension. Partnership formation was less likely among persons born outside Sweden, in persons with mothers born outside Sweden, in individuals born by unmarried mothers and in persons, whose mothers had a high level of education. Partnership was high among women and among persons who had many mater- nal siblings. In conclusion, receiving disability pension was associated with reduced chances for partnership formation. Receiving disability pension might imply financial constraints that negatively influence partnership formation supporting Oppenheimer’s theory on the eco- nomic cost of marriage and the uncertainty hypothesis.

Content and Quality of Motor Initiatives in the Support of People With Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities

VAN ALPHEN, Helena J M
WANINGE, Aly
MINNAERT, Alexander E M G
VAN DER PUTTEN, Annette A J
2019

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Motor activation is rarely integrated into the support of people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD), which might be the result of the limited evidence-based knowledge in this field. Practitioners have recently been developing several motor initiatives for people with PIMD, but it remains unclear about what core elements the motor initiatives actually consist of and to what level of quality it is implemented in practice. This study aims to offer an overview and analysis of the content and quality of motor initiatives actually in use for people with PIMD. Motor initiatives were explored by asking practitioners to complete an online inventory form. Documents, expert knowledge, and observations were used to collect data about the characteristics of the motor initiatives. The quality of the motor initiatives which met our eligibility criteria, was analyzed on the basis of the level of evidence for their effectiveness. The inventory yielded 118 motor initiatives of which 17 met the eligibility criteria. We identified four motor initiatives reflecting an approach to motorically activate people with PIMD within various activities, three including power-assisted exercises, three with aquatic exercises, two frameworks which integrated motor activities into their daily programs, two methods which included small-scale activities, two rhythmic movement therapies, and one program including gross motor activities. We found limited indications for descriptive evidence from 17 initiatives, limited or no indications for theoretical evidence from 12 and five initiatives respectively, and none of the initiatives provided a causal level of evidence for effectiveness. A wide variety of motor initiatives is used in current practice to activate persons with PIMD, although their effectiveness is actually unproven. Science and practice should cooperate to develop an evidence-based understanding to ensure more evidence-based support for the motor activation of people with PIMD in the future.

Pain, fatigue, depressive symptoms and sleep disturbance in young adults with cerebral palsy

VAN GORP, Marloes
DALLMEIJER, Annet J
VAN WELY, Leontien
DE GROOT, Vincent
TERWEE, Caroline B
FLENS, Gerard
STAM, Henk J
VAN DER SLOT, Wilma
ROEBROECK, Marij E
December 2019

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Purpose: Investigate pain, fatigue, depressive symptoms and sleep disturbance in young adults with cerebral palsy compared to references.

 

Materials and methods: Young adults with cerebral palsy (n = 97, aged 21–34 years) and age-matched references from the general population (n = 190) rated pain using a numeric rating scale and fatigue, depressive symptoms, sleep disturbance and global health using Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System® short forms. Scores were compared between cerebral palsy subgroups and the reference population. Correlation coefficients and linear regression analyses assessed interrelationships of health issues and associations with global health.

 

Results: Individuals with Gross Motor Function Classification System level I had less pain, fatigue and depressive symptoms, while individuals with levels II and III–V had more pain (53% and 56%, p < 0.001) and those with levels III–V more fatigue (39%, p = 0.035) than references (pain: 26%, fatigue: 14%). Pain and fatigue were more interrelated (correlation coefficients: 0.71 vs. 0.41) and stronger associated with global mental health in individuals with cerebral palsy.

 

Conclusions: Young adults with Gross Motor Function Classification System levels II–V report more pain and those with levels III–V report more fatigue than references. Pain and fatigue are highly interrelated and specifically relate to mental health in individuals with cerebral palsy.

Disability inclusion helpdesk; evidence digest issue 2, December 2019

SDDirect
November 2019

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Produced by the Disability Inclusion Helpdesk. A summary of the latest evidence on disability inclusion in international development from programmes and researchers around the world are highlighted:

·         Access to health: the missing billion

·         Sexuality and disability for children and youth in China

·         Analysing INGO practice 

·         Disability and technology

·         Disability and inequality in Liberia 

·         Pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood in Nepal 

·         Violence against women and girls with disability in Nepal

 

Brief overviews are provided of policy and news from the UK, various UN organisations, Asia Pacific Social Protection Week and South Africa.

 

Brief updates of DFID's (UK Departments for International Development) funded programmes are given including: Disability Inclusive Development (DID) Programme; Inclusion Works; The Disability Catalyst Programme; Programme for Evidence to Inform Disability Action (PENDA), Innovating Pathways for Employment Inclusion (IPEI)

IASC Guidelines, Inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action

INTER-AGENCY STANDING COMMITTEE (IASC)
November 2019

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The guidelines set out essential actions that humanitarian actors must take in order to effectively identify and respond to the needs and rights of persons with disabilities who are most at risk of being left behind in humanitarian settings.

The recommended actions in each chapter place persons with disabilities at the centre of humanitarian action, both as actors and as members of affected populations. They are specific to persons with disabilities and to the context of humanitarian action and build on existing and more general standards and guidelines.

These are the first humanitarian guidelines to be developed with and by persons with disabilities and their representative organizations in association with traditional humanitarian stakeholders. Based on the outcomes of a comprehensive global and regional multi-stakeholder consultation process, they are designed to promote the implementation of quality humanitarian programmes in all contexts and across all regions, and to establish and increase both the inclusion of persons with disabilities and their meaningful participation in all decisions that concern them.

Optimising the performance of frontline implementers engaged in the NTD programme in Nigeria: lessons for strengthening community health systems for universal health coverage

OLUWULE, A
et al
November 2019

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This research article focuses on optimising the performance of frontline implementers engaged with NTD programme delivery in Nigeria. Three broad themes are examined: technical support, social support and incentives

Qualitative data was collected through participatory stakeholder workshops. Eighteen problem-focused workshops and 20 solution-focussed workshops were held  in 12 selected local government areas (LGA) across two states in Nigeria, Ogun and Kaduna States

 

Human Resources for Health, 2019 Nov 1;17(1):79

doi: 10.1186/s12960-019-0419-8

Disability stigma in the Inclusion Works programme countries: an overview of the evidence

ROHWERDER, Brigitte
November 2019

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This report draws on and expands previous work looking at disability stigma in developing countries (written for K4D) and information on stigma in the situational analyses and labour market assessments of the four Inclusion Works programme countries. Factors which contribute to disability stigma, differences in the extent of stigmatisation and issues measuring stigma are discussed. An overview of disability stigma in each of the specific countries (Kenya, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Uganda) is provided. Interventions to reduce disability stigma are outlined, including interpersonal, intrapersonal and governmental/institutional interventions.

 

The Inclusion Works programme (2018–2022), funded by the UK Department for International Development, aims to improve employment rates for people with disabilities in Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda.

 

The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the UK government or members of the Inclusion Works consortium.

Gaps in access and school attainments among people with and without disabilities: a case from Nepal

EIDE, Arne
LAMICHHANE, Kamal
NEUPANE, Shailes
November 2019

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Determinants of school achievement in Nepal among persons with and without disabilities as well as among each type of impairment were determined using data from a nationally representative disability inclusive survey collected in 2015.  The individual level data used in this article comprise 2123 persons with and 2000 persons without disabilities.

 

Disability and Rehabilitation

https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2019.1691272

 

How pain management for children with cerebral palsy in South African schools complies with up-to-date knowledge

JOHNSON, Ensa
NILSSON, Stefan
ADOLFSSON, Margareta
November 2019

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Background: Pain in children with cerebral palsy (CP) has its sources in musculoskeletal problems that can influence learning in a school setting. Best pain management is essential for these children, but school staff may not keep up to date with the latest developments and interventions. Therefore, staff’s perceptions of beneficial strategies may not comply with contemporary scientific knowledge about effective evidence-based interventions.

 

Objectives: This study investigated how pain management intervention for children with CP in South African schools complied with international scientific knowledge about evidence-based interventions. The intention was to provide support for an update of knowledge on both individual level (i.e. professionals) and system level (i.e. decision makers).

 

Method: Five focus groups were conducted with staff members at five schools for children with special educational needs in South Africa. Manifest and latent content analyses of professional statements identified interventions reported as beneficial and related them to higher and lower levels of intervention evidence as reported at the time of data collection.

 

Results: Most treatment strategies concerned motor functioning that fell within the framework of physiotherapists and occupational therapists. Access to orthopaedic expertise was limited, waiting times were long and medication for spasticity treatment was not offered.

 

Conclusion: A discrepancy between published evidence and clinical practice for pain management in children with CP in South African school settings was noted. Suggestions for improved early intervention to identify children’s hips at risk through surveillance programmes; and orthopaedic management are proposed to prevent deformities and unnecessary suffering in South African children with CP.

 

 

African Journal of Disability, Vol 8, 2019

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