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In Disability Studies the evolution of conceptual models is often portrayed as linear, with a nineteenth-century charity model shifting to the medical model that dominated disability discourse in the twentieth century. This is then assumed to be largely unchallenged until the 1970s, when an emergent Disability Rights Movement re-framed issues into the social model, from which evolved a rights-based model. This paper documents two early efforts to address disability issues submitted to the League of Nations: the Crippled Child’s Bill of Rights in 1931 and a ‘Memorial’ requesting the establishment of an International Bureau of Information on Crippled Children in 1929. Neither submission achieved its stated goals, yet both reflect early attempts to place disability within wider social contexts.

This paper offers a review of Critical disability studies (CDS), an approach which challenges the predominantly materialist outlook of more conventional approaches to the study of disability. The paper “reviews the ideas behind the development of CDS and analyses and critiques some of its key ideas. Starting with a brief overview of the main theorists and approaches contained within CDS, the paper then moves on to normative issues; namely, to the ethical and political applicability of CDS”
Disability & Society, Volume 29, Issue 4

Critical disability studies (CDS) has emerged as an approach to the study of disability over the last decade or so and has sought to present a challenge to the predominantly materialist line found in the more conventional disability studies approaches. In much the same way that the original development of the social model resulted in a necessary correction to the overly individualized accounts of disability that prevailed in much of the interpretive accounts which then dominated medical sociology, so too has CDS challenged the materialist line of disability studies. In this paper we review the ideas behind this development and analyse and critique some of its key ideas. The paper starts with a brief overview of the main theorists and approaches contained within CDS and then moves on to normative issues; namely, to the ethical and political applicability of CDS.

Purpose: The Rapid Assessment of Disability (RAD) questionnaire was developed to provide governments and development agencies with an appropriate instrument to determine the prevalence of people with disability within theirtarget populations, and to design and evaluate the effectiveness of disability inclusive activities in addressing their priorities and needs.

Method: The RAD questionnaire was developed using two conceptual frameworks: the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Existing instruments were reviewed to inform the structure and content of the RAD questionnaire. The RAD questionnaire that was developed for field testing in Bangladesh comprised both a household questionnaire and a questionnaire for individuals within each household, with 5 sections: 1) Demographic information, 2) Assessment of functioning, 3) Awareness of rights of people with disability, 4) Well-being and quality of life, 5) Participation in the community. Prior to field-testing the RAD questionnaire in Bangladesh, a qualitative study was conducted to ensure the relevance of the questionnaire in the context of a developing country. In-depth interviews with 9 people with disability and a focus group of 8 parents of children with disability were conducted in Dhaka, Bangladesh. 

Results:Qualitative findings highlighted factors relevant to the lives of people with disability in Bangladesh, including discrepancies between the awareness and attainment of rights for people with disability, the wellbeing of people withdisability and their families, as well as numerous barriers to full participation in their community. While the findings confirmed that the design and content of the questionnaire reflected all these aspects, some changes were made to the items in the questionnaire to ensure that it reflected the views of people with disability from the context of a developing country.

Conclusion and Implications: This qualitative study was an important step in the development of the RAD questionnaire as it helped to achieve its aim - namely, to establish the prevalence of disability and to assist in the design and evaluation of disability inclusive interventions in the setting of a developing country.

Purpose: Children with cerebral palsy who have associated feeding difficulties are at risk of aspiration and poor nutrition. This study aimed to measure the changes in knowledge, confidence, anxiety and behaviour among 25 Sri Lankan mothers with responsibility for feeding children diagnosed with cerebral palsy, after they attended an experiential workshop.

Method: Data collection was done through pre- and post-workshop questionnaires, observations and semi-structured interviews.

Results: There was a significant improvement in reported levels of knowledge and confidence and a decrease in the caregivers’ level of anxiety during mealtimes. The qualitative data analysis indicated changes in participant knowledge, particularly about the signs of aspiration and positioning during mealtimes. Observations showed better adherence to recommendations on communication, bolus size and utensils.

Conclusion: The findings support the utility of experiential training for caregivers, to ensure that children with cerebral palsy are fed safely.

Reviews

• Organisations of Persons with Disabilities and Community-based Rehabilitation

Original Research Articles

• Perceptions about Barriers to Sexual and Reproductive Health Information and Services among Deaf People in Ghana
• The Rapid Assessment of Disability – Informing the Development of an Instrument to Measure the Effectiveness of Disability Inclusive Development Through a Qualitative Study in Bangladesh
• Evaluation of Environmental Barriers faced by Wheelchair Users in India
• Effect of an Experiential Dysphagia Workshop on Caregivers’ Knowledge, Confidence, Anxiety and Behaviour During Mealtimes

Brief reports

• Use of Skype to Educate Underprivileged Blind Children in India: Motivations, Barriers and Teaching Strategies

Experiential Accounts

• Protecting Children with Disabilities from Violence in CBR Projects: Why we need to work with a different form of child protection policy for children with disabilities
• CBR for Inclusion of People with Mental Illness

Case Studies

The Role of Resource Information Centres in the Community Based Rehabilitation Framework

Original Research Articles

• Challenges Faced by Malaysians with Disabilities in the World of Employment
• Risks to Client Confidentiality when Communicating Health Information to Blind and Partially Sighted Persons
• Leprosy: Knowledge and Attitudes of Physiotherapists in Nigeria
• Inclusive Education in Bangladesh: Are Pre-service Teachers Ready to Accept Students with Special Educational Needs in Regular Classes?
• Factors related to Recovery and Relapse in Persons with Stuttering Following Treatment: A Preliminary Study
• Problem Behaviour and Academic Grade Level Performance of Adjudicated Children with Juvenile Delinquency

Brief reports

• Excluded in Inclusive Schools: Experiences of Children with Disabilities, their Families and Teachers in Sri Lanka
• Perceptions of Primary Caregivers of Children with Disabilities in two Communities from Sindh and Balochistan, Pakistan
• Accessibility of Students with Physical Disability to Washrooms in Bungoma Bus Terminus, Kenya

Letters to the Editor

• Disease and Disability in the Elderly: A Call for Research
• Disability Evaluation Related to Movement Disorders in India: A Need for Policy Revision

Original Research Articles

• Impact of Community-based Rehabilitation on Persons with Different Disabilities
• Empowerment in Community-based Rehabilitation and Disability-inclusive Development
• Caregiver's Involvement in Early Intervention for Children with Communication Disorders
• The Relationship Between Gross Motor Function and Quality of Life Among Children with Cerebral Palsy
• India’s Disability Policy – Analysis of Core Concepts of Human Rights
• Presentation and Impact of Pain in Persons with Post-Polio Syndrome: A Cross-sectional Survey Study

Brief reports

• Barriers and Facilitators to Family-centred Paediatric Physiotherapy Practice in the Home setting: A Pilot Study

Experiential Accounts

• Total Hip Arthroplasty Rehabilitation in Cambodia

This article presents the results of the first scoping review to examine the extent, nature and range of disability among people living with HIV in HIV hyper-endemic countries. The studies indicate that people living with HIV experience a variety of disabilities. Impairments in body structure/function comprise the majority of data, with particular focus on mental function. Data on activity limitations and participation restriction were limited, however, they were recorded. They indicate severe impact on people’s life and possible adherence. The review argues that the time has come to elevate the focus holistically on health and life-related consequences of living with HIV and to integrate disability into the discussions and approaches to HIV care

World Journal of Aids, Vol 3, No 3