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This policy paper describes the operational terms of Handicap International’s mandate and values as applied to Mother, Neonatal and Child Health (MNCH). Presenting the approaches and references underpinning Handicap International’s actions, choices and commitments, its purpose is to ensure consistency across its practices while taking account of different contexts. Intended as a document to guide programme staff, the paper defines the topic, describes the target populations and sets out the methods of intervention (activities and expected results) and the indicators used to monitor and evaluate. It also aims to ensure that Handicap International programmes implement all projects in accordance with the presented methods of intervention

The SDGs focus on a broader scope of activities and are thus slowly but surely shifting from mortality to address in a more comprehensive manner the well-being and achievement of maximum potential for children and adolescents. With a robust component in sexual and reproductive health, this represents a significant frame of reference for Handicap International’s work in MNCH as it has paved the way for integrating MNCH-related impairments into existing health services. The framework of the SDGs provides a clear vision of the importance of multi-sectorial interventions, which encompass the limit of vertically-organised health systems centred on curative aspects, to offer a more integrated and preventive package of interventions that include chronic conditions, impairments and health for all. After many years of implementing MNCH projects, Handicap International is well-positioned and firmly established as a major player in this process.

This study was carried out to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of society towards children with disabilities, the children themselves, and their peers in Malaysia. The study took place in Selangor, Kelantan, Sabah and Sarawak. There were 756 total respondents/participants including government ministries, community members, service providers, care givers and children and adolescents both with and without disabilities. 

This publication provides introductory chapters from two activists who work to create better opportunities for people with disabilities in Nigeria and India. Subsequently, the challenges that organisations worldwide have encountered whilst improving the access to and knowledge of sexual and reproductive health and rights for people with disabilities are presented. Ways in which they managed to find solutions and the results achieved are reviewed. Some cases show the importance of a more personal approach whilst others emphasise the advantage of changing systems and policies. Different regions, types of disabilities and various SRHR-topics are reflected in these stories. All cases provide lessons learnt that contribute to a set of recommendations for improved responses. The closing chapter highlights the challenges, solutions, and ambitions that are presented and lead up to a concise overview of recommendations.  

Good practice examples include:

A shift in SRH programming (Nepal)

Breaking Barriers with performance art (Kenya)

Her Body, Her Rights (Ethiopia)

People with disabilities leading the way (Israel Family Planning Association)

Best Wishes for safe motherhood (Nepal)

It’s my body! (Bangladesh)

Calling a spade a spade (Netherlands)

Four joining forces (Colombia)

Change agents with a disability (Zimbabwe)

Tito’s privacy and rights (Argentina)

Sign language for service providers (Kenya)

The main aims of this project were to document current knowledge about the intersectionality between sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), communication disability and refugees, to identify any reported good practice, and to begin to understand and describe the challenges to supporting refugee-survivors of SGBV with communication disability, in Rwanda. The project involved 54 participants, including 50 humanitarian and partner organisation staff and four carers of refugees with communication disabilities, from two locations (camp-based and urban refugees).

International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology,  20:1, 44-49,

DOI: 10.1080/17549507.2017.1392608

This review considers education and training available to personnel who provide wheelchair and seating assistive technology to meet personal posture and mobility requirements within low and lower middle income countries (LLMIC), to ascertain where gaps in knowledge exist and identify human resource education priorities. A scoping review, mapping out existing scientific and grey literature within the field between 1993 and 2017 was conducted.

https://doi.org/10.1080/17483107.2017.1392621

Journal of Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology, Volume 14, 2019 - Issue 1

Aim: Good practices have been documented by International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) to promote disability inclusive development and encourage the replication or scaling up of good practices that use rights based approaches. This study aimed to investigate the extent to which Core Concepts of human rights are illustrated in disability inclusive development good practices related to health.

Methods: This study analysed case studies of disability inclusive development good practices focusing on health that are available in the public domain using EquiFrame, an established content analysis framework in benchmarking health and social policies.

Results: A total of 42 health related good practices were identified from 3 different INGOs working in the field of disability inclusive development. The highest occurring human rights Core Concepts were; access 55%, individualised services 48%, capacity building 45% and participation 38%. The Core Concepts with the lowest levels of commitment were; autonomy 3%, cultural responsiveness 3%, accountability 3%, and efficiency 3%. Privacy and autonomy were not mentioned at all. The quality of reporting of the core concepts of human rights was low as they did not state specific programme actions or intentions to monitor Core Concepts.

Conclusion: Level of commitment to Core Concept coverage and quality of reporting was low. EquiFrame was successfully extended to analyse disability inclusive development good practices focusing on health. Its use in further analysis of inclusive good practice is advised.

Implications: These results can be used for advocacy in disability inclusive development and to guide programme staff training and documentation of disability inclusive development good practices.

Purpose: This study attempts to ascertain if adaptive behaviour complies with the characteristics of a normal distribution.

Methods: Adaptive behaviour data collected from two large state samples of 2900 were reviewed to determine the shape of their distributions. A smaller convenience sample of 37 adults without intellectual disability was similarly reviewed.  

Results: Findings suggest that the shape of the distribution of adaptive behaviour increasingly deviates from normal as cognitive abilities increase.   

Conclusions/Implications: It does not appear that adaptive behaviour is normally distributed. This will impact the diagnosis of intellectual disability because while IQ scores two standard deviations below the mean reliably cut off about 2% of the population, a similar cut-off cannot be assumed for adaptive behaviour.

Purpose: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a lifelong developmental disability characterised by difficulties in social interaction and social communication, and restricted and repetitive behaviour (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Despite its prevalence the world over, there is a paucity of research in some areas such as education, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper attempts to address the gap by exploring teachers’ understanding of ASD in Nigeria.

Method: Using an adapted version of the Knowledge About Childhood Autism Among Health Workers (KCAHW) questionnaire (Bakare et al, 2008), a survey was conducted among 177 mainstream primary teachers from Lagos State (112 from eleven urban schools and 65 from four rural schools).

Results: The total mean score on the Adapted KCAHW questionnaire among all the participating teachers was 10.81 ± 4.13 out of a possible total of 16. The mean score for urban teachers was 11.21 ± 4.31, while the mean score for rural teachers was 10.11 ± 3.75. In total, 46% of the urban teachers and 31% of the rural teachers demonstrated a generally accurate knowledge of ASD, with 15% (23 urban teachers and 4 rural teachers) of the sample answering all questions correctly.  Over 50% of urban teachers and almost 70% of rural teachers surveyed had only a low or moderate understanding of ASD.

Conclusions: This research supports previous studies that identified low professional knowledge and understanding of ASD, and a need for improved professional education and training. 

Limitations: The focus was on only one state within Nigeria, and only on mainstream primary schools. Further research is necessary across the educational age range as well as different geographical areas in the country.

One of the most powerful claims of disability theology is that the rejection of persons with disabilities somehow correlates with a rejection of God. This ‘correlative rejection’ is, however, frequently just stated rather than explored in detail, something this article therefore seeks to remedy by examining one example of the correlative rejection that draws together the ethical concerns of theologians writing on intellectual disability with Meister Eckhart’s teaching on the human relationship with God. Here, the correla- tive rejection is exposed as an inevitable result of the narrow emphasis on autonomy and rationality in human self-perception which shape the habituated, even ritualised ways that we try to know persons with intellectual disabilities and God. By contrast, truly knowing and relating to persons with intellectual disabilities, God, and finally also ourselves, relies on a reconciliation with the dependence, vulnerability, and non-rational forms of exchange that a narrow attachment to autonomy and rationality seems directly to occlude. The correlative rejection thus signals both a practical and epistemological problem which results from how we view ourselves and how we subsequently relate to and try to know others, the harmful effects of which are both ethical and spiritual.