What Psychotherapists Should Know about Disability

Kenya is said to be among the few countries of sub-Saharan Africa that have achieved Universal Primary Education, Education for All and achieved most Millennium Development Goals. However, research shows for some children access is limited in mainstream schools, while others lacked access at all. Kenya is a signatory to the 1994 Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action and committed to creating inclusive schools. This study explores the challenges facing the creation of inclusive schools and efforts being made to include children with special educational needs in mainstream schools. It identified the impact of inclusion for children with SEN after the Salamanca Statement in 1994 and teachers' understanding of disability and inclusive education. It concludes with an analysis of the barriers to inclusion within the mainstream schools studied.
 
The research strategy explored a single revelatory case for an in-depth understanding of the current inclusion in a Kenyan rural Education Zone through a qualitative paradigm. An interpretivist epistemology approach is adopted to construct the interview questions and observations. A representative sample of seventeen teachers from government-funded primary and secondary schools and ten parents in one focus group were the target of this study. What has emerged from the research using thematic data analysis to establish findings, was that mainstream school teachers have limited understanding of disability, special educational needs and inclusive teaching. As with communities in general, stereotyping, discrimination and negative attitudes were found to be more personalised with teachers. In addition, lack of teacher education on special needs, professional development and confidence to teach children with diverse needs in the same classroom with non-disabled peers were significant barriers.
 
Based on the study's findings, policy shift is recommended to promote inclusive education. Funding is required to enable schools to develop a supportive child-friendly environment that is physically safe, emotionally secure and psychologically enabling, supported by intensified teacher training and professional development. Most of all, there is a need to develop inclusion support materials guided by policy and legislation to support the implementation of inclusive schools. This study contributes to academic knowledge by extending the concept of inclusive education as the most operational means of combating segregation in education, discriminatory cultural ideologies and building cohesive communities. This research will provide insight to teachers, parents, children, communities, policy formulation, and will ignite an inclusion debate in Kenya and other developing nations in a similar position.

An exploration of inclusive education for children with special educational needs in Kenya twenty years after the Salamanca Statement

This study is about the quality of life of Samoans with a disability in Aotearoa New Zealand. It looks at what quality of life means to them. From their personal stories, they described it in four ways: independent living, normal life, connectedness to family and culture, and performance of social roles. The factors that assist or prevent quality of life were identified. Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, capital, field and doxa helped to explain how they go about improving their quality of life and the struggles that come with it.

Quality of Life: A Phenomenological study of the experiences of Samoans with a disability in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand

Background: Despite its acceptability, the term disability has not been able to shirk the sense of incompleteness, lack, deprivation and incapacitation embodied in the prefix ‘dis-’. The current wave of anti-discrimination on disability issues, calls for constant re-examination of the language and the appellations we use in respect of people with disabilities. Objectives: The aim of this study is to subject the term disability to some relevancy litmus test with a view to prevent it from acquiring Lyotard’s ‘grand narrative’ and to propose and argue for the term ‘differently abled’ because of its transformative and anti-discriminatory slant. Method: The study took the form of a literature review using the optic of Derrida’s hierarchy of binaries and the Sesotho proverb, ‘ Bitso-lebe-ke seromo ’, (A bad name is ominous) to explore the connotations of the term disability as a disenfranchising social construct. Results: Read through the lens of Derrida’s idea of difference, disability as a concept has no inherent meaning and its meaning derives from its being differentiated from other concepts. Viewed through the lens of Bitso-lebe-ke seromo and read in the context of its deep symbolical significance, the term disability holds immense spiritual power. Conclusion: The study concludes that the term disability or disabled is exclusionary, stigmatizing, and anti-transformational. As such it embodies imperfection, incapacitation and inferiority. Not only is it ominous, it places upon people with disability the perpetual mark of unattractiveness. Against this background the term differently abled seems to convey more empowering overtones than the term disability.

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Being differently abled: disability through the lens of hierarchy of binaries and Bitso-lebe-ke Seromo

Urban parks are spaces that can enhance older adults' physical, social and psychological wellbeing. As the prevalence of older adults with disability increases, it is important that urban parks are accessible to this population so that they too might gain health benefits. There is limited literature investigating the experiences of urban parks by older adults with disability. This qualitative study, set in a region of New Zealand, explored the experiences, including accessibility, of urban parks by 17 older adults (55 years and older) with self-reported disabilities. Three focus groups (n = 4, 5 and 4 people) and four individual interviews were undertaken. Data were analyzed using the General Inductive Approach. Two primary themes of "Enticing" and "Park use considerations" are presented. Urban parks and green spaces are perceived to provide an environment for older adults with a disability to improve their physical, psychosocial and spiritual health, and social connectedness. Parks that are not age, ability or culture diverse are uninviting and exclusive. Meaningful collaboration between park designers, city councils and people with disability is required to maximize the public health benefits of parks and make parks inviting and accessible for users of all ages, cultures and abilities. Park co-design with people with disability may provide one means of improving accessibility and park usability and thus park participation by older adults with disability.

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"Enticing" but Not Necessarily a "Space Designed for Me": Experiences of Urban Park Use by Older Adults with Disability.

Critical reflection on the importance of shaping disability-friendly – or disability-inclusive – congregations has enjoyed increasing attention in the field of practical theology in recent years. Moreover, the development of disability theology is a testament to the fact that practical theologians and the wider church community have taken serious notice of the realities and experiences of people with disabilities in our time. Nevertheless, even before the task of engaging in theological reflection from a disability perspective commences, it is necessary that theologians acquaint themselves with the various models of disability that shape people’s perceptions and ideas about people with disabilities. Guided by the principles of the interpretive task of practical theological investigation and cognizant of the importance of models of disability in shaping perceptions regarding people with disabilities, this article seeks to provide a brief overview of nine of the most dominant models of disability that are prevalent in our time. We shall utilise the typological approach to theoretical analysis in order to outline the basic characteristics of the various models.

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Marno Retief

Papers

Models of disability: A brief overview