South Africa has adopted an inclusive education policy in order to address barriers to learning in the education system. However, the implementation of this policy is hampered by the lack of teachers’ skills and knowledge in differentiating the curriculum to address a wide range of learning needs. In this paper we provided a background to inclusive education policy in South Africa and a brief exposition of an instructional design approach, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) that addresses a wide range of learning needs in a single classroom. We reported on a workshop conducted with teachers and therapists in South Africa as a first attempt to introduce UDL in this context. Knowledge of UDL was judged to be appropriate and useful by the course participants in the South African context as a strategy for curriculum differentiation in inclusive classrooms. Furthermore, knowledge of the UDL framework facilitates dialogue between teachers and therapists and provides a relatively simple and comprehensive approach for curriculum differentiation. We therefore conclude that there is potential for this approach that can be expanded through further teacher training.
Background: Rehabilitation is of fundamental importance for the persons with disability to achieve functional independence and have an improved quality of life. To enhance the effectiveness of rehabilitation, it is important to seek clients’ perspectives of the rehabilitation services and to incorporate these perspectives into the planning and delivery of rehabilitation services. The aim of this study was to explore the persons with physical disabilities’ experiences of the rehabilitation services they received at Community Health Centres (CHCs). Methods: In-depth qualitative interviews were used to collect data. Ten persons with physical disabilities, who had received rehabilitation services at CHCs participated in the in-depth interviews. The interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Results: The clients experienced problems with accessing transport and obtaining information from the service providers. Experiences regarding clients’ involvement in the rehabilitation were varied. All the clients reported positive experiences regarding their interaction with service providers and family involvement. Conclusion: The experiences of the participants who accessed CHCs for rehabilitation were positive and negative. The service providers should therefore address the aspects of rehabilitation that were negatively experienced.
Although most people with intellectual disability remain under the lifelong care and support of their families, there is a hiatus in research that explores the sexuality of people with intellectual disability within the family setting. Little is known about how the responses of family caregivers align with a human rights approach to the sexuality of people with intellectual disability, particularly in the South African context. This study used a constructivist grounded theory approach to explore how 25 South African family caregivers responded to the sexuality of their young adults with intellectual disability. Findings revealed that family caregivers prioritise what they deem as being the immediate needs of themselves and the young adults, over the young adults' rights to sexual autonomy. Practitioners, guided by the human rights approach, need to understand the individual and family context so as to better collaborate with family caregivers in supporting people with intellectual disability to realise their sexual rights. We apply two theories of needs to illuminate the conflict between needs-centred ethics and human rights approaches in a context where the family caregivers are the ones determining the sexuality needs of young adults with intellectual disability.
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