An understanding of rural communities is fundamental to effective community-based rehabilitation work with persons with disabilities. By removing barriers to community participation, persons with disabilities are enabled to satisfy their fundamental human needs. However, insufficient attention has been paid to the challenges that rural community disability workers (CDWs) face in trying to realise these objectives. This qualitative interpretive study, involving in-depth interviews with 16 community disability workers in Botswana, Malawi and South Africa, revealed the complex ways in which poverty, inappropriately used power and negative attitudes of service providers and communities combine to create formidable barriers to the inclusion of persons with disabilities in families and rural communities. The paper highlights the importance of understanding and working with the concept of ‘disability’ from a social justice and development perspective. It stresses that by targeting attitudes, actions and relationships, community disability workers can bring about social change in the lives of persons with disabilities and the communities in which they live.
While negotiating partnerships with disabled entrepreneurs, the six spheres within which optimal interaction could take place emerged as: (i) the choice of occupation; (ii) changing a culture of receiving; (iii) nurturing teamwork by negotiating roles and responsibilities; (iv) a focus on ability; (v) understanding the research process; and (vi) organizational development dynamics. Committed interaction emerged as the quintessence of these partnerships.
This paper explores access to health and education for disabled youth in sites with and without community rehabilitation workers (CRWs). A cross-sectional survey using a structured questionnaire was undertaken in nine sites in South Africa, and a snowball sample of 523 disabled youths of both sexes, aged between 18 and 35 years, was selected. The survey found that a significantly larger proportion of disabled youth living in sites with CRWs were seen by health care workers at home, and that there was a large difference in educational access between sites with and without CRWs. CRWs are well positioned to promote equal citizenship for disabled youth through service learning with occupational therapy final year students to improve access to health and education, so that barriers to their participation in economic development are removed.Cet article traite de l'accès à la santé et à l'éducation pour les jeunes handicapés avec et sans agents communautaires de réhabilitation (ACR). Une enquête trans-sectionnelle, utilisant un questionnaire structuré, a été entreprise dans neuf sites en Afrique du Sud, et un échantillon « boule de neige » de 523 jeunes handicapés des deux sexes, âgés de 18 à 35 ans, a été sélectionné. L'enquête a conclu qu'un pourcentage considérablement supérieur de jeunes handicapés vivant sur des sites dotés d'ACR étaient aidés par des agents sanitaires à domicile, et qu'il y avait une importante différence d'accès à l'éducation entre les sites dotés d'ACR et ceux n'en ayant pas. Les ACR sont en bonne position pour promouvoir une citoyenneté égale pour les jeunes handicapés à travers un apprentissage sur les services avec des étudiants en dernière année d'études d'ergothérapie pour améliorer l'accès à la santé et à l'éducation, afin que les barrières entravant leur participation au développement économique soient éliminées.El presente artículo examina el acceso a servicios de salud y de educación por parte de jóvenes discapacitados en lugares que tienen, o que no tienen, el apoyo de trabajadores comunitarios de rehabilitación (TCR). Con este objetivo se realizó una encuesta transversal que abarcó nueve localidades de Sudáfrica, en la cual participaron 523 jóvenes discapacitados de ambos sexos, cuyas edades se encuentran entre 18 y 35 años. Los mismos fueron seleccionados mediante la aplicación de un muestreo de bola de nieve. Para la realización de la encuesta se aplicó un cuestionario estructurado. Esta reveló que una proporción significativa de los jóvenes discapacitados que habitan en localidades en las que existe el apoyo de TCR son atendidos en sus hogares por trabajadores de salud, constatándose la existencia de una enorme diferencia en el acceso a la educación de los mismos entre las localidades que cuentan con TCR y aquellas en las que estos no están presentes. Los TCR promueven una ciudadanía igualitaria entre los jóvenes discapacitados a través del aprendizaje en servicio, el cual implica la participación de estudiantes de terapia ocupacional de último año, en aras de mejorar el acceso a s...
This article draws on accounts by community-based disability workers (CDWs) of their life and work experiences in resource-limited rural communities in Botswana, Malawi and South Africa. Using the World Health Organisation's community-based rehabilitation (CBR) matrix and the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals as analytic frameworks, the article explores CDWs' potential to contribute to improving the lives and increasing the levels of social, economic and political inclusion of people with disabilities, their families and communities. The article argues that CDWs' knowledge, experience and understanding of disability in resourcelimited communities may constitute an important local resource for helping to address the inter-related effects of poverty and disability in developing countries.
OBJECTIVE: Disability limits access to education and employment, and leads to economic and social exclusion. This study compared barriers to employment among disabled and non-disabled youth in South Africa. METHODS AND PARTICIPANTS: Fieldworkers interviewed 989 youth [18-35 years; 523 (52.9%) disabled, 466 (47.1%) non-disabled] at nine sites in five provinces (Gauteng, North West, Kwazulu Natal, Western Cape, Free State). Differences in employment between disabled and non-disabled youth were described and logistic regression analyses were used to predict barriers to employment within both groups. RESULTS: Employment differed between disabled and non-disabled youth (32.9% vs. 13.1%; p 0.001). Lack of job availability and skills were associated significantly with unemployment among non-disabled youth. For disabled youth, unemployment was additionally associated with social attitudes and poor health. CONCLUSIONS: This research showed that disabled youth are facing more barriers to employment compared to non-disabled youth and that the unemployment rate among disabled youth is higher. Disabled youth thus faced additional challenges to employment and special attention must be given to reduce these barriers.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.