Trials and Tribulations of Collecting Evidence on Effectiveness in Disability-Inclusive Development: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Disability-inclusive development is important because there are a billion people with disabilities, and they often fall behind in income, education, health, and wellbeing. More and better evidence is needed on the effectiveness of how development interventions include and target people with disabilities. This review outlines some of the methodological challenges facing impact evaluations of disability-inclusive development interventions. Identifying people with disabilities is complex. Most approaches focus on impairment or functional limitations. They may or may not recognise environmental or personal factors, which influence the experience of disability. The Washington Group Short Set is widely endorsed for disability assessment; the addition of anxiety and depression items may enhance this tool further. The appropriate outcomes for the impact evaluation should be selected based on the aims and target audience of the intervention, the availability of appropriate tools, and after consultation with people with disabilities. New and better tools are needed to measure the range of impacts that may occur with greater accuracy, including impacts that are direct/indirect, proximal/distal, intended/unintended, and positive/negative. Disaggregation of data by impairment type is recommended to understand the effectiveness of interventions for different groups where the sample size is sufficient to allow meaningful comparisons. The inclusion of people with disabilities throughout the research process will improve the quality and acceptability of the study conducted.

A path toward disability-inclusive health in Zimbabwe Part 1: A qualitative study on access to healthcare

“…A path toward disability-inclusive health requires more than consideration of the potential barriers and perceived challenges to inclusive health; key actions to improve accessibility are needed. Demand and supply factors for health service delivery, as conceptualised by the Missing Billion framework (Hogan 2020 ; Kuper & Heydt 2020 ; Litullo 2019 ), need to be identified and improved. In Zimbabwe, there is a clear need for improved education on healthcare needs for people with disabilities, support to afford healthcare such as through social protection and tackling issues around self-stigma.…”

Faculty of Education Professors’ Perception about the Inclusion of University Students with Disabilities

“…According to the results obtained, we have to make several recommendations to guide future interventions and address university professors’ permanent training [ 40 ]. The first conclusion is that there is a general lack of knowledge about the existence and functioning of the care and support services for people with disabilities in universities.…”

More Than Just Assistive Devices: How a South African Social Enterprise Supports an Environment of Inclusion

“…Disability inclusion is not just about managing impairments. It is also about challenging structural and attitudinal barriers in the broader environment so as to effect community-led and practical movement toward inclusion, a goal which is valuable for both disabled and non-disabled people [ 75 ]. Resources also ought to be directed toward gathering strong evidence from around the world and identifying sustainable, contextually relevant approaches to improving the lives and inclusion of disabled people in the global south [ 76 ].…”