Disability Studies - Science topic

No offense to Brandon Thomas, but I would not use Hergenhahn. His book is too prone to errors. See attached article for a few examples and I could add others. Now, the attached is somewhat dated, but editions after he might have corrected some of the errors he had not done so. Also, I retired from teaching years ago, and the only textbook I have seen in recent years, which I do recommend, is Fancher and Rutherford's Pioneers in Psychology (5th Edition, 2017). Fancher (older male) is a long-established historian of psychology and Rutherford (younger female) is a rising star whose specialty is history and theory of psychology. I will close by saying I have many publications in HoP broadly defined to include behavioral neuroscience, and I taught gradate-level HoP for 18 years and at the undergraduate level, maybe, 5-7 times. All my publications, if anyone wants any, are listed at:

Email any requests or questions to rkthomas@uga.edu

Prof. Oswell Namasasu in the case of e-learning, LMS such as Moodle has accessibility modules and probably even plugins:

Accessibility is one of the principal requirements to be checked for any VLE in online education.

Best Regards.

Have you checked the respective papers:

Black feminist disability frameworks have already been suggested and developed, e.g.:

Thank you all for your answers!

Pamela Manning I have conducted research with my daughter for many years. Sofie Daae Kversøy has a profile here on ResearchGate. Sofie has a severe intellectual disability. We have conducted research together with me as a facilitator and Sofie as the explorer and developer. You can see pour first joint article here: http://www.iaclp.org/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/5_Kjartan.13104701.pdf

In connection with this research I made a thorough inquiry with NSD - Norwegian Centre for Research Data. My challenge was the ethics challenge in research like this. Special challenges: I am her father, she has a severe intellectual disability, she was only 12 years old at the time of writing the article, I wanted her presented with full name since she had done most of the actual exploration and development and I felt she needed credit for being an important co-researcher in the project. Sofie started participating in this project at age 5.

Parents can give consent to children with intellectual disabilities participating in research. With people with ID over age 18 you need to find out if the person with intellectual disability is legally allowed to give consent themselves or if they have a person that needs to be asked to help them with this. People with intellectual disabilities should have the same possibilities to participate in research and be co-researchers.

From an ethics perspective (I am a philosopher with special knowledge in ethics): I think the intentions are important. Do you do this research with the intent that it should be beneficial for the people involved? Is there strong transparency in the project? Is the project understandable (recognizable) for the people involved? The value of knowledge creation can be understood as (Kurt Lewin): Research that gives the participants a better mastering of the situation they are in and research that also gives the participants a better mastering of the relations they are in.

What kind of self-administered questionnaire are there: https://adaa.org/screening-posttraumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd

PTSD scale can be downloaded from the link. You can use BDI, BAI and other available scales. here is my paper you can get an idea from:

yes. go to

Our take on this "what happens after constantly having been attached to ventilator for 50 years?" :

Here you are although you asked the question 4 years ago:)

May be our paper gives you some ideas:

Thanks alot

thank you Joby Titus sir..useful information

You should see the work of Prof, .Shalhevet Attar-Schwartz from Israel.

To be exact, you could ask a statistician to assist you, it quite difficult for me to explain it here. 

Our team includes persons on the autism spectrum who have an intellectual disability in our research activities; however, not all persons on the autism spectrum have an intellectual disability. 

In short, scenario in urban planning is a vision one would like to accomplish over time, for which one needs plans. For different visions we need different plans.

My request to you is to provide the text in English if your work is about lexical organization even in Typically Developing (TD) population.

Thank you

Disability Studies Quarterly offers open access articles on a variety of issues: http://dsq-sds.org/

Thank you very much for raising this valuable and inspiring question that also has attracted my research attention recently. Digital literacy has not yet been fully recognized as field for inclusion and special education. For an evidence-based and data driven inclusion to be achieved, intelligent learning and behaviour  assessments and adaptive intervention systems are needed at schools. I am greatly looking forward to discuss the opportunities for such a research endeavour. Best regards, morena

The Center for Relationships and and Sexual education may have one. Here is their website. 

Please find attached some literature to assist you.

Hi Tom,

the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM) might be worth checking out.  It's a 50 question verbal recognition test that's been shown to have sensitivity to malingering but robust enough to use with cognitive impairment (and as I understanding it, intellectual disability population).  Have a look and see what you think.

Good luck,

Tamily

Most data I've seen is related to people's acceleration rates in specific situations. For example T. Korhonen collected data on pedestrian flow characteristics and observed that the acceleration distribution "bear a resemblance" to a normal distribution with an average of 0.68 m/s² with a maximum of  1.44 m/s²

In many models the acceleration parameter is calibrated to achieve a certain flow rate characteristic. I've seen ranges like 0.5 to 1.1 seconds for agents to achieve their maximum velocity.

A 2016 paper by Peng Lin et al., see link below, does discuss acceleration in FDS+Evac and Usain Bolt's maximum acceleration which they quote as 3.09m/s²

Ozan,

You may want to look at following papers:

A serious mental definciency (with QI less than 15-20) usually indicates loss of autonomy in activities of daily living.

You may use the UN Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons as a starting point of comparison and drafting the ideas for research. It is also worth to understand what type of policy analysis should be used - retrospective (what had been already done) or perspective (what should be done, what alternatives may work in the given context).

Dear Nicholas and Enrico, thank you for your referencies.

Best reguasrds

Hi Usama,

Not sure exactly what you are looking for but I have attached a couple of articles which may or may not be of use.  

You may need to have it translated, but you could consider using the M-CHAT. It is a free Autism screening tool for children 16-30 months old. It has a high false positive rate to make sure kids don't fall through the cracks (to make sure they then receive a comprehensive evaluation). It's available at: https://m-chat.org/print.php

Hi Rosie

This might be slightly off topic, but we recently conducted a study examining client, carer, and clinical psychologists' perceptions of barriers and facilitators to therapeutic change within an intellectual disability setting. Although our study did not look at quantitative consensus in relation to social competency, etc., the paper may be useful background reading for highlighting aspects of convergence and divergence between individuals with an ID, their carers, and the professionals involved with them.

As with other comments, universal design is not disability design per se. It should accommodate people from birth to death and all the different events,( physical, social, emotional, cognitive) that can happen to people either from birth or during their lives. UD is about all design, not just the built environment. The Engineering Design Centre at the University of Cambridge (UK) has done a lot of work on product development. The European organisation AAATE talks of UD and assistive technology as being on a continuum. At one end designs of generic things cater for most situations and people and at the other end is specialised designs and technology to suit individuals. What is often required is a mix of both. Classic example is that a ramp cannot make a person walk, but a ramp facilitates access on the ramp. Conversely, a wheelchair can make a person mobile, but not if the only access is a flight of stairs to negotiate. You need the ramp and the wheelchair.

Hi,

You might find these useful:

1.       Francis Johen Ak Adam, “ Accelerate the Ratification & Implementation of the CRPD & Harmonisation of National Legislation with Convention”

 < http://rehabmalaysia.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Accelerate-the-Ratification-and-Implementation-of-CRPD-Mr-Francis.pdf>

Incheon Strategy for implementing the new Decade, and to “Make The Right Real” for PWDs in Asia and Pacific. 10 year (2013 – 2022) strategy to realise a disability-inclusive society

2.       CHAPTER IV, HUMAN RIGHTS, 15 . Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

New York, 13 December 2006

Read More : http://www.nst.com.my/news/2015/09/differently-abled-drop-reservations-un-convention?d=1

3.       Human Rights Commission of Malaysia

4.       Making Rights a Reality

5.       Malaysia had passed the Persons with Disabilities Act (Act 685) in 2008 as part of its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Read More : http://www.nst.com.my/news/2015/09/differently-abled-drop-reservations-un-convention?d=12006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. W.e.f. 18 Aug. 2010.

Best Wishes

So, you are referring for communication between people with the same disabilities , or communication among people with different disabilities ?

Depends on the type of disabilities, for instance eye tracking systems can provide inexpensive means for making multimedia systems accessible for people with disabilities that doesn't affect vision. Also EEG caps can be used for the sabe objective.

Hello Leeanne,

Try to see if you find anything you can use in my articles. I`ve used a scale for self sense of competence, with parents of disabled children. Hope it helps...

I believe is called Natural Observations, or Naturalistic Observations, where user is observed in its natural environment, contrary to the controlled observations conducted in labs. That seams to me the best expression to translate "passeio acompanhado"if you consider that there is no interference from the investigator to see how users actually behave within a given context.

a nice list! (I upvoted all o you! :)

Thanks dear Marko!

files attached

Respected  Lotte Habermann-Horstmeier,

I found  the followings links, studies with our library database, are helpful to you.

1. title: Combining Work and Care:Carers’ Decision-making in the Context of Competing Policy Pressures

Journal: Social Policy and Administration

Volume:42 Issue: 1 Date: 2008 Page:1  

2. Title: Burden and Quality of Life in Caregivers of Persons with Multiple Sclerosis

Author:Jzef Opara; Krystyna Jaracz; Waldemar Brola

Journal: Polish Journal of Neurology and Neurosurgery

Volume:46 Issue: 5 Date: 2012 Page:472  

Hope these add a little help to your discussion part.

Subhash

How to "use" the ICF is akin to asking how to "use" a car.  There are technical aspects and then there are those left to your creativity and inventiveness.  Technical aspects include the use of the codes and qualifiers and the needed assessments to map onto them.  Clinicians and scholars alike are often frustrated by the ICF because it does not "tell" you how to do much of anything.  It as never intended to dictate but to provide a common framework for professionals to design effective real life programs to enable all people to reach their full potential.  What works ICF wise in country X for elderly patients with dementia does not have to be same as for country Y for children with cerebral palsy.  Home health care has different components than skilled nursing home care.  Specifically, in the ICF it states "As a classification, ICF does not model the “process” of functioning and disability. It can be used, however, to describe the process by providing the means to map the different constructs and domains. It provides a multiperspective approach to the classification of functioning and disability as an interactive and evolutionary process. It provides the building blocks for users who wish to create models and study different aspects of this process. In this sense, ICF can be seen as a language: the texts that can be created with it depend on the users, their creativity and their scientific orientation"  Which use, which measurements will ultimately prove the best?. That is what research is for and the ideas you come up with may be just as legitimate as those who have been studying disability for years.  In addition, research builds upon previous work. But someone has to start, someone has to be the first to try.  It may fail but that is of great value because then everyone knows not to go down that route again.  If there are any specific articles of mine you would like, I would be glad to share them.

Hello,

you can get some information here:

and here:

Altough both reports country specific, you can see the sources of International law used and methodologies for both researches.

Best, Kristijan

Hi Kristijan: I am doing PhD in Australia on Disability and Employment for People with Disabilities. Before this, I worked closely with Government of Vietnam to develop the National Law on Disability and other implementing guidelines, as well as ratification of the UNCRPD. Glad to join you in this field.

Hi Darren,

Thanks for your answer. I am studying spinal cord injury and the sport.

Sincerely,

Miquel

Roy mcConkey's work highlighted having a key to the front door

We have published several reviews of the deinstitutionalization literature in intellectual and developmental disabilities.  The most recent one was Larson, S.A., Lakin, K.C., & Hill, S.L. (2012). Behavioral outcomes of moving from institutional to community living for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities: U.S. studies from 1977 to 2010. Research and practice for persons with severe disabilities, 37(4), 1-12. 

The reference list from that review includes 43 studies (including a couple done by HSRI).

Yes , early intervention have great effect on the development of logical thinking and reasoning skills in children with hearing impairment. 

From birth to 3 years of age is the critical period. Early intervention has great effect on speech and language development of the child. Early intervention helps the clinician to take the advantage of neuromaturation, the period at which learning speech and language has great importance in child's life. 

Hearing is critical for the development of speech, language, communication skills, and learning. The earlier that hearing loss occurs in a child's life, the more serious is the effect on the child's development. Similarly, the earlier the hearing loss is identified and intervention begun, the more likely it is that the delays in speech and language development will be diminished. Recent research indicates that children identified with hearing loss who begin services before 6 months old develop language (spoken or signed) on a par with their hearing peers.

REGARDING YOUR QUESTION

Obviously,it must effect on the development of logical thinking and reasoning skills.

Kindly see literature or any study.

Ganesh:

Here's  a link to related studies in RG that used Eye-Tracker software:

I express best wishes for every success with your worthy research

Debra

I think 'friluftsliv' is near to 'seikkailukasvatus' as a term, if it's related to going outdoors with students with some kind of behavior problems. The word 'seikkailukasvatus' is in Finnish, in English more or less adventure education. It has ben used with youth at risk in some projects in Finland.

There was something related to that in the link below, you'll find it in Google scholar to see the references (most in Finnish, but some English, too)

and in a master's thesis below:

Antti Kiviniemi 2005 Oivallusten jäljillä - Seikkailu osana voimavarasuuntautunutta kuntoutustyötä(uta.fi)

Best regards,

Merja

This friendship assessment scale contains an example, and some good references at the end that include works on underprivileged groups. 

I suggest you also consult established scales on:

-- social anxiety

-- self-perception 

-- attachment styles

***

I think it would be interesting to find out if there's variation between individuals whether they are aware (at all) about their handicaps, and whether that self-perception affects their social confidence and ability to bond with others, and ultimately, how those affect the social experience / bonding they have with others. 

***

An example, Down Syndrome people are easy to recognized. It is not clear to laymen and general public if they are aware that they are physically (not to say mentally) different from "normal" people. 

Yet, in many societies, it is quite well recognized that Down Syndrome people, despite intellectual retardation, have kind and almost "angelic" hearts. They are favorably perceived in the media as innocent, blameless individuals. Therefore to look down upon them or treat them wrongfully, would be socially unacceptable. 

***

You may want to narrow down your subject types to make a more focused investigation. (Like a particular type of retardation, rather than any retardation). Autism, for example, presents very different cases: autistic individuals look physically normal, but their coldness and self-fixation could arouse unpleasant surprises. This is going to affect their social experience. 

Good luck on your study. 

Hello Anil, a bit late to answer, but I only discovered your question right now. Go to https://www.dynaread.com/scientific-library, and scroll down to Dyslexia - Vulnerabilities and you will find several research papers on the topic of Dyslexia and Prison Population, as well as Crime. You very likely already completed your papers, so you may want to answer your own question as well, by providing a link to your research. Hope this helps, Anil.

Thank you! Unfortunately I saw it was designed for children who are not older than 12 years old, but maybe I can find a study using it with teenagers!

Today's disability accepted discourse is the "Human rights model", centered in the fact that we all humans have the same rights (it's neither charity nor a medical issue). But I think that it will change to a "Diversity model", centered in that human diversity is the natural way of being, of exist.

Hi Jacqui

I endorse Boris Villalobos Parada's suggestion re the Leeds Centre for Disability Studies website - they have published a lot of useful books, organise conferences etc. Also, a key source is the international journal Disability Studies which is a rich source of materials and debate. You will certainly find contrasting views and debate on the Social Model in this journal.

Syracuse University was still on the Personal Integration Inventory with Dr. Henry j. Bersani, Jr. as later cited in 1997 by Dr. David Braddock and his personnel for State of the States in Developmental Disabilities in the US available in 2015 on the web. Interactions with nondisabled community members go back to normalization (1960s, 1970s) which had extensive tools such as PASS and PASSING (Wolfensberger, 1975) in at least 7 languages.  University of Minnesota has used a deinstitutionalization tool I do not like too much, but was started by Dr. Robert Bruininks who later became their University of Minnesota Chancellor -ICAP; and they do adaptive behaviors more than social interactions. Quality of living scales are very high, too, and psychological assessment tools also include a few new on social relationships.

Firstly, you have to establish communities of enquiry which are well vested with principles and procedures of action research enquiry. Such communities should be led by those whom research is intended for i.e. persons with disabilities themselves. The processes of enquiry should be as systematic and  rigorous as possible to ensure trustworthiness of the process. An external action research evaluator is usually helpful to give an outsider view of the process. Data collected through action research should be arranged in a more analysable form and the analysis process must be thorough and detailed. Ones the process is scientifically credible the findings can be published in any reputable scholarly journal

Thanks, Darren.  I have heard of a study in South Africa, too, but unfortunately they will not release it yet.  Hopefully, later this year.

We have used remote access to manipulate tools and IDEs remotely and a system to manage message exchanging, class organization,... In our solution is also possible to share screen among any two participants of a lab.

Have uou checked Job Accommodations Network (JAN)?

Hello Vimal

I have no expertise relating to researching children's needs, but in your quest for appropriate research methods, I wondered if it might help to read articles that offer comparison between the different options:

Goulding, C. (2005). Grounded theory, ethnography and phenomenology. European Journal of Marketing, 39(3/4), 294-308 - a ResearchGate member - downloadable from her publications page:

The paper below is also available from the publications section of a ResearchGate member, Professor Michael David Myers:

Myers, M. D., & Avison, D. (1997). Qualitative research in information systems. Management Information Systems Quarterly, 21, 241-242.

Fossey, E., Harvey, C., McDermott, F., & Davidson, L. (2002). Understanding and evaluating qualitative research. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 36, 717-732 - also available from ResearchGate:

Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications - below is chapter one:

Thorne, S. (2000). Data analysis in qualitative research. Evidence Based Nursing, 3(3), 68-70.

Merriam, S. B. (2002). Introduction to qualitative research. Qualitative research in practice: Examples for discussion and analysis, 1, 1-17.

Best wishes

Mary

Hi Silvia,

Generally, poststructuralist or postmodern strands of disability studies will either explicitly  focus on 'discourse(s) of/and disability' or serve as a good theoretical/methodological foundation for such analyses. Here are some suggestions:

Corker, M. (1998) ‘Disability Discourse in a Postmodern World’, in Shakespeare, T. (ed) The Disability Reader: Social Science Perspectives. London: Continuum, 221-233.

Corker, M. and Shakespeare, T. (eds) (2002) Disability/ Postmodernity: Embodying Disability Theory. London: Continuum.

Campbell, F. K. (2009) Contours of Ableism: The Production of Disability and Abledness. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Davis, L. J. (2002) Bending over Backwards: Disability, Dismodernism, and other Difficult Positions. New York: New York University Press.

Tremain, S. (ed.) (2005) Foucault and the Government of Disability. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.

Hope that helps. Best wishes,

Teo

Hi Michelle

Sorry to be culturally relativist but you need to be aware that SENDA does not cover Scotland s Education policy is devolved to the Scottish Parliament and therefore there is no such thing as 'UK education policy'.  Scotland has the Additional Support for Learning Act (2004) that was quite different at time of inception, in that, it widens the understanding of additional requirement to include any barrier to learning including housing, bullying, poverty etc.  In some cases this has resulted in a shift to more proactive and preventative assessment and support (e.g. see new approaches to Dyslexia explained in J.M. Davis & P. Deponio (2014) Analysing conflicting approaches to dyslexia on a European project: moving to a more strategic, participatory, strength-based and integrated approach, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 18:5, 515-534, DOI: 10.1080/13603116.2013.802023 here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13603116.2013.802023#.VL435ihNDN4

See also for more detail on ASL Act p16 Davis, J.M., & Smith, M (2012) Working in Multiprofessional Contexts: A Practical Guide for Professionals In Children’s Services. Sage: London,

The DDA and subsequent equity legislation does covers Scotland as discrimination laws act on a UK basis but there are different set ups for Education in each country of the UK.  

Similarly, see also chapter 6 of this book for example from Wales of common assessment.  Should be noted Wales and the North of Ireland also have their own parliaments.  Welsh policies relating to children and young people have made a strong shift to social justice approaches that show awareness of the anti-discrimination aspects of the DDA and other equality legislation. Specifically the promoting Disability Equality in Schools policy is very robust.  

For Northern Ireland see http://www.equalityni.org/ECNI/media/ECNI/Publications/Delivering%20Equality/RES1314-05_UNCRPD_SummaryReport_Final_v1a_070714.pdf

Dear Bata

 Thank you very much. I shall see to getting it translated when possible. Yes N. E. Bank-Mikkelsen was marginalized. I understand it was because he only stated the normalization principle in terms of mere a mere right for people with handicap. Professionals apparently misunderstood the intentions. Therefor he had to explain what his original idea with the principle was. So he published this around 1971 - short after Nirje formulated his view on the matter. And I know they knew each other well.    

Thank you very much. Likewise to you. Happy New Year as well

Kind regards

Frederik

Hi Noa,

Thought this might be helpful-

Lynnaire Sheridan & Suzanne Kotevski (2014) University teaching with a

disability: student learnings beyond the curriculum, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 18:11, 1162-1171,DOI: 10.1080/13603116.2014.881567

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2014.881567

Hi Francisco,

I really have not come across too many academic papers in this area, but have found a number of working papers and proceedings which might be of interest. In particular, there are a number of documents published by The International Labour Organisation. Find below links to some of these materials.

1. http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc86/r-iii1b.htm

2. http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/-ifp_skills/documents/publication/wcms_167316.pdf

3. http://www.fas.ie/en/pubdocs/disability/Vocational_Training_Strategy.pdf

4. http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1540&context=gladnetcollect

Karla, I agree with what you are saying about person-first language. I think it is a question of context. When disability is relevant we  need to emphasize it not try to hide it, disguise it or trivialize it. Some years ago, Barbara Waxman, who was an important figure in the disability rights movement, wrote a foreword for a book that I was finishing about violence and disability. In her foreword, she described herself repeatedly as "disabled woman." The publisher changed changed each and every instance back to woman with a disability and Barb changed it back again. The editor explained that it was the publisher's policy that person-first language always be used... Barb refused, saying that being disabled was an important part of her identity and the whole reason that she was writing the piece. The publisher eventually relented but insisted on  a long footnote, "Person-first language is not used in this foreword at the request of the author in order to express the concept of disability as a social concept."

With our son, his disability began at conception and it affects every aspect of who he is. Yes, there are parts of it that I really dislike intensely. I don't like the seizures that he has every day. I wish he was not immunocompromised and getting pneumonia to many times. I don't like the bone density problems that have led to fractures and constant worry. But I love him and I cannot imagine what he would be like if he did not have his disability, except that he would be a complete stranger to me. So trying to think of his disability as an incidental feature would be nonsense. No one could do so and claim to know him.

Say hi to Emma.

Dear,

Some experiences about Brazilian manuals for different  situations include railway (in portuguese):

Technical Standard:

city of Florianópolis  - state of Santa Catarina:

city of São Paulo – state of São Paulo

Ministério Público (public prosecutor)

I hope they help You.

Regards,

Vanessa

I can suggest you an interesting document made by the Spanish Social Services Ministry. It has chapter focused on accesibility and transport. The only problem is that is in Spanish...

Hello Beata

In my view, when we talk about culture and disability there are two different aspects that one needs to consider. 1) Culture of disability; and 2) Cultural views of disability.

Culture of disability relates to how disabled people as a larger community or a sub-community of people with specific impairments view themselves. For example, many Deaf people do not view themselves as disabled but claim that they are part of Deaf (with capital D) culture. They have their own set of rules and behaviours (like any other culture) that are acceptable within Deaf community. 

When we talk about cultural views of disability, it refers to how disability and disabled people in general are viewed in various (ethnicity based) cultures. For example, in some cultures when a child is diagnosed with a disability, the parents are blamed for it on the ground that they must have committed some sin in their past life and hence God has punished them with a disabled child. There is a lot of stigma attached in many cultures to being disabled or being parent of a disabled child. Thankfully, such views are changing rapidly as a result of disability awareness campaigns run in different countries largely by DPOs (Disabled People's Organisations) and their allies.

You might find the following book edited by Stone useful:

Stone, J. (Ed.). (2005). Culture and disability: Providing culturally competent services. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.

Best

Hemant

Dear Bryn,

Even slight changes to the original questionnaire (e.g. visual appearance, layout) may affect its measurement properties and participants' responses.

You may find useful information on this topic in Dillman, D.A., Christian, L.M. (2005). Survey Mode as a Source of Instability in Responses across Surveys. Field Methods, 17(1), 30-52.

I would suggest you to check the comparability of your computer and paper-based surveys within a pilot study, before you fully implement the computer-based assessment.

Even if the two survey modes do not show perfect agreement, your pilot study may provide you reasonably accurate conversion equations.

Cheers,

Zeljko

For parents, having a disabled child may increase stress, take a toll on mental and physical health, make it difficult to find appropriate and affordable child care, and affect decisions about work, education/training, having additional children, and relying on public support. It may be associated with guilt, blame, or reduced self-esteem. It may divert attention from other aspects of family functioning. The out-of-pocket costs of medical care and other services may be enormous. All of these potential effects could have repercussions for the quality of the relationship between the parents, their living arrangements, and future relationships and family structure. Having a disabled child may also affect parents' allocation of time and financial resources to their healthy and unhealthy children, their parenting practices, their expectations of healthy siblings in terms of achievement, responsibility, and short- and long-term contributions to the household, and the siblings' health and development. Finally, having a disabled child in the family may affect the contributions of time and financial resources on the part of the child's grandparents or other extended family members, the relationships of those individuals to the core family, and the financial, physical, and emotional well-being of those family members. All of these potential effects on families have implications for the health and well-being of disabled children.

Thought you might be interested in this blog

Downs syndrome represented in art;

.

And this fascinating journal article;

.

Regards,

Paul.

When we speak of challenging behaviors we put put the stress on the context: The challenge is on us to understand the behaviour, what tiggers it, what actions do we take _ the context- that increase its probability of apparition or that help to fix it once the bahavior appeared.  All behaviours have an intention, a communicative intention and a purpose. It is shift inthe way to look at it.  the strees in not on the child but the adults around him.

I think it could be useful INCLUDED project because it provides the basis for inclusion and universal principles to the education of any child. Also is important de books to Ainscown and Booth.Regards

Generic assessment instrument for health and disability

Used across all diseases, including mental, neurological and addictive disorders

Short, simple and easy to administer (5 to 20 minutes)

Applicable in both clinical and general population settings

Produces standardized disability levels and profiles

Applicable across cultures, in all adult populations

Direct conceptual link to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)