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Background

Assistive technology is the products and services used by individuals with functional limitations to enable participation in society and realisation of rights afforded by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Assistive Product List is a comprehensive list of products identified as essential for access through universal health coverage. Key stakeholders, including organisations of persons with disabilities, civil service organisations, academic organisations and government ministries are collaborating to integrate assistive technology into policy and develop a priority assistive products list for Malawi.

Objective

To understand the organisational characteristics of, and assistive products provided by, key stakeholders working in AT in Malawi.

Study Design

Online survey of representatives from key stakeholder organisations.

Methods

We surveyed representatives of key stakeholder organisations to gather information regarding assistive technology product and service provision in Malawi. Responses were analysed using counts for closed-ended questions, and conventional content analysis for open-ended questions.

Results

A total of 36 of the 50 APL products were provided by eight organisations. Related services were provided for 36 of the 50 APL products by twelve organisations. Five organisations reported providing both products and services. Products and services are largely funded by donation and provided free to those who require them.

Conclusion

A range of organisations in Malawi play a role in assistive product delivery and related services. Coordinated AP delivery and service provision is required at a national level which is sustainable and inclusive, and is based on identified needs of the Malawian population.

The aim of this study was to investigate access for Malawian prosthetic and orthotic users with lower limb disabilities to basic human rights such as health and a standard of living adequate for health, education, work, marrying and establishing a family, and voting. A further aim was to investigate differences among subgroups based on gender, level of income, and residential location.

A cross-sectional design and a questionnaire were used to collect data from 83 participants.

Disability and Rehabilitation

https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2020.1752316

This study measured and compared the prevalence of disability and developmental delay among children attending preschool centres in rural Malawi. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 48 preschool centres in Thyolodistrict, Malawi. Data were collected from parents or guardians of 20 children per centre. Disability was ascertained using the Washington Group/UNICEF Child Functioning Module. Child development was measured using the language and social domains of the Malawi Development Assessment Tool. A total of 960 children were enrolled; 935 (97.4%) children were assessed for disability and 933 (97.2%) for developmental delay; 100 (10.7%) children were identified as having a disability

Child Care Health Dev. 2020;46:187–194.
https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.12741

Background: Access to assistive technology (AT) is poor in African countries because of a lack of knowledge, resources, services and products. A mobile application, the AT-Info-Map, was developed to map AT availability in southern Africa.

Objectives: This article aimed to describe users’ and suppliers’ perceptions of the AT-Info-Map app.

Method: Qualitative data were collected in Zambia, Botswana, Malawi and Lesotho, through nine focus group discussions with 72 participants. Participants included AT users, AT suppliers and representatives of disability organisations. Data were thematically analysed.

Results: Two broad themes, that is, usefulness of the AT-Info-Map application and technical issues and content, emerged from the data analysis. Subthemes under usefulness focused on the importance of using current technology, convenience of the app, the need for accuracy, responsiveness of supplier to user’s needs, influence on AT market and how the app creates an opportunity for networking. Challenges to download and navigate the app, the need for training in its use, exclusion of those not literate in English and those with visual impairments were subthemes under technical issues and content.

Conclusion: The app was perceived as an important step to increase access to AT for persons with disabilities in less resourced settings. The challenges that emerged from the data analysis have led to the development of a web-based system that will complement or replace the app and improve AT information provision. However, the information provided by the app and website is still only a partial solution to improve AT access in Southern Africa.

African Journal of Disability, Vol 8, 2019

Papers included in this special issue are:

• The UNICEF/Washington Group Child Functioning Module—Accuracy, Inter-Rater Reliability and Cut-Off Level for Disability Disaggregation of Fiji’s Education Management Information System
• Disability and Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Services in Cameroon: A Mediation Analysis of the Role of Socioeconomic Factors
• Assessing the Impact of the Twin Track Socio-Economic Intervention on Reducing Leprosy-Related Stigma in Cirebon District, Indonesia
• Factors Influencing Disability Inclusion in General Eye Health Services in Bandung, Indonesia: A Qualitative Study
• Unmet Needs and Use of Assistive Products in Two Districts of Bangladesh: Findings from a Household Survey
• Analysis of Social Determinants of Health and Disability Scores in Leprosy-Affected Persons in Salem, Tamil Nadu, India
• Developing Behaviour Change Interventions for Improving Access to Health and Hygiene for People with Disabilities: Two Case Studies from Nepal and Malawi
• Intersections Between Systems Thinking and Market Shaping for Assistive Technology: The SMART (Systems-Market for Assistive and Related Technologies) Thinking Matrix
• Adverse Childhood Experiences in Children with Intellectual Disabilities: An Exploratory Case-File Study in Dutch Residential Care
• Risk of Exclusion in People with Disabilities in Spain: Determinants of Health and Poverty
• Implementation of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) Core Sets for Children and Youth with Cerebral Palsy: Global Initiatives Promoting Optimal Functioning
• Challenges in Accessing Health Care for People with Disability in the South Asian Context: A Review
• A Systematic Review of Access to Rehabilitation for People with Disabilities in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
• A Systematic Review of Access to General Healthcare Services for People with Disabilities in Low and Middle Income Countries

Articles include:

• Editorial: Intersecting Indigeneity, colonialisation and disability
• Yuin, Kamilaroi, Sámi, and Maori people’s reflections on experiences as ‘Indigenous scholars’ in ‘Disability Studies’ and ‘Decolonisation’
• Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology: Practitioners’ Reflections on Indigeneity, Disability and Neo-Colonial Marketing
• ‘My granddaughter doesn’t know she has disabilities and we are not going to tell her’: Navigating Intersections of Indigenousness, Disability and Gender in Labrador
• Disabling Bodies of/and Land: Reframing Disability Justice in Conversation with Indigenous Theory and Activism
• The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its implications for the health and wellbeing of indigenous peoples with disabilities: A comparison across Australia, Mexico and New Zealand
• Challenges in global Indigenous–Disability comparative research, or, why nation-state political histories matter
• ‘Black on the inside’: albino subjectivity in the African novel
• The role of indigenous and external knowledge in development interventions with disabled people in Burkina Faso: the implications of engaging with lived experiences
• An intersection in population control: welfare reform and indigenous people with a partial capacity to work in the Australian northern territory
• Inclusion of marginalised Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples with neurocognitive disability in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)

The last decade has seen increased attention to the treatment of people with albinism in several African countries, particularly the peril they find themselves in due to stigma and superstition. As a way of countering these misconceptions, there has been educative activism from legal, medical as well as religious perspectives. In this paper, we draw upon a different discourse- literary representation- arguing that in selected African novels, the authors employ a variety of strategies that counter harmful stereotypes about albinism, and in the process act as literary interventions that enable an appreciation of the person behind the skin condition. Drawing from insights in Literary Disability Studies, the discussion examines the representation of albinism in four African novels: Petina Gappah’s The Book of Memory (2015), Meg Vandermerwe’s Zebra Crossing (2013), Unathi Magubeni’s Nwelezelanga: The Star Child (2016), and Jenny Robson’s Because Pula Means Rain (2000), and highlights the way albinism is presented as bodily condition that intersects with other experiences on the continent, including indigenous epistemologies, gender, sexuality and family relationships. 

Disability and the Global South, 2018, Vol.5, No. 2

This book presents new research on disability, health, and wellbeing in four countries (Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda) . The primary focus is empirical. It also makes a conceptual contribution as it presents a new model of disability based on the human development and capability approach. It addresses four questions: 

• How should disability be defined to analyse and inform policies related to wellbeing?
• What is the prevalence of functional difficulties?
• What inequalities are associated with functional difficulties?
• What are the economic consequences of functional difficulties? 

Detailed data analysis using large-scale household survey datasets is combined with an interactional model of disability based on Amartya Sen’s capability approach.

DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-53638-9

First of book series: the Palgrave Studies in Disability and International Development

Activities to promote the access of deafblind women and girls to sexual and reproductive health are reported via brief descriptions of what happened, what changed and what worked. Activites included: training the deafblind women in their rights;training relatives of deafblind women, giving advice on general care, as well as highlighting the importance of supporting their sexual and reproductive health choices and promoting family planning; tackling the issue of the forced sterilization; awareness raising via newspapers and radio and improving livelihoods.