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Transformative equality: Court accommodations for South African citizens with severe communication disabilities

WHITE, Robyn M
BORNMAN, Juan
JOHNSON, Ensa
TEWSON, Karen
NIEKERK, Joan van
April 2020

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Background: Persons with disabilities are generally at greater risk of experiencing violence than their peers without a disability. Within the sphere of disability, individuals with severe communication disabilities are particularly vulnerable and have an increased risk of being a victim of abuse or violence and typically turn to their country’s criminal justice system to seek justice. Unfortunately, victims with disabilities are often denied fair and equal treatment before the court. Transformative equality should be pursued when identifying accommodations in court for persons with communication disabilities, as the aim should be to enable such individuals to participate equally in court, without barriers and discrimination.

 

Objectives: This research aimed to identify court accommodations recommended by legal experts, which could assist individuals with severe communication disabilities in the South African court.

 

Method: A qualitative design was used to conduct a discussion with a panel of legal experts.

 

Results: Using Article 13 (Access to Justice) of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) as a human rights framework, four themes were identified: equality, accommodations, participation and training of professionals.

 

Conclusion: Foreign and national law clearly prohibits discrimination against persons with communication disabilities because of their disability and state that they should be given fair and equal access to the court system. For transformative equality to be achieved, certain rules and laws need to be changed to include specific accommodations for persons with communication disabilities so that they may be enabled to participate effectively in court in the criminal justice system.

 

 

 

African Journal of Disability, Vol 9, 2020

Leaving no-one behind: Building inclusive social protection systems for persons with disabilities

KIDD, Stephen
et al
February 2019

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How to make social protection systems and schemes more inclusive of persons with disabilities is examined. Social protection can play a key role in empowering persons with disabilities by addressing the additional costs they face, yet the majority of persons with disabilities are currently excluded from schemes.

The report identifies a wide range of barriers persons with disabilities experience in accessing social protection to be overcome. It calls for better data on disability, disability-specific and old age pension schemes and expanded coverage; adapting communications about social protection schemes; and improving disability assessment mechanisms. The research underpinning the report comprised involved a review of the literature, an analysis of household survey datasets, and consultations with key stakeholders and persons with disabilities in seven low- and middle-income countries: Brazil, India, Kenya, Mauritius, Rwanda, South Africa and Zambia.

Topics covered include:

  • Types of social protection schemes for persons with disabilities
  • Levels of investment in social protection for persons with disabilities
  • Coverage of persons with disabilities by social protection
  • Impacts of social protection on persons with disabilities
  • Barriers to accessing social protection and measures to address them
  • Links between social protection schemes and other public services

Reimagining personal and collective experiences of disability in Africa

HOWELL, Colleen
LORENZO, Theresa
SOMPETA-GCAZA, Siphokazi
2019

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This paper explores understandings of disability in Africa through the personal and collective experiences of a group of postgraduate students at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. The students, as disabled people themselves or practitioners working in the field across Africa, were required to capture their understanding of disability on the continent in a poster, set as a summative assessment task. What emerges from the students’ posters provides valuable insights into the complex social, political and economic factors that influence and shape the experience of disability in Africa. The paper argues that these insights are especially important to existing conceptual thinking around disability and its importance to discussions on Africa and its development. It suggests that grappling more carefully with the experience of disability in Africa brings much needed voices from Africa and the global South into the field of Disability Studies and deepens these debates in valuable and necessary ways.

 

Disability and the Global South, 2019, Vol.6, No. 2

3rd World Disability & Rehabilitation Conference (WDRC 2018) - Book of abstracts

O'CONNOR, Loren
Ed
November 2018

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The 3rd World Disability & Rehabilitation Conference 2018 was held from 12th and 13th November 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. People with disabilities and researchers, practitioners, policy makers, industry experts, university faculty and organizations along with advocates and volunteers working with people with disabilities participated and presented their original and unpublished results of conceptual, constructive, empirical, experimental, experiential or theoretical work through abstract and poster presentation. Total 33 participants presented their abstract and poster throughout this conference. The theme of WDRC 2018 was “Global advocacy and rights of people with disabilities”

Disability and HIV

UNAIDS
August 2017

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This report highlights existing key evidence on the relationship between disability and HIV. It discusses the concrete steps needed for a person-centred, disability-inclusive HIV response that allows for increased participation of people with disabilities and integrates rehabilitation within the continuum of HIV care. Globally, it is estimated that 1 billion people (15% of the world’s population) have a disability. Of those aged over 15 years, approximately 110–190 million (2.2–3.8%) experience significant disabilities. Disability is increasing in prevalence due to ageing populations, trauma, accidents and the increase in chronic health conditions, including HIV. Persistent discrimination against and exclusion of people with disabilities, in particular women and girls with disabilities, increases their vulnerability, including their risk of HIV infection.
 

‘These are not luxuries, it is essential for access to life’: Disability related out-of-pocket costs as a driver of economic vulnerability in South Africa

HANASS-HANCOCK, Jill
NENE, Siphumelele
DEGHAYE, Nicola
PILLAY, Simmi
2017

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Background: With the dawn of the new sustainable development goals, we face not only a world that has seen great successes in alleviating poverty but also a world that has left some groups, such as persons with disabilities, behind. Middle-income countries (MICs) are home to a growing number of persons with disabilities. As these countries strive to achieve the new goals, we have ample opportunity to include persons with disabilities in the emerging poverty alleviation strategies. However, a lack of data and research on the linkages between economic vulnerability and disability in MICs hampers our understanding of the factors increasing economic vulnerability in people with disabilities.


Methods: This article aims to present data related to elements of this vulnerability in one MIC, South Africa. Focusing on out-of-pocket costs, it uses focus group discussions with 73 persons with disabilities and conventional content analysis to describe these costs.


Results: A complex and nuanced picture of disability-driven costs evolved on three different areas: care and support for survival and safety, accessibility of services and participation in community. Costs varied depending on care and support needs, accessibility (physical and financial), availability, and knowledge of services and assistive devices.


Conclusions: The development of poverty alleviation and social protection mechanisms in MICs like South Africa needs to better consider diverse disability-related care and support needs not only to improve access to services such as education and health (National Health Insurance schemes, accessible clinics) but also to increase the effect of disability-specific benefits and employment equity policies.

Disability & the Global South (DGS), 2016, Vol. 3 No. 1

2016

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Articles include:

  • Disability and armed conflict: A quest for Africanising disability in Uganda
  • Disadvantage and disability: Experiences of people from refugee backgrounds with disability living in Australia
  • Tangible First Steps: Inclusion Committees as a Strategy to Create Inclusive Schools in Western Kenya
  • The Re-covering Self: a critique of the recovery-based approach in India’s mental health care
  • To what extent is Universal Design for Learning “universal”? A case study in township special needs schools in South Africa
  • Una Vida Sin Palabras?: Disability, Subalternity and the Sandinista Revolution

The need for a rehabilitation model to address the disparities of public healthcare for people living with HIV in South Africa

CHETTY, Verusia
HANASS-HANCOCK, Jill
June 2015

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This article advocates for the development and implementation of a model of care to guide rehabilitation of people living with HIV in South Africa. The paper begins by presenting the emerging evidence of rehabilitation in the context of HIV, and goes on to identify appropriate steps to develop a model of care based on this that would be applicable to South Africa

African Journal of Disability 4(1), Art. #137

A home-based rehabilitation intervention for people living with HIV and disability in a resource-poor community, KwaZulu-Natal : study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

COBBING, Saul
HANASS-HANCOCK, Jill
MYEZWA, Hellen
2015

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In this paper, the researchers develop a needs-based home-based rehabilitation programme for people living with HIV in order to improve their quality of life and functional ability. The study aims to  provide rehabilitation professionals and researchers with evidence that can be utilised to improve existing rehabilitation interventions for people living with HIV.

The paper outlines a randomised control trial to test the programme, to be conducted at a public hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The trial will assess the participants’ quality of life, perceived level of disability, functional ability and endurance

Trials 16:491

Applied research on disability in Africa : general mapping

INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION OF APPLIED DISABILITY RESEARCH (FIRAH)
2014

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“The goal of this literary review is to report on existing knowledge about applied research on the African continent, regarding the living conditions of people with disabilities, poverty, violence and sexual abuse especially regarding children and women with disabilities, community-based rehabilitation and employment”

HIV-related disability in HIV hyper-endemic countries : a scoping review

HANASS-HANCOCK, Jill
et al
September 2013

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This article presents the results of the first scoping review to examine the extent, nature and range of disability among people living with HIV in HIV hyper-endemic countries. The studies indicate that people living with HIV experience a variety of disabilities. Impairments in body structure/function comprise the majority of data, with particular focus on mental function. Data on activity limitations and participation restriction were limited, however, they were recorded. They indicate severe impact on people’s life and possible adherence. The review argues that the time has come to elevate the focus holistically on health and life-related consequences of living with HIV and to integrate disability into the discussions and approaches to HIV care

World Journal of Aids, Vol 3, No 3

National response to disability and HIV in Eastern and Southern Africa

HANASS-HANCOCK, Jill
GRANT, Kitty
February 2010

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Although people with disabilities are often at increased risk of exposure to HIV, this policy brief outlines that less than half of the national strategic plans in Eastern and Southern Africa recognise disability as an issue of concern. Recommendations are provided to governments and civil society on how to address the issue effectively. This policy brief would be useful to people interested in HIV policies in Africa

HIV/AIDS and Disability Organizations in South Africa

Poul Rohleder
Leslie Swartz
Arne Henning Eide
Nora Groce
Marguerite Schneider
January 2010

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Despite the seriousness of the HIV epidemic globally, and in South Africa in particular, little is known about how HIV/AIDS affects disabled people. One important and little explored area is the role that organisations that represent disabled people or that work on behalf of disabled people, are playing in addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic among the disabled people they represent or serve. This paper presents the findings of a nationwide survey of disability organisations in South Africa. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of disability organisations in addressing the HIV epidemic among disabled people in South Africa. The findings suggest that while organisations recognise the importance of providing HIV education, and many have taken steps to do so, disabled people are largely excluded from general HIV prevention messages. Disabled people also have significant difficulties in accessing general health care, relevant for HIV testing and treatment. In a country trying to manage serious social problems with limited resources, this paper highlights the need for increased cooperation and collaboration between relevant parties in order to facilitate the changes necessary for disabled people to access needed health information and care.

Invisible : the notion of disability in the context of HIV/AIDS in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

HANASS-HANCOCK, Jill
January 2008

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This thesis explores how the cultural context in which people think about disability and HIV exposes disabled people to a higher risk of infection. To investigate this issue, this work analyses the macro-cultural, micro-cultural and individual level of people in the KwaZulu-Natal region of South Africa. This resource would be useful for anyone interested in the cultural aspects of disability and HIV and AIDS

HIV/AIDS and disability : an exploration of organizations' responses to HIV/AIDS as it affects people with disabilities

ROHLEDER, Poul Andrew
2008

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This dissertation in clinical psychology explores the extent to which South African schools and organisations that work with persons with disabilities deal with issues of HIV and AIDS. The study indicates that although HIV education takes place, issues relating to HIV and AIDS are handled with much anxiety. The results reveal that in some cases HIV education is used to control and oppress disabled people’s sexual expression, instead of empowering them to have fulfilling sexual lives. Issues regarding sexual abuse and rape are also discussed. The dissertation ends with recommendations regarding further research on disabled people’s experiences and the need to address the silence around issues such as rape and abuse. This resource would be useful for people looking for in-depth information on disability and HIV in general (chapters 2 and 3), and with a focus on South Africa in particular (chapters 5 to 7). Moreover, it would be useful to people interested in the psychological aspects of working in the field of HIV (chapter 4)

Enhancing accessibility for people with disabilities living in urban areas

VENTER, C
et al
2002

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People with disabilities constitute a significant proportion of the poor in developing countries. If internationally agreed targets on reducing poverty are to be reached, it is critical that specific measures be taken to reduce the societal discrimination and isolation that people with disabilities continue to face. Transport is an important issue. This paper aims to further the understanding of the mobility and access issues experienced by people with disabilities in developing countries and to identify specific steps that can be taken to start addressing problems; produce a compendium of guidelines that can be used by government authorities, advocacy groups and agencies to improve the access to transport. The investigation into mobility needs was conducted in five case study countries: India, Malawi, Mexico, Mozambique and South Africa

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