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Frida Kahlo is undoubtedly one of Mexico’s most famous female artists, and her rising popularity led to the 1995 publication of the diary she kept the last ten years of her life. Nonetheless, while the diary has received some critical scrutiny, the text has not been analyzed as an independent unit from the book’s visual components. As a result, Kahlo’s disability identity has also not been explored, but rather was assumed due to the extensive injuries Kahlo suffered as a young woman. These examinations have also tended to view Kahlo as having a fragmented sense of self and have allowed the diary’s artwork to guide this assumption. In dialogue with prior studies of Kahlo’s diary, this analysis will view the diary as an independent text and apply Karen K. Yoshida’s model of pendular reconstruction of self and identity to demonstrate how Kahlo describes her disability identity and better understand what others have called her ‘fragmentation.’ 

Disability & the Global South (DGS), 2018, Vol. 5 No. 1

Disability and poverty are believed to operate in a cycle, with each reinforcing the other. While agreement on the existence of a link is strong, robust empirical evidence substantiating and describing this potential association is lacking. Consequently, a systematic review was undertaken to explore the relationship between disability and economic poverty, with a focus on the situation in low and middle income countries (LMICs).

Ten electronic databases were searched to retrieve studies of any epidemiological design, published between 1990-March 2016 with data comparing the level of poverty between people with and without disabilities in LMICs (World Bank classifications). Poverty was defined using economic measures (e.g. assets, income), while disability included both broad assessments (e.g. self-reported functional or activity limitations) and specific impairments/disorders. Data extracted included: measures of association between disability and poverty, population characteristics and study characteristics. Proportions of studies finding positive, negative, null or mixed associations between poverty and disability were then disaggregated by population and study characteristics.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204881

Inclusion remains a key political agenda for education internationally and is a matter that teachers across subject communities and phases of education are challenged to respond to. In physical education specifically, research continues to highlight that current practice often reaffirms rather than challenges established inequities. This paper critically explores the understandings of inclusion that contribute to this situation and addresses the challenge of advancing inclusion in physical education from conceptual and pedagogical viewpoints. DeLuca’s [(2013). “Toward an Interdisciplinary Framework for Educational Inclusivity.” Canadian Journal of Education 36 (1): 305–348] conceptualisation of normative, integrative, dialogical and transgressive approaches to inclusion is employed as a basis for critical analysis of current practice and for thinking afresh about inclusive practice in physical education in relation to curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Analysis informs the presentation of a set of principles that are designed to assist teachers and teacher educators to transform inclusive practice in physical education and in doing so, realise visions for physical education that are articulated in international policy guidelines and contemporary curriculum developments.

Aim: Good practices have been documented by International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) to promote disability inclusive development and encourage the replication or scaling up of good practices that use rights based approaches. This study aimed to investigate the extent to which Core Concepts of human rights are illustrated in disability inclusive development good practices related to health.

Methods: This study analysed case studies of disability inclusive development good practices focusing on health that are available in the public domain using EquiFrame, an established content analysis framework in benchmarking health and social policies.

Results: A total of 42 health related good practices were identified from 3 different INGOs working in the field of disability inclusive development. The highest occurring human rights Core Concepts were; access 55%, individualised services 48%, capacity building 45% and participation 38%. The Core Concepts with the lowest levels of commitment were; autonomy 3%, cultural responsiveness 3%, accountability 3%, and efficiency 3%. Privacy and autonomy were not mentioned at all. The quality of reporting of the core concepts of human rights was low as they did not state specific programme actions or intentions to monitor Core Concepts.

Conclusion: Level of commitment to Core Concept coverage and quality of reporting was low. EquiFrame was successfully extended to analyse disability inclusive development good practices focusing on health. Its use in further analysis of inclusive good practice is advised.

Implications: These results can be used for advocacy in disability inclusive development and to guide programme staff training and documentation of disability inclusive development good practices.

Cochrane Rehabilitation aims to improve the application of evidence-based practice in rehabilitation. It also aims to support Cochrane in the production of reliable, clinically meaningful syntheses of evidence related to the practice of rehabilitation, while accommodating the many methodological challenges facing the field. To this end, Cochrane Rehabilitation established a Methodology Committee to examine, explore and find solutions for the methodological challenges related to evidence synthesis and knowledge translation in rehabilitation. An international online survey was conducted via Cochrane Rehabilitation networks to canvass opinions regarding the future work priorities for this committee and to seek information on people’s current capabilities to assist with this work. One of the areas of debate concerned whether and how work on the application of Cochrane methods in low and middle income countries should be prioritised.

Eur J Phys Rehabil Med 2017;53:814-7

DOI: 10.23736/S1973-9087.17.04958-9

Background: There are approximately 1 billion people living with chronic lower limb disability, many of whom are wheelchair users.

Objectives: Review cardiometabolic and neuromuscular risk profiles of wheelchair users, benefits of regular exercise and the causes of neuromuscular upper limb and hip injuries that hinder regular adherence.

Method: Literature published between 2013 and 2017 was adopted according to the standard practices for systematic reviews (PRISMA) through Crossref Metadata and Google Scholar searches. Individual paper quality was evaluated using a modified Downs and Black Appraisal Scale.

Results: The literature search identified 16 600 papers which were excluded if they were non-English, non-peer-reviewed or published before 2013. Finally, 25 papers were accepted, indicating that sedentary wheelchair users have poor cardiometabolic risk profiles (PCMRP) because of a lack of physical activity, limiting their quality of life, characterised by low self-esteem, social isolation and depression. Their predominant mode of physical activity is through upper limb exercises, which not only improves their cardiometabolic risk profiles but also precipitates neuromuscular upper limb overuse injuries. The primary cause of upper limb injuries was attributed to poor wheelchair propulsion related to incorrect chair setup and poor cardiorespiratory fitness.

Conclusion: Wheelchair users have a high body mass index, body fat percentage and serum lipid, cholesterol and blood glucose concentrations. Empirical investigations illustrate exercise improves their PCMRP and cardiorespiratory fitness levels. Although literature encourages regular exercise, none discusses the need to individualise chair setup in order to eliminate wheelchair pathomechanics and upper limb neuromuscular injuries. Wheelchair users must be encouraged to consult a biokineticist or physiotherapist to review their wheelchair setup so as to eliminate possible incorrect manual wheelchair propulsion biomechanics and consequent overuse injuries.

Background: Because of the adverse environmental conditions present in less-resourced environments (LREs), the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that specialised wheelchair test methods may need to be developed to support product quality standards in these environments. A group of experts identified caster test methods as a high priority because of their common failure in LREs, and the insufficiency of existing test methods described in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Wheelchair Testing Standards (ISO 7176).

Objectives: To develop and demonstrate the feasibility of a caster system test method.

Method: Background literature and expert opinions were collected to identify existing caster test methods, caster failures common in LREs and environmental conditions present in LREs. Several conceptual designs for the caster testing method were developed, and through an iterative process using expert feedback, a final concept and a design were developed and a prototype was fabricated. Feasibility tests were conducted by testing a series of caster systems from wheelchairs used in LREs, and failure modes were recorded and compared to anecdotal reports about field failures.

Results: The new caster testing system was developed and it provides the flexibility to expose caster systems to typical conditions in LREs. Caster failures such as stem bolt fractures, fork fractures, bearing failures and tire cracking occurred during testing trials and are consistent with field failures.

Conclusion: The new caster test system has the capability to incorporate necessary test factors that degrade caster quality in LREs. Future work includes developing and validating a testing protocol that results in failure modes common during wheelchair use in LRE.

This progress review aims to: provide a synthesis of the understanding of the additional barriers that girls with disabilities face in education; highlight effective or promising approaches and programmes addressing these barriers, including policies and legislation; point to gaps in evidence; and provide recommendations on a way forward. An internet search of relevant grey and academic literature on gender-responsive inclusive education was carried out. A search of websites of (inter) national non-governmental organisations, donors, and research institutions on the subject of gender-responsive inclusive education was conducted. In addition, requests for information on gender-responsive inclusive education interventions were submitted to platforms such as the Pelican Initiative and the Gender and Development Network UK. Subsequent referral to contact persons was followed up via email and phone with requests for sharing of studies, evaluations, progress reports, and other relevant documents of interventions.

Support and guidance for the report provided by UN Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI)

"This literature review covers a comprehensive body of literature targeting data from 2007 onwards in low and middle-income countries. It presents evidence from a literature review that retrieved and screened 1,011 articles and 546 grey literature sources. A total of 107 relevant sources were selected from the published and grey literature in accordance with the study design, of which 53 were included in the final review. The paper explains the literature review methodology, discusses concepts and definitions of resilience and introduces key global frameworks relating to climate change, disaster risk reduction and development"