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This article examines the impact on disabled children and their families of the Children Act 1989 from the author's perspective of close involvement in this area of policy from 1992 to 2005. It argues that the inclusion of disabled children explicitly for the first time in children's legislation marked a necessary step in seeing disabled children as children first. Two main areas of concern about the effectiveness of the Act's implementation are highlighted. First, provisions in the Act for disabled children living away from home in health and education establishments have been widely ignored and are now seen as inadequate. Second is whether the provisions regarding short breaks (respite care) have been effective in providing the sort of support that families need at the required levels. The article suggests that passing legislation may be insufficient in itself to have much impact on the lives of disabled children.

In the UK, the Children and Families Act aims to create one assessment process for children with special educational needs or disability, through Education, Health and Care Plans. It also aims for greater participation from children and young people in decisions about their own lives. Current evidence suggests that children’s needs and desires across education, health and social care are not being fully met, partly because adult agendas drive policy, practice and standards of care. Furthermore, little attention is paid to the way in which disabled children and young people are included either within decisions about their own support or within research processes. The purpose of this paper is to present a research process designed to address these issues.

Six disabled young people co-led this participatory research project; for the first time, disabled young people had the opportunity to define a research agenda which spoke to what “quality” might look like in planning for their own future and that of other disabled children and young people.

This paper presents findings from this process, addressing important ethical issues relevant for policy, practice and research, identified through this rights based, collaborative way of working in partnership. Three key issues were identified and are explored here. They include first, tensions between young people becoming leaders and dominant ideas about safeguarding and child protection; second, being empowered through engagement within the project yet restricted in other areas of personal life and, finally, the emotional impact on new researchers of gathering evidence of a continuing lack of autonomy for disabled children and young people. We argue that challenging dominant notions concerning the participation and protection of disabled children is required in order to ensure that they access their right to be decision-makers in their own lives, and to being empowered within research processes.

This is the first disabled young people-led study to investigate quality and rights for disabled children and young people using this rights-based methodology.

States that historically, students with disabilities in the public schools in the USA were subjected to discrimination in the form of segregation from non‐disabled students. Also reports that much of this discrimination has subsided in recent years owing to successful advocacy by parents and community organizations before the Congress of the United States and both the federal and state judiciary. Reveals that national legislation was created so as to protect the education rights of such students and the courts have provided tests for their integration into school systems. Notes that, currently, there is some concern that this advocacy has gone too far and that court decisions authorizing “full inclusion” misinterpret the full extent of the law. Examines the scope of education for disabled children and provides a legal analysis of the educational placement of students with disabilities in the “least restrictive environment”.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the meaning of the socially constructed identity of Al‐Ma'brouk in rural Egypt.

The principal qualitative tool of data collection included intensive interviews with a sample of ten parents from two villages in lower Egypt.

The two main outcomes which emerged from the research were first, the social construction of intellectual disability in rural Egypt has contributed to the emergence of a distinctive culturally‐mediated social identity called Al‐Ma'brouk, or the “blessed”, with ascribed social roles; and second, this socially constructed identity has a positive impact on the families of intellectually disabled children.

The first finding concerning the local social construction of intellectual disability corresponds to previous research on how culture shapes “disability”. The second finding that ascribed social roles of intellectually disabled children have rooted social rationalizations raises a general question concerning how rural communities in Egypt justify and cope with intellectual disability.

Many studies on intellectually disabled children overlook their social roles in society, and mainly envision disability as a barrier and a familial adversity. The paper contributes to the debate that intellectual disability is a social construction rather than a limiting factor.

The representation of ‘the child’ within children's services and the representations of ‘risk’ and its management have implications for disabled people hoping to qualify for and work within certain professions. This article assesses the relevance for children's services of findings from the Disability Rights Commission's Formal Investigation into the impact of professional regulation on disabled people studying and working within three public sector professions in Britain ‐ nursing, social work and teaching. Many professional regulations include varied and vague requirements for ‘fitness’. These are interpreted and implemented differently, often informed by unexamined negative assumptions around disability. Disabled people, particularly those with ‘hidden disabilities’, can be discouraged from disclosing their conditions. This deprives them of the support and adjustments necessary for them to practise safely and effectively. Professional regulation can thus paradoxically induce a false sense of security. The various professions are urged to review and update their regulations, guidance and policies in order to ensure concordance with recent developments in disability and wider antidiscrimination legislation.

In the 1970s, the United States Congress enacted two statutes that have had dramatic and far‐reaching effects on the education of handicapped children by public schools. These two laws, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Education For All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (known as Public Law 94–142), have required local public school agencies to provide new eductional programs for thousands of handicapped children not previously served by the public schools. Counselors, principals, and teachers were quickly informed of the law's requirements and willingly began the task of main‐streaming and assimilating these children into various curricula. Their physical needs were attended to rapidly; their societal and emotional needs, unfortunately, lagged behind. Within the past seven years, there has been an increase in books, articles, and films specifically addressed to counseling the handicapped. Unlike past literature which focused only on the vocational aspect of rehabilitation counseling, current writing emphasizes personal counseling meant to assist a disabled child to participate fully in the problems and joys of daily living.

This article outlines the housing situation facing families with disabled children, and particularly draws attention to the additional disadvantage experienced by families with disabled children from black and minority ethnic groups. It is a summary of a workshop presented by the author to the Race Equality Foundation conference in November 2007 on the theme of extending choice and participation for black and minority ethnic communities.

Recent government policies in relation to children stress the importance of service integration and partnership working, with particular emphasis on combating social exclusion. With reference to findings from a three‐year empirical study, this article examines some key elements of the process of multi‐agency working in services for disabled children with complex health care needs. It highlights some of the barriers to effective partnerships and lists some pointers for policy and practice.

This article is based on two pieces of work. The first, Homes Unfit for Children (Oldman & Beresford, 1998), was based on a postal survey and 40 in‐depth interviews with families with disabled children. The second, due to be published by the Policy Press in the spring this year, reports the results of a programme of consultation roadshows with a range of professionals from housing, social services and health, in a series of regional consultation meetings.

The intent of this essay is to offer a range of resources on the psychology of disability to the serious researcher in the field. The researcher may be an upper‐college level or graduate student. This individual may be researching for academic purposes, or for personal reasons associated with the disability of himself or herself, or a loved one. Although the individual with a disability can be psychologically or physically disabled, or both, this essay will focus more heavily on the physically disabled.