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Previous theories discuss how corporate managers can stir anti-discrimination laws away from their initial social goal by managerializing the law. Yet, other actors – notably insider activists – can contribute to move corporate regulations beyond merely symbolic compliance. I demonstrate this influence of activists with three cases studies: (1) LGBT activists for same-sex parental leave; (2) disability rights activists for implementing a quota; and (3) Muslim activists to secure accommodations in French workplaces. Through these cases, I show how activists can move corporate laws beyond compliance, pressure firms to go from merely symbolic to substantive compliance, and analyze mechanisms that explain their unequal success. Bringing together insights from the legal endogeneity theory and social movements theory, I analyze these activist legal intermediaries as actors faced with unequal structure of opportunities, and examine what factors hinder or favor an activist-driven legal endogeneity. I demonstrate the impact of more prescriptive regulations, the institutional power of union representatives (and their alignment with activists’ claims), reputational stakes for companies, and the resources of activists themselves (legal expertise, ability to reframe laws, and informal power within their organizations). Last, I show how activists leverage organizational and legal tools (collective agreement, diversity policies) to induce recoupling between formal commitments and informal practices.

Our chapter focuses on the situation of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and their families in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We present the results of a qualitative study aimed at outlining the state of policies dedicated to individuals with ASD prior to and during the global health crisis. We conducted desk research based on documents published by third sector organisations dedicated to individuals with ASD and categorised in our study as epistemic communities. Next, we carried out interviews with parents and professionals on the social practices of supporting children and adolescents with ASD during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region of Lesser Poland [PL: Małopolska]. The discourse of NGOs enabled us to identify the greatest challenges of individuals with ASD and their families and solutions introduced prior to and during the pandemic. Based on the accounts of parents and professionals, we found that as many as every single person with ASD struggled with the epidemic in an individual manner, ceasing pre-pandemic habits, adapting to the new school context, and missing contacts with peers were the major difficulties.

This chapter offers descriptions of many current uses of video conferencing technology for the delivery of assistive technology (AT) services at a distance. It begins with definitions of remote AT services, virtual teams and virtual teamwork and moves to a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of remote AT supports for individuals, teams and organisations. A review of research regarding the outcomes of remote services helps to clarify ways that assistive technology providers can enhance function and build agency capacity by working, at least in part, in a virtual support environment. The chapter provides a discussion of various aspects of virtual teamwork that affects how individuals work together remotely as well as potential barriers to the provision of remote AT services. Multiple examples are provided throughout as well as descriptions of specific features of video conference technology options that should be considered before adoption. A planning form for the integration of remote assistive technology supports into the array of AT support services is included.

In this chapter, we examine how the schooling experiences of disabled children have changed during COVID-19, how families' engagement, advocacy and support of their children have shifted during the pandemic, and how race, class, and other axes of inequality shape these processes.

We used a semi-structured interview protocol with families of disabled children, asking them about their experiences with their children's schools before and during the pandemic. We analyzed the interview data using “flexible coding” and the constant comparative method.

COVID-19 has had wide-reaching effects on disabled children's schooling experiences, yet these effects varied, particularly at the intersections of disability with race, class, linguistic status, and gender. Remote learning and other pandemic-related changes to schools exacerbated extant inequalities in children's educational experiences, as well as in families' ability to effectively advocate for their children in school.

This research provides important information about how the pandemic has exacerbated inequality at the intersection of disability, race, and other axes of inequality. Moreover, it provides a lens to examine ableism and other systems of oppression in schools. The findings have crucial policy implications, pointing to the necessity of equitably allocated, high quality, inclusive educational services for disabled students, as well as to the need for special education policy that does not rely on individual family advocacy to allocate appropriate services.

This chapter examines the relationship between health service restructuring and the health care experiences of women from rural and remote areas of Canada. Data were collected from 34 focus groups (237 women), 15 telephone interviews and 346 responses from an online survey. Access to services, care quality and satisfaction are salient themes in these data. Problems include: travel, shortage of providers, turnover in personnel, delays associated in accessing care, lack of knowledge of women's health issues and patronizing attitudes of some health care providers. Health care service restructuring has led to deterioration in service availability and quality. Key areas for policy development need to address health care access and quality improvement issues, including increasing access to more (particularly female) providers who are sensitive to women's health issues.

Research is needed that uses large enough samples to facilitate disaggregation of users by specific types of complementary/alternative medical (CAM) practices and by ethnicity in order to examine possible patterns in the use of CAM therapies not accorded efficacy by family physicians. The objective of this study is too use data from a large population health survey to determine the relationship ethnicity, measured with multiple indicators, has with the use of CAM therapies classified as “accepted” or “rejected” by family physicians in terms of efficacy. Using data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) Cycle 1.1, logistic regression models estimate the factors influencing the use of the two binary categories of CAM therapy. Measures of ethnicity available in the CCHS are used to focus on ethnic origin, comparing North American and Foreign born, and on ethnic identification, comparing Whites with Asians, South Asians, Blacks, Latin Americans, Aboriginals, and others. Whites and North American born had higher odds of using “accepted” therapies, whereas immigrant visible minorities and those with Asian ethnic identities were more likely to use “rejected” therapies. This research confirms that ethnicity constitutes a cultural resource upon which users of CAM draw as they make their health-care decisions, sometimes despite the recommendations of family physicians.

Introduction: Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) global outbreak poses a danger to millions of people’s health and the uncertainty and financial prudence around the world. Without a doubt, the sickness will place a tremendous strain on healthcare systems, which existing or traditional-based treatments cannot adequately handle. Only intelligence derived from diverse data sources can provide the foundation for rigorous clinical and social responses that optimise the use of constrained healthcare resources, create tailored patient treatment plans, educate policy-makers, and accelerate clinical trials

Purpose: This chapter aims to incorporate innovative practices of artificial intelligence (AI) into local, national, and global healthcare systems that can save lives of people and as well helps in human capital management ways that may be deployed rapidly and effectively with minimal errors.

Methodology: AI technologies and tools play a crucial part in COVID-19 crisis response by assisting with the virus discovery, early detection, and the development of effective medications and therapies. In this chapter, significant issues related to COVID-19 and how they may be addressed by applying HRM practices with recent advances in AI. Also, through a literature review of the recent studies implemented in a similar context, an AI solution is proposed by formulating a conceptual model.

Findings: This chapter offers that the latest AI techniques can assist policy-makers in implementing modern human capital management practices to fight against COVID-19. The goal is to remotely monitor patients utilising gadgets that are embedded with state-of-the-art medical technology. To limit hospital visits, or at least cut them down to a minimum, on the one hand, the health clinic also wants to deliver reliable health information to the doctors before or during virtual consultations.

This chapter demonstrates the ways in which digital inclusion functions as a super social determinant of health, particularly within the arena of family carework and healthcare for vulnerable disabled US communities. The focus on vulnerable populations, including the elderly, chronically ill, young disabled, neurodivergent, and/or medically complex children and the families that care for them, is a useful case to present a compelling argument for the need to take seriously digital inclusion to maximize health, safety, and well-being for growing populations of Americans today. The authors argue that digital inclusion is an increasingly influential social determinant of health and a key dimension of health equity that offers important benefits and potentials, especially for vulnerable patient populations, for whom in-home and family-centered care are necessary parts of health maintenance, prevention, and well-being. The chapter ends with a discussion of ways that the US government can mitigate digital barriers and facilitate equitable access to broadband internet and e-health resources that address the intersections of digital, health, and care inequalities, with significant impacts in all three dimensions.