The Zimbabwean society views persons with disabilities (PWDs) ‘as useless liabilities that have no role to play in society.’ The Zimbabwean Government has also forgotten PWDs since they are not mentioned in all the country’s national budgets. This has led to uncountable barriers faced by PWDs in their bid to be included as equal members of the society. Some of the barriers are constant discrimination, sheer poverty, lack of access to mainstream public services and stigma. Hundreds to thousands of PWDs beg for alms in the streets of every town and city. Zimbabwe then has to be reminded that all PWDs have: a right to enjoy a decent life, as normal and full as possible, a right which lies at the heart of the right to human dignity. This right should be jealously guarded and forcefully protected by all states party to the African Charter in accordance with the well established principle that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Thus, the era of silence when it comes to the realisation of the rights of PWDs in Zimbabwe has to come to an end. All PWDs in Zimbabwe should know that it is by right and not by privilege to be guaranteed full and effective participation, and inclusion in society. It is time for Zimbabwe to embrace all the rights for PWDs without any hesitation. It is time for humanity to celebrate the inherent dignity, individual autonomy, independence and the right not to be discriminated against for all PWDs. Every lawmaker in Zimbabwe has to be reminded to delete from the statute books all laws which view disability as a medical problem and instead, pass laws which are in line with the human rights-based approach which is a more enlightened, realistic and people-centred approach to disability. No time to play but plenty of time to work…! / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2011. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / nf2012 / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

This diploma thesis deals with theme of sexual assistance to people with disabilities. Its aim how social workers and social service workers looks at sexuality their clients and use of sexual assistance within residential social services. The research was based on semi-structed interviews. Obtained data are dividet into four categories - access to client sexuality, the way of meeting clients sexual needs, viewing at sexual assistance service, the way organizations participate in providing sexual assistance. The research results show that in most of organizations sexuality belongs among the areas of work with their clients. Some organizations perceived certain obstacles that prevent them from effectively opening or developing the topic of sexuality. In differece experience of organizations that work with sexuality in the form intimate assistance bring positive results and have good assumption for the introduction of active sexual assistance. Key words: people with disabilities, sexuality, sexual assistance, helping profession.

This study was designed to examine Adlerian personality priorities of siblings of individuals with Tourette Syndrome (TS). This study aimed to investigate whether a difference exists between TS siblings and siblings of those without disabilities on variables related to personality priorities. It was hypothesized that TS siblings would score significantly higher than the control group on the superiority and pleasing personality priorities and significantly lower on the comfort and control personality priorities. Both of the hypotheses were rejected. First, no significant difference was found between TS siblings and the control group on the superiority and pleasing personality priorities. Second, no significant difference was found between TS siblings and the control group on the comfort personality priority, and TS siblings scored significantly higher than the control group on the control personality priority.

The acquirement of a disability (e.g., spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, amputation, multi trauma) is a risk factor for psychological disturbance (e.g., depression). Research has established that social support and secure attachment are protective factors against psychological disturbance. Attachment patterns have also been associated with differences in perceived social support. Secure attachment and higher perceived social support have been implicated in greater levels of resilience but need to be validated with a population of individuals who have acquired a disability. The Experiences in Close Relationships, Social Provisions Scale, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Personal Health Questionnaire - 9 Depression Scale, and a Demographic were administered to 102 adult inpatients at a rehabilitation hospital undergoing an individualized rehabilitation program. Two MANOVAs were conducted to examine the direct associations of attachment classifications with the major dependent variables, as well as the various social support subscales. Path analysis tested two mediational models suggested by literature. Model 1 assessed the mediating role of attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance on the effect of social support on depression and resilience. Model 2 assessed the mediating role of social support on the effect of attachment anxiety or attachment avoidance on depression and resilience. Partial support was obtained for both models based on fit indices. A small but significant difference in the fit of the models was found, favoring Model 1. Clinical and research implications for this population and the limitations of the study are discussed.

This thesis deals with the guarantee of ethics and human rights on the website of homes for people with disabilities. The theoretical part explains basic concepts such as: strategic documents in support of ethics and human rights, human rights, the importance of human rights in social services, ethical theory, professional ethics, values, value systems, and standards of quality in social services. The practical part is devoted to the analysis of documents to determine the extent of guarantee of human rights and ethical principles. Documents in this case are the websites of homes for people with disabilities registered in the register of providers of social services in the Czech Republic. The research is supplemented by the analysis of several websites where it was examined whether social workers have support on the Internet in this area of social work. The conclusion presents the results of the inquiry. Key words Ethics, human rights, homes for people with disabilities.

Outdoor recreation or friluftsliv as called in Scandinavia has witnessed anincreased demand where more people venture outdoors to engage in activities innature. It is although not as easy for everyone to engage in these activities due toseveral limiting obstacles. People with disabilities that are confined to a manual orelectric wheelchair require adaptation of the areas to be able to participate. Thereare signs of development due to 10 goals set by the Swedish government for eachmunicipality to work towards. The findings of the study show that there are currentactions to improve accessibility; however; that it is slow process that in cases lackseveral vital considerations. There is an importance to involve people withdisabilities and relevant organizations to work with several important parts forspreading awareness.

The advent of the microcomputer has provided the severely handicapped with the means to create text. Instead of using a keyboard, the disabled typist is able to scan and select linguistic items with an appropriate input switch. The resulting communication rate is, however, prohibitively slow for writing and impractical for conversation. A variety of techniques is used to improve this rate and range from static letter matrices to more sophisticated methods in which words and phrases are anticipated. Although many anticipatory methods claim to be linguistically based, most, if not all, depend solely on letter and word frequency statistics. A series of phonological rules can be used to anticipate the letter structure of most English words. This linguistically based system reflects a degree of "intelligence" not present in other anticipatory writing systems. To evaluate and compare the new system with several existing techniques in practice, a programmable evaluation system has been developed on an IBM-compatible personal computer using the Artificial Intelligence language, LISP. Different communication strategies are transcribed into rulebases which serve as input to the software. The core program then executes the particular system under consideration. Input text can be processed in either manual or simulation mode and an evaluation report is generated when the session ends. The characteristics of efficient communication systems are introduced as a basis for this dissertation, after which the development and application of a linguistic anticipatory writing system is described. The design of the evaluation software is documented and the successful implementation of the various communication systems is discussed.

Les villes ont eu recours à destechnologies dans plusieurs domaines pouraméliorer la prestation de services publics,répondre aux demandes des citoyens etmesurer la consommation de ressourcesnaturelles. Connues sous le nom de VillesIntelligentes, ces initiatives visent àaméliorer la qualité́ de vie des citoyens etont déjà̀ eu un impact positif sur la manièredont les citoyens interagissent avec lesespaces urbains, les services et les uns avecles autres. D'autre part, les espaces urbainspeuvent être considérés comme une menacepour l'indépendance et l'autonomie despersonnes en situation d'handicap. Nousavons utilisé une approche multiinstrumentspour collecter des donnéesauprès de différentes parties prenantes –personnes en situation de handicap,professionnels travaillant avec despersonnes en situation de handicap, expertsliés à l'accessibilité́ et décideurs politiques,– afin de comprendre les obstaclesrencontrés par les personnes en situation dehandicap. Nous avons d’abord élaboré unedéfinition du terme Ville IntelligenteInclusive, ainsi que nous avons proposé desoutils pour soutenir les praticiens etchercheurs engagés dans le développementde technologies d'assistance numériques :une méthodologie d'implémentation etfonctionnement, un modèle conceptuel etune architecture de système sont proposésdans cette thèse. / Cities have used technologies in anumber of areas to improve the delivery ofpublic services, meet the demands ofcitizens, and measure the consumption ofnatural resources. Known as Smart Cities,these initiatives aim to improve the qualityof life of citizens and have already had apositive impact on how citizens interactwith urban spaces, services and with eachother. On the other hand, urban spaces canbe considered as a threat to theindependence and autonomy of people withdisabilities. We used a multi-instrumentapproach to collect data from differentstakeholders - people with disabilities,professionals working with people withdisabilities, accessibility experts and policymakers - to understand the barriers faced bypeople with disabilities. We first developeda definition of the Smart Inclusive City, aswell as proposed tools to supportpractitioners and researchers engaged in thedevelopment of digital assistivetechnologies: an implementation andoperation methodology, a conceptual model,a business model, and a system architectureare proposed in this thesis.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a research approach that benefits from the expertise of community members being involved in the research along all stages of a project (Israel et al., 2003). CBPR is often utilized with marginalized populations in order to amplify a community's voice on important issues in their lives (Bastida, Tseng, McKeever, & Jack, 2010; Minkler & Wallerstein, 2008). In the past, persons with disability have been excluded from research in order to protect them from exploitation. This practice of exclusion undermines opportunities for persons with disabilities to be independent and make decisions that are important for themselves and their communities. Exclusion also limits the generation of new knowledge that can benefit them (McDonald & Keys, 2008). Through involvement on a CBPR project, persons with disabilities are given the opportunity to become empowered within the context of the project (Atkinson, 2004; Oden, Hernandez, & Hidalgo, 2010). This study examined empowerment definitions, evolution of empowerment definitions, and facilitators and barriers to community partners with and without disabilities becoming empowered through their work on a CBPR project. Overall, community partners' definitions of empowerment related to individual and setting-level characteristics. Individual-level empowerment was defined as self-efficacy, self-esteem, control over decision-making, and disability rights advocacy. Facilitators to empowerment within the CBPR process were promoting inclusion, promoting an accessible partnership, sharing of power within and between groups, and actively sharing and gaining knowledge within and between groups. Inaccessible communication, inaccessible language, and lack of project ownership were identified as possible barriers to empowerment. In most cases, empowerment definitions remained stable across one's work on this project, but there were instances of positive change in the lives of some community partners who expressed being empowered through the partnership. CBPR provides an opportunity for persons with developmental disabilities to be included in the research processes as well as possibly gain important qualities throughout, such as empowerment. This study situated the individual's empowerment beliefs and behaviors within the CBPR setting, identifying both facilitators and barriers, and provides support that a CBPR process can be empowering for community partners. Future research in collaboration with community partners should continue to focus on empowerment in all stages of the research project, local collaborations, and continued diversity of community engagement in research. Engaging in a formal reflection process and documenting the process for other researchers to learn from diverse barriers and facilitators to empowerment is encouraged.

Two hundred and seventy-three clients whose cases had been closed by the Oregon Vocational Rehabilitation Division (OVRD) between March 1, 1976 and February 28, 1977 were interviewed by telephone. They were asked to identify the different methods they had used during their job search, whether they had obtained a job while being served by OVRD, whether they were presently employed, and if employed whether the job was the same or different from the one they had obtained while being served by OVRD. They were also asked to identify the sources of the lead which led to their jobs. Friends or relatives and direct application resulted in most of the jobs obtained. Efficiency was calculated for ten job search methods. Methods, in descending order of efficiency, were schools, friends or relatives, unions, vocational rehabilitation counselors, former employers, direct application, want ads, the state employment service, job developers, and private employment agencies. Clients changed jobs quite frequently during the year between case closure and the survey. Methods which led to retention of jobs were schools, unions, and former employers. The methods which led to unstable jobs were rehabilitation counselors, direct application, and friends or relatives. Intensity of job search was associated with job search success. The most frequently mentioned problem encountered in job search was disability imposed limitations. Job seeking skills instruction was not shown to be effective.