Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-92). / This study explored the experience of parenting a physically disabled child in the Thohoyandou Vhembe District of Limpopo Province, from the perspective of mothers. The objectives of the study were to investigate feelings linked to parenting a physically disabled child in the community within which the parents find themselves, to explore the impact of raising a physically disabled child, as well as strategies that parents employ in coping with raising a physically disabled child.

Includes bibliographical references / In South Africa, children with severe disabilities are often the most neglected in terms of planning and providing appropriate interventions. For those with severe communication disabilities, an additional lack is in the area of the basic human right to meaningful interactions and communication. Sustainable strategies to provide opportunities for basic communicative participation of these children are urgently sought. The focus of this study, grounded in the transformative paradigm, was on culturally determined processes that can increase and enrich the communicative participation of children with severe communication disabilities in an isiXhosa language and cultural context. The aims of the study were: * to identify culturally determined non-verbal and pragmatic elements of social interaction in an isiXhosa language context. * to identify culturally appreciative strategies to support the communicative participation of children with severe communication impairments in this context. The participants were 44 mothers and/or primary carers of children with severe cerebral palsy from an under-resourced peri-urban isiXhosa speaking context in the Western Cape. The method comprised an action research journey with iterative cycles of collaborative action, reflection and subsequent further planning with participants. Data collection included action reflection group sessions, reflective dialogues with the group facilitators, and participant observations. All data was qualitative. Data analysis included a process of in-group collaborative analysis and verification followed by reflective dialogues with the group facilitators and interpretive thematic content analysis. The findings included 12 action learning outcomes, from which two main themes were identified, directly responding to the two main aims of the study. Findings that were considered new were framed as three theses: Thesis 1: Relationships are the context and motivation for communicative participation: the social inclusion and non-ostracism of mothers need to be prioritised in order for them and their children to enjoy communicative participation. Thesis 2: The 'Middle Ground' is a valuable positionality in implementing transformative action learning as an intervention approach. Thesis 3: There is a need to reframe culture as a resource in supporting the communication development of children with severe communication disabilities. In conclusion, implications for clinical practice, for training, for policy planning and implementation and for further research are discussed. Practical suggestions for application by mothers and others caring for children with severe communication disabilities in similar contexts are included.

Globally, people with intellectual disabilities are not afforded equal opportunities to express and enjoy their sexuality on par with their peers. Although most of them remain under the lifetime custody of family caregivers for care and support, a knowledge gap exists in understanding the role of the family caregivers in the sexuality issues of people with intellectual disabilities, especially in developing countries like South Africa. The present study is the first of its kind that employed an exploratory, theory generating methodology, the constructivist grounded theory methodology, to seek understanding of how family caregivers in the Western Cape Province of South Africa respond to sexuality of young adults with intellectual disabilities. Data were gathered through in-depth and focus group interviews with 25 family caregivers and further confirmatory interviews with nine service providers of young adults with intellectual disabilities. The study generated a substantive grounded theory, the Theory of Contained Sexuality, to explain the responses of family caregivers to the sexuality of young adults with intellectual disabilities. The study found that the family caregivers' thoughts, emotions, actions and behaviour towards the sexuality of the young adults with intellectual disabilities are influenced by what the family caregivers see as implications of the young adults' sexual expression and behaviour on both of them. The family caregivers do not completely suppress or restrain the sexuality of the young adults with intellectual disabilities but they support with 'containment', that is they try to confine the sexuality within boundaries that they can control and manage within their lifelong caring role. Ultimately, what the findings of this study point towards is the impact of lifelong family care on realisation of sexual rights by people with intellectual disabilities. Hence, the study concluded that, without the appropriate forms of support and probably alternative forms of care, the human rights framework as embodied within the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and local policies informed by it is insufficient as a tool for sexual emancipation of people with intellectual disabilities. Therefore, a relational moral theory - the ethics of care - is proposed as appropriate to complement the human rights framework in both research and practice around sexuality of people with intellectual disabilities living under family care. The study also highlights the imperative for further studies that investigate the impact of lifelong family care on other aspects of the lives of people with intellectual disabilities and promote theorisation of lifelong care within such studies.

Includes bibliographical references. / The aim of this study was to analyse the experiences of disabled women in leadership positions in DPOs in Zimbabwe. The literature review focused on the crosscutting issues of (1) leadership, gender and disability. (2) women and disability in Zimbabwe. and (3) the current structure of DPOs in African countries in relation to gender.

Livelihood development and participation of women in the informal sector have been recognised as a key factor for social and economic liberation. When women, especially women with vision impairments, participate in livelihood, they reap the benefits of a stable income source, a better standard of living, good physical and emotional health, self-identity, self-assertiveness, and positive social status. However, there is a limited body of scientific knowledge on women with vision impairments' livelihood development and participation experience in the informal sector in the Ghanaian context. To address this knowledge gap, a qualitative case study was conducted to explore how livelihood development opportunities offered by the Ghana Blind Union (GBU) and its partners achieve self-employment and economic empowerment of women with VI in Ghana. The broad research question was: 1) How do livelihood development strategies by GBU and partners provide opportunities for self-employment and economic empowerment of women with vision impairments in Ghana? The four sub research questions were: 1) What are the existing livelihood skills development strategies of women with vision impairments in Ghana? 2) How are the livelihood skills provided for women with vision impairments? 3) What opportunities for selfemployment have women with vision impairments accessed (or not) 4) Why are livelihood skills development strategies of women with vision impairments enabling or hindering their selfemployment and economic empowerment? The study was guided by theoretical perspectives from the Social Disability Model, Sen's Capability Approach (CA), and the Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) guidelines. The Social Disability Model was used to look at the livelihood development and participation of the women from social and cultural perspectives. The CA was used to examine livelihood development in the context of capabilities and the influence of social, political, and physical environments on the women's livelihood activities. The CBR guidelines were used to explore livelihood service provision and multi-sectoral involvement in the context of the study. The data was collected from fourteen women with vision impairments and six service providers using individual interviews, focus group discussions, document review and field notes. The data was analysed thematically and three themes emerged: Our cloudy path: Engaging in livelihood, We are deprived because we are blind, and Transitioning from zero to hero. It was established that skills that will enable women with vision impairments' livelihood are available but the women gamble with skills acquisition because of the nature of the service design and implementation. It was also evident that non-implementation of policies and social protection programmes deprive women with vision impairments of livelihoods. Further, negative societal attitudes and misconceptions about blindness compound the burdens of women with vision impairments in livelihood. However, when women with vision impairments engage in livelihood activities and earn regular income, their social status is enhanced and they serve as peer educators and mentors to other women with vision impairments. It was concluded that the livelihood path of women with vision impairments is cloudy. The livelihood path of the women presented complicated and unique challenges, but with resilience, the women were able to overcome the challenges and serve as social assets to their families, the GBU, and the entire social collective. This study provides critical new knowledge on the experience of women with vision impairments in terms of livelihood participation in the informal sector within the Ghanaian context. The new knowledge adds to the current limited evidence in the literature on livelihood participation of women with vision impairment in the informal sector. The study also provided an inclusive livelihood development framework to guide livelihood development practice in Ghana.

Regular physical activity is important to improve overall quality of life (WHO, 2011). Improving the physical activity levels of persons with disabilities, however, has not received enough attention. Current global research has focused on identifying barriers that prevent persons with disabilities from participating in recreational sport, but few of these studies were conducted in Africa and even fewer focused on the experiences of women with vision impairments specifically. Further, none of them foregrounded a focus on how participation in recreational sports might be facilitated. This study therefore aimed to explore how women with vision impairments navigate their participation in recreational sports. Narrative inquiry was employed as the study design. Three young women with vision impairments from different communities in the Western Cape, South Africa, were purposely selected. Data was generated in the form of topical life stories and subjected to a rigorous, multi-layered analytic process. This involved ‘narrative analysis' and ‘analysis of narratives' to generate a single overarching theme: “Sport and life as interconnecting circles”. This theme revealed a reciprocal influence between sport and life. Here, ‘life' refers to participation across the broad spectrum of everyday life. The findings revealed that the socialisation of women with vision impairments in their early childhood influenced their ability to navigate their participation in recreational sports. The presence of people as social champions in these women's lives contributed to facilitating the participants' participation in sports and highlighted the importance of the social inclusion of women with vision impairments. The findings call for an embedded way of thinking about the social inclusion of women with vision impairments which allows for an organic evolution of participation in recreational sports. The implication is that sports participation for women with vision impairments would occur naturally and spontaneously if they were included in other spheres of life.

Understanding invisible disabilities has become a more consistent conversation in recent years. While this conversation has included developing better medical treatment and legislative progress for accessibility requirements, there remains progress to be made in comprehending how these invisible disabilities impact a person's daily life. This dissertation research focuses on how informal learning tools such as interactive narratives could be developed to provide insight into the ways an invisible disability influences a person's day that otherwise goes unnoticed by the mainstream population. To provide this insight, an advanced prototype of an interactive story titled Under the Rock was developed and based upon the researcher's experiences growing up and living with advanced hearing loss. The narrative used for Under the Rock was drafted using an autoethnography methodology to capture key moments from the researcher's memories and translate them into a game narrative. Following a choose-your-own-adventure story format, users are asked to guide the main character through a series of situations that are directly influenced by her hearing loss and learn about the impact of each choice. To test the efficacy of Under the Rock, a survey study was conducted to determine what users most commonly took away from the game experience. This survey study found that a majority of users began with an expected baseline of minimal knowledge about hearing loss, and after completing the study many reported a deeper understanding of hearing loss within the context of everyday life. While there is a great deal of work to build upon within this research, this advanced prototype of Under the Rock and accompanying survey study show promising initial results in developing effective informal learning resources for educating mainstream populations about invisible disabilities and their impact on daily life.

Children with congenital hand differences (CHD) are at risk for social isolation, increased anxiety, and lower rates of self-esteem when compared to their typically developing peers (Lumsdaine et al, 2016). Parents may feel guilt, isolation, and may have perceived lack of resources to best support their children (Ardon, Janssen, Hovius, Stam, & Selles, 2012; Murray, Kelley-Soderholm, & Murray, 2007). Goffman (1963) explained that society perceives that individuals with differences belong to the “other” category deprived of social privileges which are standard to those in the “in-group”. Many children with congenital hand differences and their parents have limited access to the resources to manage and cope effectively with the negative assumptions about their ability.. This doctoral capstone project describes the development of an online resource for parents of children with congenital hand differences. The content for the webpage is based on literature, clinical and personal experiences. The online resource was designed to increase feelings of support, community, and effective coping for parents of children with CHD. Fourteen parents were recruited via social media platforms to review and evaluate the website. Responded evaluated the ease in website navigation, the usefulness of content, and rated their likelihood to use and to recommend the website. Parents on average found the website easy to navigate, useful, and were likely to use, and recommend the website.

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a neurodevelopmental disease whose prevalence has increased over time. Individuals with ASD have many health-related issues besides their primary symptoms that should be addressed by professionals, including having a higher rate of comorbid diseases. Also, their intellectual and social challenges present an additional set of problems that healthcare providers should aim to resolve. However, there seems to be a gap in healthcare knowledge and access between professionals and patients with ASD, respectively. The goal of this review is to examine the literature to see how the healthcare system is improving so that they can better accommodate the needs of people with special needs, specifically ASD. After review, the consensus is that there needs to be more training so that providers are more confident and knowledgeable in supporting these individuals with ASD through their lives. The overall intention is to bridge this gap that exists between the healthcare system and the patients with ASD who are trying to access it.

Religion and spirituality are central to the way many people, including persons with disabilities, make sense of both the world itself, and their place in that world. However, in most scholarship focusing on disability, religion, as a way of understanding and dealing with disability, is side-lined or absent (Imhoff, 2017). Islam has a long rich history in South Africa and is currently one of the major religions here (Mahida, 2012). Followers of Islam are commonly referred to as members of the Muslim Ummah as a collective, an Ummah that includes persons with disabilities and non-disabled persons. Given the paucity of research focusing on disability in the Muslim Ummah in South Africa, this study sets out to gain insight into the way disability inclusion is enacted within the Muslim Ummah in South Africa. The research question asks: How is disability inclusion interpreted, experienced and enacted by people within the Muslim Ummah in South Africa? Adopting an interpretative qualitative research approach and applying an intrinsic case study method, the research was conducted with members of the Ummah in three major cities in South Africa, viz. Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town. Data was generated from persons with disabilities, family members of persons with disabilities, the Ulema and a non-disabled person from the Ummah from each city. In-depth face-to-face interviews and a review of three Muslim publications were used as data gathering mechanisms. Interviews were held with seven persons with disabilities, either a physical or sensory disability, five family members of participants with disabilities, six Ulema and three non-disabled persons. All participants were aged 18 and older. Data was analysed by looking for themes that emerged from the data. Three themes, “Seen as Inferior'', “Carrying the Weight for Inclusion” and “We Are Not Doing Enough”, each with two sub-themes, emerged from the analysis. “Seen as Inferior'' and its two sub- themes, ‘' Gaze of Othering and ‘'The Deep Impact of Disability'', highlight the way in which persons with disabilities are viewed as inferior within the Ummah and how this is reflected in the gaze of non-disabled persons on persons with disabilities and their families, and the impact of this gaze. ‘'Carrying the Weight For Inclusion” emphasises the responsibility that persons with disabilities have assumed in order to be accepted into and included in the Ummah and this is demonstrated through the two sub-themes, “The Unspoken Responsibility of Negotiating Persons with Disabilities” and ‘'Negotiating the Effort to be at the Masjid”. “We Are Not Doing Enough” explains that although some aspects of inclusion are evident within the Muslim Ummah, the pace of change is very slow and inclusion remains inadequate. Sub-themes ‘'Inclusion could Create Ease and Belonging” and “Still a Journey to Travel to be Included” capture the way disability inclusion is interpreted and experienced by the participants of the study, highlighting that much work is still needed to attain full inclusion and to create ease and belonging for persons with disabilities within the Ummah. The discussion explains how the dominant discourse around disability is one that reflects an ableist, normative, colonial narrative. This narrative influences how disability inclusion is enacted within the Ummah, belabouring a move to full inclusion. The phenomenon of an unconscious exclusion of persons with disabilities within the Ummah is discussed as it emerges from this dominant discourse, together with the silence that sustains the continuation of the exclusion. The ways in which this unconscious exclusion plays out in many spaces and places significant to the lives of persons with disabilities are identified. It is proposed that, in order to achieve full inclusion and belonging for persons with disabilities within the Ummah, there needs to be a re-shaping in the thinking around disability through generating new knowledge and by challenging the dominance of the normative, ableist narrative. Informed by a decolonial turn, pathways towards full inclusion and belonging of persons with disabilities within the Ummah are proposed. It is suggested that collective action by both persons with disabilities and non-disabled persons within the Ummah is needed for full inclusion and belonging to transpire. The pathway to full inclusion and belonging would enable systemic change around disability within the Ummah to ensue and it would help move the de-colonisation project forward.