Resources search

Can cities be inclusive?

PATRICK, Michaela
ARRUBLA PALACIO, Maria Clara
VASUDEVAN, D
JAMIL, Fuad
CHOUDHARY, Utsav
NARANGEREL, Tamirkhuu
September 2023

Expand view

5 short talks covering disability inclusivity in cities with speakers from Colombia, Indian, Indonsia and Mongolia. Part of the Disability Innovation Summit: Inclusive Interactions summit of 13 Sep 2023 held by the Global Disability Hub.

Inclusive Design and Accessibility in Medellín, Colombia. AT2030 Inclusive Infrastructure Case Studies

PATRICK, M
MULDOWNEY, A
ARRUBA PALACIO, M
AGUIRRE, M
McKINNON, I
August 2023

Expand view

Prepared by the Global Disability Innovation Hub and partners for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Medellín, Colombia is the sixth and final case study city under the Global Disability Innovation Hub (GDI Hub) led and UK Aid funded AT2030 Inclusive Infrastructure sub-programme. Colombia’s second largest city, Medellín is well-known for its progress in urban development in the last 20 years, moving forward from its violent history. Medellín has been designated a district of innovation and is known for innovative urban projects such as its cable cars and electric escalators that connect higher altitude, low-income communities on the peripheries of the city. This case study explores the current state of accessibility and inclusion in the city for persons with disabilities and helps understand whether such urban innovations are inclusive for all the city’s residents.

Medellín is home to nearly 80,000 persons with disabilities and Colombia does have strong legal frameworks in place to support persons with disabilities. However, this case study found that the numerous laws and regulations are not always well implemented and there is also a need to consider more diverse disabilities in city planning and design.

The research took place in 3 phases between December 2022 and May 2023, combining both virtual and face to face approaches. Phase 1 focused on understanding the current state of accessibility through desk-based research and interviews. Phase 2 captured the lived experience of persons with disabilities through interviews, photo diaries and co-design activities. Phase 3 then synthesised the findings, running multiple in-person workshops to validate and create actions towards the creation of more inclusive environments. Thematic analysis was applied to understand the research data, identifying key themes across three different stakeholder groups of People, Policy, and Practice.

The themes identified span across daily life for persons with disabilities including, poverty, transport, housing, healthcare, public spaces and recreational activities. Quotes from participants are interwoven throughout the report and strengthen the concluding actions. The report recognises what has worked in Medellin as well as areas for improvement.

Inclusive practices for disaster risk management: Experiences with social actors and government entities in Latin America

HUMANITY & INCLUSION (HI)
December 2020

Expand view

Twelve inclusive practices are presented that explore the application of the inclusive approach to disaster risk management, thus enriching these and encouraging contributions to create more inclusive and resilient communities! Collecting and sharing inclusive practices is one axis of the project, “Inclusive Disaster Risk Management: An innovative approach towards inclusion of most vulnerable groups”, which aims to disseminate inclusive disaster risk management in Latin American countries in order to increase protection and resilience in high-risk groups. The project accompanies and strengthens regional, national, and local actors from the following countries: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Peru. This regional initiative for inclusive disaster risk management is led by Humanity & Inclusion (HI), in partnership with Save the Children International Peru (SCI) and Cooperazione Internazionale Paraguay (COOPI).

Inclusive practices in disaster risk management. Experiences of social actors and government entities in Latin America

HUMANITY & INCLUSION (HI)
December 2020

Expand view

Twelve inclusive practices are presented that explore the application of the inclusive approach to disaster risk management. Collecting and sharing inclusive practices is one axis of the project, “Inclusive Disaster Risk Management: An innovative approach towards inclusion of most vulnerable groups”, which aims to disseminate inclusive disaster risk management in Latin American countries in order to increase protection and resilience in high-risk groups. The project accompanies and strengthens regional, national, and local actors from the following countries: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Peru.

 

This regional initiative for inclusive disaster risk management is led by Humanity & Inclusion (HI), in partnership with Save the Children International Peru (SCI) and Cooperazione Internazionale Paraguay (COOPI). 

Decolonising inclusive education: an example from a research in Colombia

KAMENOPOULOU, Leda
2020

Expand view

Inclusive education is a concept born in the global North. Research has shown that its relatively recent but widespread adoption by countries in the global South is often done without consideration of the actual needs of these contexts, and by solely focusing on strategies for learners with disabilities. As a result, inclusive education has been criticised as a neo-colonial project in need of renovation. The aim of this article is to show how research can broaden the understanding of inclusive education and make it more relevant to southern contexts. Drawing on an ethnographic research on inclusive education in Colombia, I present some unique examples of vulnerability, but also experiences of belonging in the direst of circumstances. I conclude that in order to decolonise the concept of inclusive education and make its practice sustainable in southern contexts, we need more culturally sensitive research to inform our understanding of these under-researched spaces.

 

Disability & the Global South (DGS), 2020, Vol. 7 No. 1

Disability & the Global South (DGS), 2020, Vol. 7 No. 1

2020

Expand view

Articles include:

  • Decolonising inclusive education: an example from a research in Colombia
  • At the Margins of Society: Disability Rights and Inclusion in 1980s Singapore
  • Universal Notions of Development and Disability: Towards Whose Imagined Vision?
  • Decolonizing inclusive education: A collection of practical inclusive CDS- and DisCrit-informed teaching practices implemented in the global South

Undergraduate physiotherapy students’ basic wheelchair provision knowledge: a pilot study in two universities in Colombia

TORO-HERNÁNDEZ, María Luisa
MONDRAGÓN-BARRERA, Mónica Alejandra
TORRES-NARVÁEZ, Martha Rocío
VELASCO-FORERO, Sandra Esperanza
GOLDBERG, Mary
2019

Expand view

Purpose: 

Access to an appropriate wheelchair is a human right. Only between 5–15% of people who need a wheelchair have access to one. One of the key barriers to access is the lack of appropriately trained rehabilitation professionals. The objective of this study was to evaluate basic manual wheelchair provision knowledge in final-year physiotherapy undergraduate students in two programs in Colombia.

 

Materials and methods: 

Students took the International Society of Wheelchair Professionals Wheelchair Service Provision – Basic Test which was administered online and in Spanish. The minimum score to pass the test is 70%; it assesses seven domains: Assessment; Prescription; Products; Fitting; User training; Follow-up, maintenance, and repairs; and Process.

 

Results and conclusions

One-hundred sixteen students took the test and no one passed the test. The highest median domain scores were in Assessment and Process while the lowest were in Fitting and Products. The limitations of this study include that this sample does not represent all physiotherapy programmes or students in Colombia, there may be potential errors in the Spanish translation of the outcome measure, and students encountered Internet connectivity issues during the test that may have impacted their scores. Immediate interventions are required to improve teaching and students’ learning outcomes related to basic manual wheelchair provision in these two programs. This study may serve as a foundation for future regional or national studies that assess the situation of wheelchair provision training in rehabilitation programs that will inform improvement actions. This manuscript is also available in Spanish as Supplemental Material.

Geneva Academy briefing on Disability and armed conflict 2019

PRIDDY, Alice
April 2019

Expand view

This publication brings attention to the devastating impact conflict has on persons with disabilities and, crucially, highlights that many of the key international humanitarian law (IHL) provisions that serve to minimize the impact of armed conflict – such as the proportionality assessment and advanced effective warnings – are not being applied in a disability inclusive manner, resulting in persons with disabilities being killed, seriously injured or left behind as families flee armed attacks.

 

Research methods included a combination of: desk research; structured interviews with persons with disabilities and their representative organizations, NGOs and humanitarian personnel; and field workshops through which feedback was sought on discrete issues. 

 

The project focused on the situation of persons with disabilities in five states experiencing different levels of armed conflict or its aftermath (the DRC, Colombia, Palestine, Ukraine and Vietnam). These states were selected because they are all States Parties to the CRPD, and they represent a diverse range of regions and cultures, differing types of conflicts (including the involvement of ANSAs), different stages of conflict or post-conflict situations, differing levels of economic development and varying levels of international assistance

Not to be left behind - Alternative report on the situation of the rights of persons with disabilities within the framework of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development in Colombia

March 2019

Expand view

This report discusses the concerns and comments of organizations of persons with disabilities, human rights organizations, researchers and academics, as well as other relevant governmental actors, regarding SDGs policies in Colombia. Mainly, the analysis focuses on two of the 17 goals:

Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

Secondary sources about disability in Colombia were reviewed. Three validation workshops were organised to identify the progress and challenges of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda from the perspective of disability

Results are presented and discussed and recommendations made

Disability & the Global South (DGS), 2019, Vol. 6 No. 1 - Special issue: Disability and the Decolonial Turn: Perspectives from the Americas

2019

Expand view

Articles included are:

  • Editorial: Disability and the Decolonial Turn: Perspectives from the Americas
  • Disability, Decoloniality, and Other-than-Humanist Ethics in Anzaldúan Thought
  • Decolonizing Schools: Women Organizing, Disability Advocacy, and Land in Sāmoa
  • Adapting an Education Program for Parents of Children with Autism from the United States to Colombia
  • Globalized Food and Pharma: The South Bites Back in Lina Meruane’s Fruta podrida
  • Decolonial Embodiment: Fanon, the Clinical Encounter, and the Colonial Wound
  • Precarious Bodies, Precarious Lives: Framing Disability in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Cinema
  • Literary Fiction Under Coloniality and the Relief of Meditation in Guadalupe Nettel’s Desupés del invierno, Carla Faesler’s Formol and Laía Jufresa’s ‘La pierna era nuestro altar’

 

Disability & the Global South (DGS), 2019, Vol. 6 No. 2

2019

Expand view

Articles included are:

  • A comparison of disability rights in employment: Exploring the potential of the UNCRPD in Uganda and the United States
  • Reimagining personal and collective experiences of disability in Africa
  • Social participation and inclusion of ex-combatants with disabilities in Colombia
  • ‘Inclusive education’ in India largely exclusive of children with a disability
  • Participation, agency and disability in Brazil: transforming psychological practices into public policy from a human rights perspective

Social participation and inclusion of ex-combatants with disabilities in Colombia

RIVAS VELARDE, Minerva
Del ROCIO GARZON DIAZ, Karim
SHAKESPEARE, Tom
2019

Expand view

The purpose of this paper is to explore ex-combatants’ understandings of disability and the pathways for social reintegration available to them in Colombia. The qualitative data for the study include seven in-depth interviews with ex-combatants and 29 with key informants, including disabled people’s organisations, government agencies, international organisations and academic groups. Findings suggest that transition to civilian life for ex-combatants is made more difficult by inadequate procedures, lack of support and complex administrative data vacuums. Social determinants, historical prejudice against persons with disabilities, high levels of unemployment and political polarisation in a post conflict context combine to trigger poverty traps. The findings indicate pitfalls in the early implementation of the Colombian peace process, which did not consider structural issues that affected transition to civilian life for ex-combatants with disabilities. Furthermore, key enablers for social inclusion such as peer-to-peer support have been identified by respondents. This paper concludes that more needs to be done to enhance the voices of ex-combatants with disabilities and to understand the profound meaning of acquiring impairments through participation in conflict, as well as how post-conflict responses could enable these individuals to gain the skills they need to successfully reintegrate into their communities. 

 

Disability and the Global South, 2019, Vol.6, No. 2

Adapting an education program for parents of children with autism from the United States to Colombia

MAGANA, Sandy
TEHERO HUGHES, Marie
SALKAS, Kristen
MORENO ANGARITA, Marisol
2019

Expand view

One of the lingering aspects of coloniality in the Americas is paternalism. In Latin America, this power structure plays out among people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) through beliefs that people with disabilities need to be protected and guarded at home, and that they are unable to learn and function in society. We developed a program to empower parents of children with ASD through peer education to help their children realize their potential. This program was implemented in the United States (US) for Latino immigrant families and then adapted for use in Bogotá, Colombia. In this paper, we discuss some of the ways the manifestations of colonialism have influenced the adaptation of this program from North to South. For example, in Colombian society it is not common to use non-professionals or peers to deliver scientific information because within a paternalistic society there is ‘respeto’ (respect) for persons who are older, male and have credentials. Therefore, promoting the use of peer-mothers in this context was a challenge in the adaptation that warranted compromise. We explore and discuss similarities and differences in the adaptation and delivery between North and South and problematize the idea of Latinos in the US versus Colombia.

 

Disability and the Global South, 2019 Vol.6, No. 1

2030 Agenda for sustainable development: Selected SDG indicators disaggregated by disability status

WASHINGTON GROUP ON DISABILITY STATISTICS
October 2018

Expand view

In light of the importance of disability data collection and the disaggregation of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) outcome indicators by disability status, the Washington Group on Disability Statistics (WG) undertook an exercise to review, among WG member countries, the extent to which data on SDG indicators currently available can be disaggregated by disability status. Requests for disaggregated SDG data for 13 selected indicators were sent to 146 member countries. 48 countries responded and 39 provided data. Response data is tabulated and discussed.

Disability and vocational rehabilitation in rural settings

HARLEY, Debra
et al
2018

Expand view

A graduate student textbook offered in 39 chapters, each with different authors and subjects. Abstracts, test questions and citations are freely available on-line. Full text is charged for. The book surveys rehabilitation and vocational programs aiding persons with disabilities in remote and developing areas in the U.S. and abroad. Contributors discuss longstanding challenges to these communities, most notably economic and environmental obstacles and ongoing barriers to service delivery, as well as their resilience and strengths. Considerations are largely of the US but there is a chapter on each of Asia and Pacific region, Australasia, Canada, Mexico, India, Turkey, Colombia and the UK. 

 

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

2018

Expand view

Articles include:

  • Inclusive Education in the global South? A Colombian perspective: ‘When you look towards the past, you see children with disabilities, and if you look towards the future, what you see is diverse learners
  • Services for people with Communication Disabilities in Uganda: supporting a new Speech and Language Therapy profession
  • Frida Kahlo and Pendular Disability Identity: A Textual Examination of El Diario de Frida Kahlo
  • Health Information-Seeking Behaviour of Visually Impaired Persons in Ibadan Metropolis, Nigeria
  • Online Collective Identities for Autism: The Perspective of Brazilian Parents
  • Transnationalizing Disability Policy in Embedded Cultural-Cognitive Worldviews: the Case of Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Portrayal of Disabled People in the Kuwaiti Media

Inclusive education in the global South? A Colombian perspective: ‘When you look towards the past, you see children with disabilities, and if you look towards the future, what you see is diverse learners.’

KAMENOPOULOU, Leda
2018

Expand view

The findings of the research presented in this paper come in the aftermath of a momentous year for Colombia, a year that saw a historic peace deal signed between the government and the biggest left-wing guerrilla group (FARC) with the aim of bringing an over 50 year civil war to a long awaited conclusion. At a time when the Colombian people are being required to genuinely reflect on what inclusion means to them and how best they can achieve it within their deeply diverse society, I present findings from an ethnographic research that I conducted on inclusion in education focusing on the capital, Bogotá. The research foci were a) inclusive education in practice, b) teacher preparation for inclusive education, and c) local understanding of inclusive education. Findings include a local understanding of inclusive education as synonymous with disability, special teachers as synonymous with inclusive education in practice, and big gaps in teacher preparation for inclusive education. Based on these findings, I emphasise that inclusive education is a global North-created concept, which can acquire different meanings in global South contexts, and I argue that Colombia in particular needs time to make its own understanding of inclusive education a priority.

 

Disability and the Global South, 2018 Vol.5, No. 1

Global AgeWatch Insights. The right to health for older people, the right to be counted

ALBONE, Rachel
et al
2018

Expand view

This report considers the progress being made to achieve older people's right to health amid the global drive towards universal health coverage. It explores how older people are currently accessing health services and what changes need to be made to improve on this. It considers the role of data in driving and informing changes to health systems and the services they deliver. Data must be collected with and about older people to ensure adequate evidence for service design and delivery that is targeted and appropriate. This report explores the adequacy of current data systems and collection mechanisms and how, alongside health systems, they must be adapted in an ageing world. 

 

This report is supported by 12 country profiles (for Argentina, Colombia, El Salvador, Kenya, Lebanon, Moldova, Myanmar, Pakistan, Serbia, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zimbabwe; see Appendix 1). These provide national information on trends in the physical and mental health status of older people, and population-level information on access to UHC. The profiles are supplemented by data mapping, showing the national data available on older people’s health in the 12 profile countries, and revealing the data gaps. The data mapping results are available at www.GlobalAgeWatch.org.

Everybody Matters: Good practices for inclusion of people with disabilities in sexual and reproductive health and rights programmes

Van SLOBBE, Caroline
November 2017

Expand view

This publication provides introductory chapters from two activists who work to create better opportunities for people with disabilities in Nigeria and India. Subsequently, the challenges that organisations worldwide have encountered whilst improving the access to and knowledge of sexual and reproductive health and rights for people with disabilities are presented. Ways in which they managed to find solutions and the results achieved are reviewed. Some cases show the importance of a more personal approach whilst others emphasise the advantage of changing systems and policies. Different regions, types of disabilities and various SRHR-topics are reflected in these stories. All cases provide lessons learnt that contribute to a set of recommendations for improved responses. The closing chapter highlights the challenges, solutions, and ambitions that are presented and lead up to a concise overview of recommendations.  

Good practice examples include:

A shift in SRH programming (Nepal)

Breaking Barriers with performance art (Kenya)

Her Body, Her Rights (Ethiopia)

People with disabilities leading the way (Israel Family Planning Association)

Best Wishes for safe motherhood (Nepal)

It’s my body! (Bangladesh)

Calling a spade a spade (Netherlands)

Four joining forces (Colombia)

Change agents with a disability (Zimbabwe)

Tito’s privacy and rights (Argentina)

Sign language for service providers (Kenya)

Forecasting Zika Incidence in the 2016 Latin America Outbreak Combining Traditional Disease Surveillance with Search, Social Media, and News Report Data

MCGOUGH, Sarah F.
BROWNSTEIN, John S.
HAWKINS, Jared B.
et al
January 2017

Expand view

"Over 400,000 people across the Americas are thought to have been infected with Zika virus as a consequence of the 2015–2016 Latin American outbreak. Official government-led case count data in Latin America are typically delayed by several weeks, making it difficult to track the disease in a timely manner. Thus, timely disease tracking systems are needed to design and assess interventions to mitigate disease transmission."

Pages

E-bulletin