Promoting and maintaining health of people with sight loss: A scoping study

This study was undertaken in response to a request by the Thomas Pocklington Trust to identify and explore the following issues: • The needs and concerns regarding immediate risks to health and safety related to sight loss; • Additional risks arising from sight loss for those who are also managing a long term disease; • The difficulties in maintaining and promoting health; • Whether or not health promotion activities and policies sufficiently address perceived needs. Findings pertaining to these objectives have been generated from data collected in Leeds, UK, a city where innovative programming for sight loss has either been planned or is being incorporated into health planning and a review of the literature. Findings related to the last two issues indicate that gaps exist in service provision for maintaining health and emphasise the need for more explicitly targeted health promotion initiatives that could address current weaknesses. - A review of the literature; - Focus group discussions with a range of people who had experienced sight loss; - Interviews with professional practitioners engaged in service provision to this population; - An expert hearing with four professional practitioners, one of whom had sight loss, and two service users with sight loss. Most participants were from the West Yorkshire region and the services described in the study are largely located in Leeds. Evidence from the literature review suggests that people with visual impairment have increased risk of accidents within the home and that ensuing consequences include injuries incurred and decreased confidence. Rates of depression among people who are blind or partially sighted are far higher than in the wider population and the likelihood of depression increases with age, although psycho-social interventions and technological assistance can be successfully implemented to improve quality of life. Sight loss together with other long term health conditions exacerbates the impact of other health conditions and has particularly severe impact on the wellbeing of older people insofar as it may affect their mobility, which in turn increases their risk of falls and depression. The nature and level of support available to people is variable but it is clear that access both to the right information at the right time and to appropriate services is a critical issue. Focus group discussions, interviews and the expert hearing corroborated and extended the themes noted in the literature and discuss the differential impact of different risks to health and the difficulties of coping with these at different times in a person’s life. A simple typology was defined using two dimensions of experience (‘stage of life’ and ‘early/late onset of sight loss’) as a means of organizing findings and providing a means of making further distinctions in interpreting the data. Potentially, this scheme can allow health promotion initiatives to be targeted more effectively to stages at which people with sight loss are more likely to encounter specific difficulties in managing and maintaining their health. There was a clear consensus throughout the study that interventions to meet the needs of people with sight loss must be tailored to meet the specific needs of individuals: people with sight loss are not a homogeneous group and the way in which each person experiences the challenges of sight loss and of managing their health will inevitably vary from person to person. Recommendations generated by this study include: • The scope for more pro-active services and need for closer collaboration between service providers; • The need for provision and promotion of targeted information; • The need for greater awareness of the needs of people with visual impairments among generic service providers; and • Further research that explores the usefulness of the typology with a larger sample more representative of population demographics such as BME communities that are more likely to slip through the cracks of service provision

HR’s Role in Managing Disability in the Workplace

It is estimated that there are 43 million Americans with disabilities, many of whom are significantly unemployed or underemployed compared with their nondisabled peers. This article describes the role of employers, management, and especially the HR professional in minimizing disability discrimination. It describes the findings of a recent study of private and federal sector employers’ responses to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Rehabilitation Act, and other disability nondiscrimination legislation, and points to areas that this research indicates are ways to successfully maximize the integration of people with disabilities into the workplace

Questions and Answers About Blindness and Vision Impairments in the Workplace and the Americans with Disabilities Act

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. Title I of the ADA makes it unlawful for any employer to discriminate against a qualified applicant or employee because of a disability in any aspect of employment. The ADA covers employers with 15 or more employees, including state and local governments. Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act provides the same protections for federal government employees and applicants. In addition, most states have their own laws prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of disability. Some of these state laws may apply to smaller employers and provide protections in addition to those available under the ADA

Integrating Women and Girls With Disabilities Into Mainstream Vocational Training: A Practical Guide

[From Foreword] This guide has been developed as an ILO contribution to implementing the Agenda for Action of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993-2002, and to the Platform for Action adopted by the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing which has called specifically for action by Governments, in cooperation with employers, workers and trade unions, international and on-governmental organizations, including women’s and youth organizations, and educational institutions to ensure access to quality education and training for, among others, women with disabilities, to improve their employment opportunities. It is also part of the ILO strategy to promote the observance of the ILO Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention, 1983 (No. 159), and Recommendation, 1983 (No. 168). These are the main reference documents for the ILO activities on the employment and training of disabled persons, along with the ILO Recommendation on Vocational Rehabilitation of the Disabled, 1995 (No. 99). This guide is intended primarily for instructors and administrators in vocational training institutes in both the public and private sectors

A brief guide to carrying out research about adult social care services for visually impaired people

Carrying out research about adult social care services for visually impaired people presents challenges that are not necessarily found in other fields. The purpose of this review is to draw attention to these challenges and to guide the researcher through them. It does so by drawing on the academic and grey literature. The review covers the ideological context of research in this field; definitions of visual impairment and their appropriate and inappropriate uses in research; misleading claims and reliable evidence about the size and characteristics of the visually impaired people and the reasons that these are important issues for research in the field. Challenges also cover the main topic areas of research and the methodological approaches, both quantitative and qualitative, that researchers have taken to deal with them. Issues common to both types of method cover sampling; the instruments used to collect data; the means of obtaining informed consent from visually impaired people, and organisations that can potentially assist researchers in this field

Information needs after stroke: What to include and how to structure it on a website. A qualitative study using focus groups and card sorting

Background: Use of the Internet to obtain health and other information is increasing. Previous studies have identified the specific information needs of people with stroke but not in relation to the Internet. People with aphasia (PwA) may face barriers in accessing the Internet: Navigating websites requires an ability to categorise information and this ability is often impaired in PwA. The website categorisation preferences of people with stroke and with aphasia have not yet been reported. Aims: This study aimed: (a) to determine what information people who have had a stroke would like to see on a website about living with stroke; (b) to determine the most effective means of structuring information on the website so that it is accessible to people with stroke; and c) to identify any differences between people with and without aphasia in terms of preferences for structuring information on the website. Methods & Procedures: Participants were recruited from a hospital's Stroke Database. Focus groups were used to elicit what information participants wanted on a website about living with stroke. The themes raised were depicted on 133 cards. To determine the most effective way of structuring information on the website, and whether there were any differences in preferences between PwA and PwoA, participants used a modified closed card-sorting technique to sort the cards under website categories. Outcomes & Results: A total of 48 people were invited, and 12 (25%) agreed to take part. We ran three focus groups: one with PwA (n = 5) and two with people without aphasia (PwoA) (n = 3, n = 4). Participants wanted more information about stroke causes and effects (particularly emotional issues), roles of local agencies, and returning to previous activities (driving, going out). All participants completed the card-sorting exercise. Few cards (6%) were categorised identically by everyone. Cards relating to local agencies and groups were not consistently categorised together. Cards relating to emotions were segregated. The categorisation preferences for PwA were more fragmented than those for PwoA: 60% of PwA agreed on the categorisation of 51% of the cards, whereas 60% of PwoA agreed on the categorisation of 76% of the cards. Conclusions: Information needs covered all stages of the stroke journey. The card sorting was accessible to everyone, and provided evidence of structuring preferences and of some of the categorisation difficulties faced by PwA. More research is needed on what an accessible website looks like for PwA

Tracking Chart 2011 Outdoor Cap, China 150015427EV

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.FLA_2011_Outdoor_Cap_TC_China_150015427EVV.pdf: 25 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020