Using Photovoice as a Participatory Method to Identify and Strategize Community Participation with People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Background: Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) experience barriers to community participation, yet their insider experiences of environmental barriers and supports to participation are largely absent from the literature.Aim/Objective: The aims of this research were to evaluate Photovoice as a participatory research method, examine environmental barriers and supports to community participation, and develop strategies to support self-determination and community participation for and with people with I/DD.Material and Method: This study utilised a participatory action research (PAR) approach in which participants used Photovoice during interviews and audits of participation environments to identify high interest participation activities and document supports and barriers in these environments. Data analysis utilised an iterative,participatory approach in which researchers and participants teamed up to select, contextualise, and codify the data. Thematic analyses involved both inductive and realist approaches.Results/Findings: Participants included 146 community-dwelling adults with I/DD from three U.S. urban sites. We present a conceptual model of nine themes at microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem environmental levels.Conclusions: Using Photovoice as a participatory method to strategize community participation can help ground systems change efforts in the voices of people with I/DD.Significance: By including people with I/DD in conversations that concern them, researchers and practitioners can support this population in ways that they find meaningful

Exploring Coloniality in Occupation-Based Education: Perspectives of Ghanaian Occupational Therapists

The history, scope, and practice of occupational therapy are taught in many parts of the world using western perspectives. Recently, occupational scientists have explored occupation-based education, including the extent to which occupation is central in occupational therapy programs and the mechanisms of teaching occupation. This study explores how western ideologies have influenced occupation-based education in Ghana by examining the teaching and practice of occupational therapy. We conducted a qualitative study using purposive sampling to recruit four participants from the first four cohorts of practitioners. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Our analysis yielded three main themes: Power, participants described power dynamics inside and outside the field of occupational therapy that influenced how occupational therapy was taught and practiced in Ghana; Knowledge, participants described the focus of the foundational knowledge they received as largely theoretical, with limited practical knowledge of the Ghanaian context; Being, participants described how their experiences shaped their occupational identities. Additional themes included: Globalization and Cultural Assimilation, and Occupational Consciousness. Occupational therapists in Ghana are directly affected by the systemic injustices that have plagued their communities since the colonial era. Their existence in a formerly colonized country affects how much they can pursue personal and professional interests. Practitioners and scholars from formerly colonized and marginalized groups need to be empowered to embrace their identities and practice meaningfully. The ‘burden’ of decolonizing occupation-based education should not be left to the ex-colonized because coloniality goes beyond the scope of occupational science and occupational therapy

AUT680182_Supplementary_material – Supplemental material for Understanding parents’ concerns about their children with autism taking public school transportation in Los Angeles County

<p> Supplemental material, AUT680182_Supplementary_material for Understanding parents’ concerns about their children with autism taking public school transportation in Los Angeles County by Amber M Angell and Olga Solomon in Autism </p

AUT680182_Lay_Abstract – Supplemental material for Understanding parents’ concerns about their children with autism taking public school transportation in Los Angeles County

<p> Supplemental material, AUT680182_Lay_Abstract for Understanding parents’ concerns about their children with autism taking public school transportation in Los Angeles County by Amber M Angell and Olga Solomon in Autism </p

Occupations, school readiness and the educational transition in neoliberal Guatemala: A critical occupational science perspective

Guatemala is undergoing an educational transition, part of the reconstruction of civil society in the wake of a 36 year long civil war. The Peace Accords of 1996 promised educational opportunities and improved outcomes for Guatemala’s poor, rural, and predominantly indigenous population. According to the UN Human Development Reports, while Guatemalans now average 4.1 years of schooling (an increase of 1.7 years between 1980 and 2012), the country lags significantly behind its neighbors Nicaragua (5.8), Honduras (6.5), and the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean (7.8) (UNDP, 2013). Guatemala is also one of the most unequal countries in the world with respect to the distribution of wealth and power. Almost 40% of Guatemalan students in first grade are not promoted to the second grade due to poor educational performance and must repeat. Common Hope, a non-governmental organization (NGO) located near Antigua, Guatemala, offers sponsorship to individual children in 8,000 low-income Guatemalan families as a point of entry for social transformation. Common Hope has launched a new initiative to target the problem of high first grade failure rates by monitoring and supporting first graders’ academic progress through social work home visits. The authors, as members of the 2012 NAPA-OT Field School (www.napaotguatemala.org), completed a four-week study of social workers’ home visits to 44 mainly Ladino families in seven villages. Occupational science theory was used critically to analyze data from a rapid ethnographic assessment of occupations, environments, routines and verbal interactions. Common Hope is using the study report to discuss best practices with its social workers (Frank, Angell, Bartzen, Florindez, & Martinez, 2012). A quantitative analysis demonstrated that the occupation of talking dominated the social work visits, versus doing things as shared activity, doing things as demonstrations, or doing things casually while talking. Observations of the preschool-aged children, however, indicated active and curious play behaviors (despite having few toys or play materials) and interest in social engagement with the researchers. Their play revealed motor, cognitive, sensory, and social capacities deemed important for school readiness but actively discouraged in Guatemalan schools. Further, observed differences in the organization of home environments, family occupations and routines offered clues to disparities in the school performance of older siblings. Expansion of neoliberal global governance means that resources needed to expand access and educational outcomes are unlikely to come from Guatemala’s public sector. Following hard on the civil war, neoliberal models of educational reform must be critically evaluated if the promise of the Peace Accords to expand educational access and outcomes is to have meaning (Mulot 2004; Poppema, 2009). Guatemala depends heavily on a transnational, civil sector of NGOs to expand educational opportunities, school attendance, and graduation rates. This paper explores: (1) How, in a resource-restricted situation such Guatemala’s, occupational science perspectives may help to make a difference for education; and (2) What the idea of a “critical occupational science” might mean. Learning Objectives: To explore the idea of a critical occupational science, through the example of Guatemala’s transition to literacy and education for its majority poor population To understand how ethnographic methods were utilized within the context of a 4-week, interdisciplinary field school to bring an occupational science lens to social work home visits To explore how an occupational science analysis is contributing to best practices of a US-Guatemala NGO that sponsors educational opportunities for Guatemalan children To understand how an occupational science perspective can be utilized in resource-restricted contexts in low-income countries such as Guatemala to contribute to an education reform agend

Panel Presentation - Critical occupational science: Ethical, philosophical and political frameworks

A recent ‘critical turn’ in occupational science challenges the discipline to expand upon being a basic science focused on the human as an occupational being or the nature of occupation (Angell, 2012; Frank, 2012; Laliberte Rudman, 2013; Sellar, 2012). This critical turn encompasses a vision of occupational science as a socially responsible intellectual and moral enterprise aimed at enhancing awareness of occupational inequities and injustices and acting to bring about social transformation and enable occupation as ‘a human right’. Excitingly, this challenge is being responded to and a growing body of work in occupational science is attempting to enact what, in this panel, will be framed as ‘critical occupational science’. This activity among occupational scientists intersects with recent international developments to develop politically oriented occupational therapy. Given that critical scholars emphasize the need for continuous collective reflexivity regarding the ethical and political underpinnings and drivers of their work (Sayer, 2009; Sellar, 2012), this panel aims to provoke such reflexivity by considering questions pertaining to: (a) how critical occupational science might be framed or defined, (b) how it has been enacted thus far in relation to epistemology and methodology, (c) how it could be enacted in the future, (d) what might be its moral or ethical base, and (e) what it can add to the study of occupation and the capacity of the discipline to be socially and politically responsive and responsible. To promote this dialogue, each panelist will provide critical reflections on her occupational science work which has embraced a critical turn, sharing both the promises and challenges of such work. The panelists draw on various theoretical influences (e.g. Foucault, Black feminist theory, American pragmatist and neo-pragmatist thought, the capabilities approach, critical medical anthropology, globalization theory, Freirian-style pedagogies of the oppressed, and varieties of neo-Marxist and poststructuralist thinking); methodologies (e.g. critical ethnography, critical interpretive synthesis and critical discourse analysis); and substantive topic areas (e.g. aging, poverty, social justice, and international development). Thus, the panel presentation will both address the diversity that can exist within critical occupational science and also point to key anchors and defining features. Following these presentations, the session will be opened to dialogue with the audience to further refine the meaning and possibilities of critical occupational science. Key words:collective reflexivity, critical paradigm, ethic

Using Photovoice as a participatory method to identify and strategize community participation with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities

Background: Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) experience barriers to community participation, yet their insider experiences of environmental barriers and supports to participation are largely absent from the literature. Aim/Objective: The aims of this research were to evaluate Photovoice as a participatory research method, examine environmental barriers and supports to community participation, and develop strategies to support self-determination and community participation for and with people with I/DD. Material and method: This study utilized a participatory action research (PAR) approach in which participants used Photovoice during interviews and audits of participation environments to identify high interest participation activities and document supports and barriers in these environments. Data analysis utilized an iterative, participatory approach in which researchers and participants teamed up to select, contextualize, and codify the data. Thematic analyses involved both inductive and realist approaches. Results/Findings: Participants included 146 community-dwelling adults with I/DD from three U.S. urban sites. We present a conceptual model of nine themes at microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem environmental levels. Conclusions: Using Photovoice as a participatory method to strategize community participation can help ground systems change efforts in the voices of people with I/DD. Significance: By including people with I/DD in conversations that concern them, researchers and practitioners can support this population in ways that they find meaningful

sj-docx-1-aut-10.1177_13623613231163056 – Supplemental material for Pediatricians’ role in healthcare for Latino autistic children: Shared decision-making versus “You’ve got to do everything on your own”

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-aut-10.1177_13623613231163056 for Pediatricians’ role in healthcare for Latino autistic children: Shared decision-making versus “You’ve got to do everything on your own” by Amber M Angell, Olivia J Lindly, Daniella Floríndez, Lucía I Floríndez, Leah I Stein Duker, Katharine E Zuckerman, Larry Yin and Olga Solomon in Autism</p

sj-docx-1-otj-10.1177_15394492221142597 – Supplemental material for Challenges and Facilitators to Telehealth Occupational Therapy for Autistic Children During COVID-19

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-otj-10.1177_15394492221142597 for Challenges and Facilitators to Telehealth Occupational Therapy for Autistic Children During COVID-19 by Amber M. Angell, Elaine D. Carreon, Joana N. S. Akrofi, Marshae D. Franklin, Elinor E. Taylor, Julie Miller, Catherine Crowley and Shona Orfirer Maher in OTJR: Occupation, Participation and Health</p