A commentary on "first-hand experience of accessible information"

Purpose: To provide a commentary on Mander’s paper on first-hand experience of accessible information. Design/ Methodology/ approach: The commentary reflects on some of the findings presented by Mander and builds on these, with particular emphasis on what it means to understand information. Findings: Everything from initial product design to building capacity and constructing knowledge requires expertise and attention to detail. Originality/Value: There are no quick fix solutions to achieving understanding of information by people who have learning disabilities

Interactional power and support in digital inclusion of an adult with intellectual disabilities:A case study analysis

Digital inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities is not commensurate with those without disabilities. Societal, political, financial, individual and interpersonal barriers help explain this disparity. Caregivers can act as both support and gatekeeper to internet access and use by adults with intellectual disabilities. This study investigated micro-level interpersonal factors influencing access and use of the internet by an adult with intellectual disabilities to explore the balance and interplay of power and support around the processes of digital inclusion and online risk taking. Taking a case study approach, perspectives of three key stakeholders were gathered via interviews: the person with intellectual disabilities, his mother and a paid support worker. Perspectives and experiences were contrasted using systemic functional linguistic analysis of discourse to explore the ways power and support were represented in the language of negotiated digital inclusion. Dynamics between the parent and person with intellectual disabilities and between the parent and paid staff clearly influenced processes of digital inclusion and were affected by varying priorities, positions and perceptions of power to allow, disallow and monitor access and use of the internet. These had the power to shape and drive internet access. Language choices by the person with intellectual disabilities showed that he was not fully aware of the risks involved in engaging with certain aspects of digital inclusion but how he spoke about the internet indicated some autonomy in technology use. Supporting the development of digital competence, confidence and resilience in people with learning disabilities should be combined with support to increase self-awareness regarding digital risk. Those supporting people with intellectual disabilities towards digital inclusion need additional guidance on how to do this effectively for the people they support.</p

Health-based information for people with intellectual disabilities: an investigation into the linguistic properties of 'easy read' literature and its contribution to the construction of meaning. The Easy Read Project

Health information is often conveyed in printed or digital form. This can present challenges to people with intellectual disabilities, many of whom experience literacy difficulties and are therefore disadvantaged in reading and understanding such information. ‘Easy read’ versions of health-related documents purport to circumvent these difficulties, but there is little evidence to demonstrate their effectiveness in doing so. The aim of the current research was to address how effective adapted health-based ‘easy read’ literature was in contributing to the construction of meaning for people with intellectual disabilities. Four studies investigated different areas of ‘easy read’ information and its use. 1. A survey compared presentational features found in ‘easy read’ and ‘non-easy read’ literature published by the UK Department of Health and aligned these with advice given in published guidelines for ‘easy read’ material. 2. Critical differences between the linguistic features in these two groups of documents were analysed using specialised software. 3. A systematic qualitative linguistic analysis was undertaken to investigate the subtleties conveyed through the discourse of ‘non-easy read’ compared to ‘easy read’ texts. 4. Finally, a randomised experiment tested the effects of linguistic simplification and literacy mediation on the understanding of ‘easy read’ information with sixty participants with intellectual disabilities. When material was compared to its ‘non-easy read’ counterparts it showed that clear differences had been rendered by authors of the ‘easy read’ documentation. These differences were indicative of presentational changes and reduced linguistic complexity. They did not appear to translate into more effective understanding of content by people with intellectual disabilities, whether human mediation was present or not. Individual capacity for language, however, was shown to be integral to the construction of meaning from ‘easy read material’. This has implications for both the production and the use of ‘easy read’ material in practice

Meeting the communication support needs of children and young people with intellectual disabilities in the Bolivian Andes

Services available for people with disabilities in Bolivia tend to be fragmented and costly. Children and adults with intellectual disabilities are more likely to have a related communication disability and are thus both literally and metaphorically excluded from having a voice. The following research aimed to explore the experiences of accessing services by people with communication disabilities in Bolivia through semi-structured interviews and one focus group carried out with family members, professionals, service providers, educators and policymakers. It aimed to establish the nature of current services in Bolivia where knowledge, information and resources are scarce. Findings indicated the need to consider an alternative to a medical model approach through a focus on empowering other stakeholders to participate more fully in meeting communication support needs. Conclusions plot ideas for future service delivery and emphasize the central power of sharing practical and expert knowledge

Addressing Sexual Misconduct in Community Corrections

INAPPROPRIATE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN OFFENDERS AND EMPLOYEES of community-based corrections organizations have emerged as a serious issue. Among the most dangerous and destructive of these inappropriate relationships is sexual misconduct. The very nature of community corrections, with semi-autonomous employees, the increasing focus on a rehabilitative rather than the punitive model, the increase of offenders assigned to these programs, and actual allegations of sexual misconduct have raised the awareness of administrators of the need for action

A Systematic Review of Research on Staff Training as an Intervention to Develop Communication in Children and Adults with Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities

Introduction: This paper aims to identify to what extent staff training interventions are successful in enhancing the development of communication skills in people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. Methods: A systematic review was undertaken, conforming to PRISMA guidelines. English language, peer reviewed, empirical studies of staff training interventions to enhance the communication of people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities were included. Databases Scopus, Web of Science, Proquest, Linguistics and Language Behaviour Abstracts (LLBA) and Medline were searched in July 2015 and updated in December 2022. Quality appraisal was conducted on 13 studies using Crowe's Critical Appraisal Tool (CCAT). Results: Few good quality evaluations of interventions were found. Challenges to research rigour included the diversity of people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities, small sample sizes, intervention intensity and the management of fidelity. Conclusions: Manualised and bespoke interventions showed promise in improving staff communication and responsiveness.</p

Restoration of Sp4 in Forebrain GABAergic Neurons Rescues Hypersensitivity to Ketamine in Sp4 Hypomorphic Mice.

BackgroundKetamine produces schizophrenia-like behavioral phenotypes in healthy people. Prolonged ketamine effects and exacerbation of symptoms after the administration of ketamine have been observed in patients with schizophrenia. More recently, ketamine has been used as a potent antidepressant to treat patients with major depression. The genes and neurons that regulate behavioral responses to ketamine, however, remain poorly understood. Sp4 is a transcription factor for which gene expression is restricted to neuronal cells in the brain. Our previous studies demonstrated that Sp4 hypomorphic mice display several behavioral phenotypes relevant to psychiatric disorders, consistent with human SP4 gene associations with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression. Among those behavioral phenotypes, hypersensitivity to ketamine-induced hyperlocomotion has been observed in Sp4 hypomorphic mice.MethodsIn the present study, we used the Cre-LoxP system to restore Sp4 gene expression, specifically in either forebrain excitatory or GABAergic inhibitory neurons in Sp4 hypomorphic mice. Mouse behavioral phenotypes related to psychiatric disorders were examined in these distinct rescue mice.ResultsRestoration of Sp4 in forebrain excitatory neurons did not rescue deficient sensorimotor gating nor ketamine-induced hyperlocomotion. Restoration of Sp4 in forebrain GABAergic neurons, however, rescued ketamine-induced hyperlocomotion, but did not rescue deficient sensorimotor gating.ConclusionsOur studies suggest that the Sp4 gene in forebrain GABAergic neurons regulates ketamine-induced hyperlocomotion