Disability and the Muslim Perspective: An Introduction for Rehabilitation and Health Care Providers

[Excerpt] This monograph offers an introduction to and overview of a broad spectrum and diversity of Muslims with disabilities and chronic health conditions who come from a variety of backgrounds and circumstances. The perspective provided here also highlights larger issues of human rights. Given the current immigration trends in the United States, it is critical that service providers work across cultures and systems to help Muslims access disability and health care services and resources in their communities. Over the years, service professionals and researchers have come to recognize that individuals with disabilities and health conditions do not always hold the same health beliefs, understandings, objectives, and priorities as the service providers they encounter. The result is an intercultural gap in understanding between clients and providers that may result in a poor treatment or rehabilitative outcome. This monograph will use the terms client, consumer, and patient interchangeably to denote those seeking disability services, medical services, or both. We emphasize that to bridge the gap between Muslim service users and mainstream U.S. service systems, service providers in disability and rehabilitation systems need to increase their sensitivity and ability to accommodate differences between their services and the needs of their clients

Institute Brief: Effective Career Development Strategies for Young Artists with Disabilities

One potential arena of employment for young people with disabilities is the arts. This brief reports on effective strategies that 47 young artists with disabilities used to gain access to arts-related experiences in order to further their educational and career pathways. Across program years 2002–2005, these young artists, all aged 16 to 25, were finalists in the VSA arts/ Volkswagen of America, Inc. Program, an arts competition that was intended to showcase their talents and accomplishments. As part of the overall evaluation, we were able to identify career development strategies based on a review of finalists’ program applications. This brief is mainly targeted at visual artists, although the strategies may also apply to other groups of artists

Entering adulthood with a disability: individual, family, and cultural challenges

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston UniversityPLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at [email protected]. Thank you.For young adults with disabilities in the United States, making a meaningful transition from high school to adult life has increasingly become an important issue in research,service delivery, and policy. However, despite the growing emphasis on transition, national findings continue to report discouraging post-high school outcomes. This problem is especially difficult for young adults with disabilities from diverse cultures. To address this issue, the purpose of this study was to assess the relationship of a set of socio-demographic, cultural, and support-related predictor variables and six post-high school outcomes for a sample of young adults with disabilities of White (nonLatino), Black (non-Latino), and Latino backgrounds and their families. The following three research questions were explored to confirm and extend the findings of earlier studies. 1) What are the post-high school outcomes in the areas of employment, postsecondary education/training, and social and community participation? 2) Which factors (e.g., individual, family, and economic characteristics, cultural and attitudinal factors and use of formal or informal supports) are related to positive post-high school outcomes in the areas of employment, postsecondary education/training, and social and community participation? 3) Do differences exist between young adults with disabilities in their post-high school outcomes and their patterns of contributory factors across the three racial and ethnic groups? Data from the 1994 and 1995 U.S. National Health Interview Survey on Disability (NIDS-D) was used to employ descriptive and an ex-post facto design. Analyses of the survey items produced significant results. Though this study was designed to be exploratory, the findings reveal that a complex set of factors influence positive post-high school outcomes for these young adults in six adult life areas. In addition, the relationship between predictor variables and post-high school outcome variables varied across the three racial and ethnic groups. For example, the relationship between race/ethnicity and negative early adulthood outcomes generally showed an expected trend for Blacks and Latinos as compared with Whites; being non-White decreased the likelihood of being in employment, pursuing a postsecondary education, and participating in social and recreational activities. In contrast, being White increased the likelihood of participating in the above outcome areas. Interestingly, compared with being a White female with a disability, being a Black female with a disability or a Latino female with a disability significantly increased the likelihood of participating in religious and spiritual activities. The findings generated from this study confirm the gap between minorities and nonminorities with regard to positive outcomes and access to services and further illustrate the need to identify effective policies and programs. The NIDS-D survey made it possible to assess the current situation for a sample of White, Black, and Latino, and young adults with disabilities in a manner that has not been possible to date. While future follow-up studies will be needed to bring this picture into sharper focus, the study can provide a starting point to those who are working to improve the post-high school outcomes for young adult with disabilities and their families of different racial and ethnic backgrounds.2031-01-0

Mediación en el vacío cultural

Aunque a los refugiados que entran en Estados Unidos se les anima a integrarse en la vida americana, muchos luchan por acceder al sistema de servicios del país, en especial las personas con discapacidad

Art and Disability: Intersecting Identities Among Young Artists with Disabilities

Disability arts in the United Kingdom and disability culture in the United States play important roles in expressing a positive disability identity. This paper reports on expressions about identity, in both artwork and reflective words, of 47 young artists with disabilities who were finalists in the VSA arts / Volkswagen arts competition between 2002 and 2005. As part of an evaluation of this program, we reviewed the artists' application essays and artwork. In doing so, we found a wealth of information on their perceptions of what it means to be a person with a disability and an artist, and how these two identities intersect. The findings provide insights into the role of the arts in identity formation for young people with disabilities, and point to the potential for future research on how arts and disability interact.Keywordsaffirmative model of disability, impairment, art, artists, culture, identit

Research to Practice: Job Networking in Diverse Communities

While individuals with disabilities face many obstacles when seeking employment, there are usually additional challenges for those from diverse cultures. To address this issue, ICI formed partnerships with community immigrant organizations to teach networking techniques to job seekers

Islam, Leprosy, and Disability: How Religion, History, Art, and Storytelling Can Yield New Insights and Acceptance

Age-old fears and misconceptions about leprosy have flourished for centuries and the condition remains both a socially stigmatizing issue and a public health problem in many parts of the globe. In the context of Islam, only a few personal narratives by Muslims living with leprosy exist, and no one has systematically reviewed accounts of leprosy related disability from early or recent Islamic history, including the Prophet Muhammad’s interactions with individuals living with leprosy. In this article, we present previously untold stories about leprosy, from both English and Arabic sources strongly rooted in Islamic values and principles. After an introduction and brief history of Islam, this article is divided into three main sections: (1) The foundations of early Islamic values about illness, leprosy, and disability; (2) Leprosy and stigma in Islamic communities and/or places; and (3) Art, storytelling, and other expressions by people living with leprosy in various parts of the world. The authors also discuss some of the challenges of defining leprosy terminology based on early historic documents. The overall purpose of this article is to describe historical and religious accounts of leprosy and amplify the collective voices and experiences of Muslims who live with leprosy from a disability studies frame. The authors also introduce the ‘House is Black’, a short documentary that illustrates additional insights and commentary related to disability related leprosy

Research to Practice: Job Networking in Diverse Communities

While individuals with disabilities face many obstacles when seeking employment, there are usually additional challenges for those from diverse cultures. To address this issue, ICI formed partnerships with community immigrant organizations to teach networking techniques to job seekers

Disability terminology and the emergence of ‘diffability’ in Indonesia

The labelling of disabilities in Indonesian society and legislation has changed over time. More recently, the grassroots has used the term difabel to allude to the conceptualisation of ‘differently able’. The persistence of the grassroots in defending the term difabel, while in the UNCRPD ratification era the elites have turned to using disabilitas, alerts us to the power of labels and the role they play. This article provides a critique of the issue of language and the labelling of people with impairments and how it influences the paradigm of policy and service responses, and thereby the future role of differently able people. Given the background on the evolved disability terminology, this article suggests that difabel should also be adopted into broader English usage (i.e. ‘diffability’). Such a term provides a more positive characterisation of people with impairments and reminds us of the importance of emphasising abilities and acknowledging differences.Griffith Health, School of Human Services and Social WorkNo Full Tex