Photovoice: Life Through the Eyes of People with Disability in North India

The authors used photovoice methodology to gain insight into the lives of 18 people with disabilities in rural North India. This project provided participants with an opportunity to express their joys and difficulties and provided important insights to help structure future programs and supports within the community

Access to Services and Barriers faced by People with Disabilities: A Quantitative Survey

Purpose: In low- and middle-income middle-income countries, reliable and disaggregated disability data on prevalence, participation and barriers are often unavailable available. This study aimed to estimate disability prevalence, determine associated socio-demographic factors and compare access in the community between people with and without disability in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand, India, using the Rapid Assessment of Disability survey. Methods: A cross-sectional population-based survey was conducted on a sample of 2431 adults, selected using a two-stage cluster randomised sampling technique. The survey comprised an interviewer-administered household survey and an individual survey measuring disability, wellbeing and participation. For each person with disability, an age-and sex-matched control (without disability) was selected. In addition to prevalence, the differences in participation and barriers faced by people with and without disability were analysed. Results and Conclusions: The prevalence of disability was 6.8% (95% CI 5.8-7.8) with significant associations with age, sex, economic status, education and employment. Psychosocial distress (4.8%) and mobility impairment (2.7%) were the most common disabilities identified. The study showed that people with disabilities had significantly less access to services than those without disability, and the barriers reported most often were lack of information, transport and physical inaccessibility

Barriers in health care access faced by children with intellectual disabilities living in rural Uttar Pradesh

Purpose: People with disability in rural India face multiple barriers accessing healthcare; our hypothesis is that children with intellectual disability suffer the same but little is known about the barriers faced by them. The objectives of the study were to identify the health seeking behaviours of families with children with intellectual disabilities and the barriers they faced accessing healthcare. Methods: This qualitative study involved interviewing caregivers of children with intellectual disability from a pre-existing community development project in the Sahadoli Kadim block of rural Uttar Pradesh. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with the local practitioners frequented by these caregivers. Results: Barriers identified were grouped under cognitive, structural and financial barriers which were found to be consistent with the Health Care Access Barrier Model (Carrillo, et al., 2011; WHO, 2011). Cognitive barriers included caregivers being unable to identify the complex health needs of their children. Caregivers lacked appropriate knowledge of intellectual disability, with doctors failing to educate them. Structural and financial barriers encompassed poor availability of healthcare providers and contributed to poor access to specialists. Caregivers had no information about government financial aid and healthcare providers did not refer them to these. Conclusion: Children with intellectual disabilities are forced to live with a poor quality of life because of cognitive, structural and financial barriers they face in accessing health care. Results are specific to children with intellectual disability in rural Sahadoli Kadim and could be used to inform policies and strategies to reduce disparities in health care access for these children

Making distribution of wheelchairs sustainable: A Wheels for the World program in North India, October 2015

A description of a program carried out in October 2015 in North India of distribution of wheelchairs and other assistive devices for persons with disabilities. Applying cooperative approaches through churches, NGOs and networks, outside resources were utilized to develop a sustainable approach to meeting identified disability needs in low-resource settings