Suchergebnisse

"Assistenten von Körperbehinderten sind 'Experten der Hilfestellung' nach Vorgabe. In vielen alltäglichen oder auch nicht-alltäglichen Dingen des Lebens können und sollen 'persönliche Assistenten' Körperbehinderten zur Seite stehen, wenn und sofern diese es wünschen. Letztere wiederum sollen durch die Inanspruchnahme von Assistenzleistungen in den Stand versetzt werden, ein möglichst selbst bestimmtes Leben zu führen. Hier wird umrissen, welches Verständnis von 'Expertentum' das Modell des 'Selbstbestimmten Lebens mit persönlicher Assistenz' impliziert und was dies wiederum für die Interaktion zwischen Assistenznehmern und 'deren' - professioneller Weise agierenden - Assistenten bedeutet bzw. bedeuten könnte." (Autorenreferat)

The Swedish system of disability support is often praised for its comparably well-developed Personal Assistance (PA) scheme. PA is formally prescribed as a social right for disabled people with comprehensive support needs in the Act Concerning Support and Services to Persons with Certain Functional Impairments (LSS). In the decade following the introduction of LSS in 1994, the PA-scheme expanded steadily to accommodate the support needs of more and more disabled people. It is commonly believed that the expansion of PA has substantially boosted the agency of both disabled people and their relatives. This article critically discusses in what direction the Swedish system of disability support has moved in the past decade. Is the common image of a system moving towards an ever increasing defamilialization of disability support still accurate? Or are there signs of stagnation, or even reversal towards refamilialization? What are the possible consequences of the more recent developments for disabled people and their relatives in terms of agency and equality? These questions will be discussed with the help of an analysis of the regulatory framework of disability support, statistical data and findings from public reports.

Parents invariably experience great emotional distress when they are informed that their child is intellectually handicapped. From working with parents of intellectually handicapped children, it appears that they experience more anxiety with their child than do parents of normal children, and often have special needs. These needs may vary from requiring assistance to adjust to their child's condition, to advice and guidance about how to manage their child. It is apparent from talking with parents about their experiences with their intellectually handicapped child, that often their needs have not or have only superficially been met by professionals. Some cases have been adequately dealt with, however, in general there appear to be discrepancies in the availability of assistance for parents of intellectually handicapped children. There is a need to bring into focus the situation as it now exists for parents when they are told of their child's handicap. The time when parents are told of their child's handicap is a crucial one for parents, and perhaps not enough is being done to help parents at this time.

"Über das 20. Jahrhundert hinweg wuchs der Anteil der schulisch behinderten Kinder. Mit der Medizin und der Psychologie spielte die (sonder-)pädagogische Profession eine wichtige Rolle bei der Entwicklung sonderpädagogischer Fördersysteme, um schulische Probleme individuell zu behandeln und organisatorisch zu kontrollieren. Mit zunehmender Professionalisierung wurden immer wieder neue Kategorien der schulischen Behinderung definiert, wobei zugleich natürliche und kulturelle Perspektiven auf abweichendem (Lern)Verhalten ausschlaggebend dafür waren. Mit den kontinuierlich steigenden schulischen Anforderungen erhöhen sich zugleich die Risiken für Kinder, die diese immer präziser definierte und öfters gemessene Leistungs- und Verhaltensstandards nicht genügen. Für ein Verständnis der zunehmenden Identifikation und Kontrolle von abweichendem (Lern-)Verhalten ist die Analyse der sich wandelnden Relevanz körperlicher Differenzen unabdingbar. Seit jeher trifft das Risiko der schulischen Behinderung insbesondere männliche Schüler, ethnische Minoritäten und sozial Benachteiligte. Erklärungen dieser Expansion wie diese Überrepräsentanzen sind umstritten. Um die Spaltungslinie zwischen dem medizinischem und dem sozialem Modell der Behinderung aufzuzeigen werden in diesem Beitrag unterschiedliche Zeitalter behandelt: Eine Epoche der Institutionalisierung um 1900 in dem klinische Diagnostik und rechtliche Definitionen über zunehmende staatliche Hilfen entschieden; die Periode (bis in die sechziger Jahre) der wachsenden Behindertenpolitik, der Rehabilitation sowie der schulischen Exklusion und Segregation; und eine Zeit der wachsenden und selbst organisierten Behindertenbewegung und der davon nicht separierbaren Entwicklung sozialpolitischer Modelle der Behinderung seit den siebziger Jahren. In den letzten Jahren zeichnet sich aber eine neue Phase ab, die insbesondere auf neurowissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse basiert. Der uralte Streit zwischen den Disziplinen-schulische Behinderung eher als Ergebnis individueller Körperdifferenzen oder als strukturierte Ungleichheit zu begreifen entfacht sich neu. Wie über diese Frage entschieden wird, determiniert welche Ressourcen zur Verfügung gestellt und welche meistens stigmatisierenden Etiketten verwendet werden, kurz: Welche Kinder behindert werden." (Autorenreferat)

In this study three severely handicapped school-aged students were trained to cross the street. The students were provided preinstruction, instructional feedback, and selective repeated practice to acquire the skills to cross the street at partially controlled intersections; selective repeated practice was introduced only when physical assistance was required on those skills students found particularly difficult to learn; a rehearsal and model phase was eventually used to promote independent street crossing. Data were collected on the following training clusters: approach (walking to and stopping on the curb), look (looking behind, in front, left, and right), step (stepping off the curb when no cars were coming), and walk (walking quickly across the street and stopping on the other side). Results of the multiple baseline design indicated that instructional feedback was sufficient in training the approach and walk behaviors but selective repeated practice was required to establish the look responses. A partial reversal following withdrawal of instructional feedback suggested withdrawing all treatment components would result in total loss of behavior gains. Therefore, rehearsal in the form of performing the entire sequence with the trainer and then a trainer model was tried. This strategy increased the number of independent decisions to step and walk across the street. Generalization probes on untreated, partially controlled intersections suggested that each student used the newly acquired behaviors appropriately. Future research is suggested in the areas of training two-behavior versus four-behavior chains, using repeated practice to facilitate acquisition and teach independent decision making to severely handicapped students.

Disability scholars and activists argue that 'care' is a complex form of oppression and reject it as a term and concept. I explore the possibility of salvaging care from its oppressive medical and charitable legacies through a discussion of personal assistance. While not arguing for a return to terming personal assistance 'care', I argue care can be made accessible in policies and discussions of attendant services and in more general discussions related to care. Like the built environment, care requires 'retrofitting' as in updating existing structures to fully include disability perspectives. This requires redefining care as a complex tension. Accessibility also evokes the sense of 'at hand'; keeping care at hand in policy discussions allows us to consider transformative feminist conceptualizations of care and captures intricate relationships between attendants and disabled people, including people with intellectual disabilities. Most importantly, accessible versions of care always acknowledge the oppressive legacies and coercive potentials of care.

This paper explores personal assistance – a practice considered crucial for supporting the independence and social inclusion of disabled people. The starting point of the analysis is the presumption that the significance of personal assistance goes well beyond welfare, touching upon existential-ontological issues. In order to uncover these issues, a phenomenological approach is used. The aim is to highlight the understanding of human being which is mediated by an internationally prominent model of personal assistance, to wit, the one promoted by the European Independent Living advocates, as described by Adolf Ratzka (2004a). It is argued that despite its liberal-individualist assertions the scheme described by Ratzka presupposes a distributed, relational understanding of human being. A case study of recent disability-related activism in Bulgaria is developed in order to further substantiate this claim. In conceptual terms, then, the paper adds a fresh perspective to the debates on individualist vs. collectivist approaches to disability equality. This perspective is informed by the phenomenological insights of Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. In policy terms the paper argues for the necessity of promoting and supporting disabled people's self-organizing, most importantly peer support and advocacy activities.

From our experience the tape recorder seems to be a very satisfactory method for administering personality tests to blind and partially blind students. The students feel more free in answering question of a personal nature and they can do the test without assistance. One disadvantage in using this method of having students sort cards into different boxes is that the student's responses to specific questions are lost once the test is scored. However, in cases of doubt where the examiner wishes to have a permanent record of the responses, he may record them on an answer sheet in the usual manner from the cards the student has sorted. In our experience, we have not felt the need for preserving the responses to questions in this manner. We would like to use these personality tests on a greater number of students before drawing any definite conclusions. However, on the basis of results obtained so far, it would seem that the Bell Adjustment Inventory is better adapted for blind and partially sighted students. The medians for both boys and girls fall within the normal or average range for the four areas tested. The medians for both boys and girls obtained on the B1-N Scale of the Bernreuter are within the average range but the medians obtained from the B2-S and the B4-D Scales of the Bernreuter are lower than should be expected. There is also a more normal curve of distribution of scores obtained from the Bell than from the Bernreuter. The Bell Adjustment Inventory is longer, having 140 questions as compared with 125 on the Bernreuter. However, the Bell is easier and quicker to score. In general we have been satisfied with the results obtained from these two personality tests administered on the tape recorder. We are now using this method for other tests of personality as well as for some occupational interest tests and aptitude tests.