This study aimed to examine support and adaptation needed by persons with four different types of disabilities, either at their workplace or in order to enter the labour market. A secondary analysis was conducted, based on the regular labour market survey (AKU), and an additional survey which included questions specifically posed to persons with disabilities. All participants had either partly or very reduced work ability. There was more need for adaptation than for support, independently of work ability and current employment status. Around 60% of respondents with a psychological disability reported a need for adapted work pace and working time, both at their workplace and in order to enter the labour market. Adapted work tasks were an important factor, especially for persons who were not currently working; around half of the non-employed participants said this adaptation could make it possible for them to work, regardless of type of disability.
The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of Swedish social workers’ experience of disabled children’s participation, to discover in what ways their knowledge about impairment and disability, combined with legal literacy and local context influence children’s participation in formal meetings and decision making. Seven focus-group interviews were conducted with 35 municipal social workers from communities in different parts of Sweden. The phenomenological analysis resulted in the overarching theme of elusive participation, in which participation was described as difficult to grasp both in relation to what was supposed to be achieved and what it was meant to result in. Elusive participation entailed a discrepancy between policy and practice, norms and perception of normality, conflicting perspectives and needs, judgment of children’s abilities. These findings underline the importance of creating safe spaces in which social workers have the opportunity for critical reflections and shared discussions about social work practice.
In tsarist Russia, disability care was little developed, yet showed certain similarities with other European countries. Disabled children received support through charities and private philanthropy. The October revolution of 1917 proclaimed a better future for all the country's citizens. Issues: How did the disability policy discussion change after the Russian revolution? Who took care of the so-called feeble-minded? What did this care consist of? Methodology: Study of political and scientific documentation of the period from the end of the 1800s to 1936, along with reflections on the ongoing situation found in the diaries of the head of one child institution, Ekaterina Gracheva. Outcomes: 'Educable' children received schooling, while 'non-educable' children were placed in separate institutions. This marginalisation was reinforced by the focus on the productive worker. Soviet Russia developed defectology as a science and increased the use of institutional solutions.
The article aims at exploring the relevance of Luhmann's sociological systems theory to understand disability as communication about impairments. The questions to be considered in the following are: What happens to interaction systems when confronted with individuals with psychical or physical impairments (deviating bodies, perception difficulties, difficulties to process information)? What are the essential characteristics of interaction where disabled people participate? Trying to answer these questions, a broader question is raised: In which ways does communication in interaction systems become strained or overloaded? I argue that from the viewpoint of systems theory, disability as a social phenomenon, as part of social systems ‐ historically evolved and intelligible only in a systems/environment relationship ‐ must be linked to communication. Individuals’ impairments strain interaction with respect to time, objectively and socially because interaction systems are a combination of perception and communication.