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Parents and service providers are the key care providers for children with disabilities (CWD) and understand their living circumstances best. These children are often invisible and face many challenges to full participation within their own communities. A qualitative phenomenological action research was carried out in three districts of Sri Lanka to explore the perspectives of parents and the service providers on the needs of CWD and how those were met by the present services. This qualitative study included interviews with families, and focus group discussions with service providers. Data was analyzed using a manual thematic analysis. The parents and service providers identified the needs under three main themes. The need for activity and participation, education and rehabilitation. The parents related the needs to the practical daily experiences of families while service providers identified these based on their experiences and knowledge about the medical conditions. Parents identified the public health midwife as the best first contact primary health care worker to coordinate services. The families from Sri Lanka defined initiatives to accomplish a service delivery model which would enable better inclusion of the children in community life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) has a long established service development and research programme with Sri Lankan colleagues. The Centre for International Child Health (CICH) is an academic unit with public health interests in the countries of the South. Together a group of collaborators at GOSH, CICH and in Sri Lanka worked together to plan how a cadre of health workers could be prepared to work with people with communication disabilities. This is not an uncommon aim in under-served countries and there is a small published literature about the courses which have been developed. Choices about models for training, service delivery and ensuring sustainability in emerging services for people with communication disabilities are complex. Links can be made with development work in other disciplines. The literature relating to these issues in countries such as Sri Lanka is examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper presents researchers' experiences using participatory, inclusive research methodologies to explore aspects of inclusive education, with children with disabilities, parents, and teachers in Nigeria and Kenya., Objectives: The objective is to describe working with children and adults with disabilities, as research collaborators, alongside local INGO staff and OPD partners., Method: In Kenya we worked with 9 peer researchers with disabilities to run focus groups and interviews with children with disabilities, parents and teachers about inclusive pre-school education. In Nigeria we ran participatory workshops with children with disabilities, and their parents discussing what makes school and community settings inclusive, to inform the design of a Wellbeing and Inclusion checklist. The studies were based in pilot primary schools and Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE or pre-school) classes in Nigeria and Kenya respectively. The data produced were recordings and notes from focus group discussions, interviews and activities and reflections from the peer researchers. Data analysis was an inclusive participatory process of thematic analysis carried out in person and online., Results: These innovative approaches demonstrate that with careful planning and support, both adults and children with disabilities can be involved very directly in research processes not just as participants but as researchers., Conclusion: We argue that using participatory, disability-inclusive approaches helps to make the findings more nuanced and genuine and the data and outputs generated uniquely grounded in people's realities and perspectives., Contribution: These methods can potentially inform the mainstreaming of a disability inclusion approach into international development debates and activities., Competing Interests: The author declares that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article., (© 2024. The Author.)

It is estimated that 3.75 billion people worldwide lack access to healthcare services. Marginalized populations, such as people with disabilities, are at greater risk of exclusion. People with disabilities not only face the same barriers as people without disabilities, but also experience a range of additional barriers in accessing healthcare due to a variety of discriminatory and inaccessible environments. These extra barriers exist despite their greater need for general healthcare, as well as specialized healthcare related to their impairment. Few studies have focused on healthcare providers and the challenges they face in caring for this group. This paper describes the perspectives of healthcare stakeholders and reported challenges to the provision of quality primary healthcare for people with disabilities. In-depth interviews with 11 healthcare stakeholders were conducted in three regions of Guatemala. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Five sub-themes emerged from the above theme: infrastructure and availability of resources, impairment-based challenges, need for special attention and empathy, opportunity to provide services to people with disabilities, and gaps in training. The results could contribute to the development and implementation of strategies that can improve primary care provision and ultimately access to services for people with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries.

This paper addresses intersectionality and disability in global contexts. Disability as a category of identity is often omitted in rhetoric about intersectionality, which usually considers race and gender, with some consideration of other identities. However, disability like other identities is socially constructed, and liable to misrepresentation and is often siloed from other issues and experiences. Someone identifying as disabled may not be recognised by those around them as having other identities too. In discussions about intersectionality, a simplistic "additive" approach is common, while the shifting complexities and interactions between people's multiple identities are not considered with nuance. Disabled people may pragmatically adopt a kind of "strategic essentialism". This allows them to claim a disabled identity and a specific dialogic space in order to gain recognition and perhaps access to support and services. However, they may prefer not to be classified in this dichotomised way because this ignores other aspects of them. Often an impairment is only of importance to the extent that it means that the person needs some reasonable adjustments in order to participate on equal basis with others. Arguably the SDGs and other global guidelines and treaties do not address disability as a significant identity sufficiently, nor recognise it as an important aspect of many people in combination with their other identities, rather than a stand-alone feature of them. When analysing the types of disadvantages that people experience, a broader more flexible approach is needed which recognises the ways in which different identities combine and influence people's experiences., Competing Interests: The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (© 2023 Wickenden.)

Introduction: Intersecting vulnerabilities of disability, low socio-economic status, marginalization, and age indicate that adolescents with disabilities in low-and middle-income countries were uniquely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, there has been limited research about their experience. We conducted participatory research with adolescents with disabilities in rural, hilly Nepal to explore their experience of the pandemic and inform understanding about how they can be supported in future pandemics and humanitarian emergencies., Methods: We used qualitative methods, purposively sampling adolescents with different severe impairments from two rural, hilly areas of Nepal. We collected data through semi-structured interviews with five girls and seven boys between the age of 11 and 17 years old. Interviews used inclusive, participatory, and arts-based methods to engage adolescents, support discussions and enable them to choose what they would like to discuss. We also conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 caregivers., Results: We found that adolescents with disabilities and their families experienced social exclusion and social isolation because of COVID-19 mitigation measures, and some experienced social stigma due to misconceptions about transmission of COVID-19 and perceived increased vulnerability of adolescents with disabilities to COVID-19. Adolescents who remained connected with their peers throughout lockdown had a more positive experience of the pandemic than those who were isolated from friends. They became disconnected because they moved away from those they could communicate with, or they had moved to live with relatives who lived in a remote, rural area. We found that caregivers were particularly fearful and anxious about accessing health care if the adolescent they cared for became ill. Caregivers also worried about protecting adolescents from COVID-19 if they themselves got ill, and about the likelihood that the adolescent would be neglected if the caregiver died., Conclusion: Contextually specific research with adolescents with disabilities to explore their experience of the pandemic is necessary to capture how intersecting vulnerabilities can adversely affect particular groups, such as those with disabilities. The participation of adolescents with disabilities and their caregivers in the development of stigma mitigation initiatives and strategies to meet their needs in future emergencies is necessary to enable an informed and inclusive response., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Morrison, Poudyal, Pun, Prasai, Shrestha, Khadka, Shrestha, Rohwerder and Wickenden.)

Children with intellectual disability (ID) have a higher risk of long-term health problems in adulthood. India has the highest prevalence of ID of any country with 1.6 million under-five children living with the condition. Despite this, compared with other children, this neglected population is excluded from mainstream disease prevention and health promotion programmes. Our objective was to develop an evidence-based conceptual framework for a needs-based inclusive intervention to reduce the risk of communicable and non-communicable diseases among children with ID in India. From April through to July 2020 we undertook community engagement and involvement activities in ten States in India using a community-based participatory approach, guided by the bio-psycho-social model. We adapted the five steps recommended for the design and evaluation of a public participation process for the health sector. Seventy stakeholders from ten States contributed to the project: 44 parents and 26 professionals who work with people with ID. We mapped the outputs from two rounds of stakeholder consultations with evidence from systematic reviews to develop a conceptual framework that underpins an approach to develop a cross-sectoral family-centred needs-based inclusive intervention to improve health outcomes for children with ID. A working Theory of Change model delineates a pathway that reflected the priorities of the target population. We discussed the models during a third round of consultations to identify limitations, relevance of the concepts, structural and social barriers that could influence acceptability and adherence, success criteria, and integration with existing health system and service delivery. There are currently no health promotion programmes focusing on children with ID in India despite the population being at a higher risk of developing comorbid health problems. Therefore, an urgent next step is to test the conceptual model to determine acceptance and effectiveness within the context of socio-economic challenges faced by the children and their families in the country., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Nair et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Research has demonstrated that persons with disabilities, despite their greater need for healthcare services, often experience greater barriers to accessing healthcare including primary healthcare. Data and interventions on access to primary healthcare for persons with disabilities to date appear to concentrate more on access and quality issues once the person with a disability has initiated the healthcare seeking process, with less emphasis on how healthcare decisions are made at the personal or household level when one identifies a healthcare need. The aim of this study was to investigate how healthcare decisions are made by people with disabilities when they first identify a healthcare need. It is anticipated that gaining a better understanding of how such decisions are made will facilitate the development of interventions and approaches to improve access to primary healthcare services for this group. A qualitative study was undertaken in Guatemala. In-depth interviews were undertaken with twenty-seven adults with disabilities, including men and women with a range of impairment types and ages. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify themes that influence the decision-making processes in accessing primary healthcare services for people with disabilities. Thematic analysis of the interviews along with exploration of three existing access to health frameworks and models, led to identification of four primary themes and development of a new conceptual framework highlighting the complex decision-making process undertaken by people with disabilities about whether to seek primary healthcare services or not when confronted with a healthcare concern. The themes include perceived severity of illness and need for treatment, personal attributes, societal factors, and health system characteristics. Using this new conceptual framework will facilitate the development of more effective policies and interventions to improve access to primary healthcare services for people with disabilities through greater understanding of the complex network of variables and barriers., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Hashemi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: People with disabilities are a large, disadvantaged minority, comprising approximately 12% of the population. The South African government has ratified international and regional disability treaties but deals with disability rights within general anti-discrimination legislation. There are no specific frameworks to monitor justice for people with disabilities. The study aims to inform further development of disability inclusive mechanisms relating to crises including pandemics., Objectives: This study explored the perceptions of South Africans with disabilities, to understand their experiences during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), focussing on socioeconomic, well-being and human rights aspects., Method: An online survey tool generated quantitative and qualitative data. Widespread publicity and broad recruitment were achieved through project partners networks. Participants responded via mobile phone and/or online platforms., Results: Nearly 2000 people responded, representing different genders, impairments, races, socio-economic status, education and ages. Findings include: (1) negative economic and emotional impacts, (2) a lack of inclusive and accessible information, (3) reduced access to services, (4) uncertainty about government and non-government agencies' support and (5)exacerbation of pre-existing disadvantages. These findings echo international predictions of COVID-19 disproportionally impacting people with disabilities., Conclusion: The evidence reveals that people with disabilities in South Africa experienced many negative impacts of the pandemic. Strategies to control the virus largely ignored attending to human rights and socioeconomic well-being of this marginalised group., Contribution: The evidence will inform the development of the national monitoring framework, recognised by the South African Government and emphasised by the United Nations as necessary to ensure the realisation of the rights of people with disabilities during future crises including pandemics., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article., (© 2023. The Authors.)

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and other humanitarian emergencies exacerbate pre-existing inequalities faced by people with disabilities. They experience worse access to health, education, and social services, and increased violence in comparison with people without disabilities. Adolescents with disabilities are amongst those most severely affected in these situations. Using participatory research methods with adolescents can be more effective than other methods but may be challenging in such emergency contexts., Objectives: We conducted a scoping review to: 1) describe the literature and methods used in peer-reviewed and grey literature on adolescents (aged ten to nineteen) with disabilities' experience of COVID-19 and other humanitarian emergencies in low- and middle-income countries, and 2) identify research gaps and make recommendations for future research., Methods: The review followed a protocol developed using PRISMA guidelines and the Arksey and O'Malley framework. We searched grey and peer-reviewed literature between 2011 and 2021., Results: Thirty studies were included. Twelve were peer-reviewed, and of those seven used participatory methods. Humanitarian emergencies had adverse effects on adolescents with disabilities across health, education, livelihoods, social protection, and community participation domains. Surprisingly few studies collected data directly with adolescents with disabilities. Twenty-three studies combined data from non-disabled children, caregivers, and disabled adults which made it challenging to understand adolescents with disabilities' unique experience., Conclusions: Our review highlights both the scarcity of literature and the importance of conducting research with adolescents with disabilities in humanitarian contexts. Despite challenges, our review shows that it has been possible to conduct research with adolescents with disabilities to explore their experiences of humanitarian emergencies, and that these experiences were different from those of non-disabled adolescents. There is a need to disaggregate findings and support the implementation and reporting of rigorous research methods. Capacity development through partnerships between non-governmental organisations and researchers may improve reporting of methods.

Objectives: The risk of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women with disability is believed to be high. We aimed to compare the prevalence of past-year IPV against women with and without functional difficulties in urban informal settlements, to review its social determinants and to explore its association with mental health., Design: Cross-sectional survey., Setting: Fifty clusters within four informal settlements., Participants: 5122 women aged 18-49 years., Primary and Secondary Outcome Measures: We used the Washington Group Short Set of Questions to assess functional difficulties. IPV in the past year was described by binary composites of questions about physical, sexual and emotional violence. We screened for symptoms of depression using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and of anxiety using the Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7. Multivariable logistic regression models examined associations between functional difficulties, IPV and mental health., Results: 10% of participants who screened positive for functional disability had greater odds of experiencing physical or sexual IPV (adjusted OR (AOR) 1.68, 95% CI 1.23 to 2.29) and emotional IPV (1.52, 95% CI 1.16 to 2.00) than women who screened negative. Women who screened positive for functional disability had greater odds than women who screened negative of symptoms suggesting moderate or severe anxiety (AOR 2.50, 95% CI 1.78 to 3.49), depression (2.91, 95% CI 2.13 to 3.99) and suicidal thinking (AOR 1.94, 95% CI 1.50 to 2.50)., Conclusions: The burden of IPV fell disproportionately on women with functional difficulties, who were also more likely to screen positive for common mental disorder. Public health initiatives need to respond at local and national levels to address the overlapping and mutually reinforcing determinants of violence, while existing policy needs to be better utilised to ensure protection for the most vulnerable., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.)

Methods: Six electronic databases were searched for relevant studies from 2000 to 2019. Forty-one eligible studies were identified., Results: Findings suggest that the people with disabilities' choice to seek healthcare services or not, as well as the quality of intervention provided by primary healthcare providers, are influenced by three types of barriers: cultural beliefs or attitudinal barriers, informational barriers, and practical or logistical barriers., Conclusion: In order to achieve full health coverage at acceptable quality for people with disabilities, it is necessary not only to consider the different barriers, but also their combined effect on people with disabilities and their households. It is only then that more nuanced and effective interventions to improve access to primary healthcare, systematically addressing barriers, can be designed and implemented.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONPeople with disabilities in both high income and low- and middle-income country settings are more likely to experience poorer general health than people without disabilities.Barriers to accessing primary healthcare services for people with disabilities result from a complex and dynamic interacting system between attitudinal and belief system barriers, informational barriers, and practical and logistical barriers.Given primary healthcare is often the initial point of contact for referral to specialty care and rehabilitation services, it is crucial for people with disabilities to access primary healthcare services in order to get appropriate referrals for such services, specifically rehabilitation as appropriate.To achieve full health coverage at acceptable quality for people with disabilities, starting with primary healthcare, it is necessary for healthcare stakeholders, including rehabilitation professionals, to consider the combined and cumulative effects of the various barriers to healthcare on people with disabilities and their families and develop an understanding of how healthcare decisions are made by people with disabilities at the personal and the household level.

Few data exist on the prevalence of autism in low-income countries. We translated, adapted and tested the acceptability of a Nepali-language version of a screening tool for autism (Autism Quotient-10). Using this tool, we estimated autism prevalence in 4098 rural Nepali children aged 9-13 years. Fourteen children scored > 6 out of 10, indicative of elevated autistic symptomatology, of which 13 also screened positive for disability. If the AQ-10 screening tool is as sensitive and specific in the Nepali population as it is in the UK, this would yield an estimated true prevalence of 3 in 1000 (95% confidence interval 2-5 in 1000). Future research is required to validate this tool through in-depth assessments of high-scoring children.

Autism is a global phenomenon. Yet, there is a dearth of knowledge of how it is understood and its impact in low-income countries. We examined parents' and professionals' understanding of autism in one low-income country, Nepal. We conducted focus groups and semi-structured interviews with parents of autistic and non-autistic children and education and health professionals from urban and rural settings ( n = 106), asking questions about typical and atypical development and presenting vignettes of children to prompt discussion. Overall, parents of typically developing children and professionals had little explicit awareness of autism. They did, however, use some distinctive terms to describe children with autism from children with other developmental conditions. Furthermore, most participants felt that environmental factors, including in-utero stressors and birth complications, parenting style and home or school environment were key causes of atypical child development and further called for greater efforts to raise awareness and build community capacity to address autism. This is the first study to show the striking lack of awareness of autism by parents and professionals alike. These results have important implications for future work in Nepal aiming both to estimate the prevalence of autism and to enhance support available for autistic children and their families.

Background: 30-day mortality might be a useful indicator of avoidable harm to patients from systemic anticancer treatments, but data for this indicator are limited. The Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy (SACT) dataset collated by Public Health England allows the assessment of factors affecting 30-day mortality in a national patient population. The aim of this first study based on the SACT dataset was to establish national 30-day mortality benchmarks for breast and lung cancer patients receiving SACT in England, and to start to identify where patient care could be improved., Methods: In this population-based study, we included all women with breast cancer and all men and women with lung cancer residing in England, who were 24 years or older and who started a cycle of SACT in 2014 irrespective of the number of previous treatment cycles or programmes, and irrespective of their position within the disease trajectory. We calculated 30-day mortality after the most recent cycle of SACT for those patients. We did logistic regression analyses, adjusting for relevant factors, to examine whether patient, tumour, or treatment-related factors were associated with the risk of 30-day mortality. For each cancer type and intent, we calculated 30-day mortality rates and patient volume at the hospital trust level, and contrasted these in a funnel plot., Findings: Between Jan 1, and Dec, 31, 2014, we included 23 228 patients with breast cancer and 9634 patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in our regression and trust-level analyses. 30-day mortality increased with age for both patients with breast cancer and patients with NSCLC treated with curative intent, and decreased with age for patients receiving palliative SACT (breast curative: odds ratio [OR] 1·085, 99% CI 1·040-1·132; p<0·0001; NSCLC curative: 1·045, 1·013-1·079; p=0·00033; breast palliative: 0·987, 0·977-0·996; p=0·00034; NSCLC palliative: 0·987, 0·976-0·998; p=0·0015). 30-day mortality was also significantly higher for patients receiving their first reported curative or palliative SACT versus those who received SACT previously (breast palliative: OR 2·326 99% CI 1·634-3·312; p<0·0001; NSCLC curative: 3·371, 1·554-7·316; p<0·0001; NSCLC palliative: 2·667, 2·109-3·373; p<0·0001), and for patients with worse general wellbeing (performance status 2-4) versus those who were generally well (breast curative: 6·057, 1·333-27·513; p=0·0021; breast palliative: 6·241, 4·180-9·319; p<0·0001; NSCLC palliative: 3·384, 2·276-5·032; p<0·0001). We identified trusts with mortality rates in excess of the 95% control limits; this included seven for curative breast cancer, four for palliative breast cancer, five for curative NSCLC, and seven for palliative NSCLC., Interpretation: Our findings show that several factors affect the risk of early mortality of breast and lung cancer patients in England and that some groups are at a substantially increased risk of 30-day mortality. The identification of hospitals with significantly higher 30-day mortality rates should promote review of clinical decision making in these hospitals. Furthermore, our results highlight the importance of collecting routine data beyond clinical trials to better understand the factors placing patients at higher risk of 30-day mortality, and ultimately improve clinical decision making. Our insights into the factors affecting risk of 30-day mortality will help treating clinicians and their patients predict the balance of harms and benefits associated with SACT., Funding: Public Health England., (Copyright © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY NC-ND license. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background: There are increasing efforts to monitor progress in maternal and neonatal care, with household surveys the main mode of data collection. Postnatal care (PNC) is considered a priority indicator yet few countries report on it, and the need to improve the construct validity associated with PNC questions is recognized., Objectives: To determine women's knowledge of what happens to the baby after delivery, women's comprehension of terms and question phrasing related to PNC, and issues with recall periods., Design: Forty qualitative interviews and four focus group discussions were conducted with mothers, and 10 interviews with health workers in rural Ghana. Data were collected on knowledge and recall of postnatal health checks and language used to describe these health checks., Results: Mothers required specific probing using appropriate language to report postnatal checks. They only had adequate knowledge of postnatal checks, which were easily observed or required asking them a question. Respondents reported that health workers rarely communicated with mothers about what they were doing, and most women did not know the purpose of the equipment used during health checks, such as why a thermometer was being used. Knowledge of neonatal checks in the first hours after a facility delivery was low if the mother and child were separated, or if the mother was tired or weak. Many women reported that they could remember events clearly, but long recall periods affected reporting for some, especially those who had multiple checks or for those with no problems., Conclusions: Direct questions about PNC or health checks are likely to underestimate coverage. Validity of inferences can be enhanced by using appropriate verbal probes during surveys on commonly performed checks that are clear and visible to the mother.

This article responds to Wylie, McAllister, Davidson, and Marshall (2013) by arguing that the wellbeing of people with communication disabilities in the global south will be improved if speech and language pathologists widen their lens considerably. The numbers of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in the Majority World is and will remain infinitesimally small. Therefore, to make any meaningful impact the profession needs to engage in debates and activities outside the health and service provision arenas, getting involved cross-sectorally and at various policy levels. It is contended that, although the World Report on Disability is a useful summary of the status quo, actually SLPs need to harness two other seminal documents: The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health and, more particularly, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities in order to drive change. Historically the profession's focus has been on impairments, and current moves to social models are welcome. However, SLPs need to embrace human rights approaches and broader frameworks of inclusive community development, using global initiatives such as community-based rehabilitation to improve the lives of people with communication disabilities. Why SLPs should become critically engaged, particularly at the macro level, is explored.

Background: The focus of this paper is the new broadened conceptualisation of community-based rehabilitation (CBR), which promotes the empowerment and inclusion of people with disabilities (PWDs) in diverse ways within their communities. New guidelines for CBR were launched in October 2010 by WHO/ILO/UNESCO/IDDC, and this paper describes part of the process by which these were produced using participatory approaches involving International Non-Government Organisations (INGOs) and local partners. The paper reviews the evolution of CBR and describes how grassroots consultation by INGOs working with key stakeholders in the disability arena can influence policy on disability issues, and reciprocally how policy change can inform organisations' practice and research activities. This ongoing bidirectional influence is illustrated with data from the participatory consultation process about the new CBR guidelines carried out by Sightsavers in Uganda and Ghana., Objectives: To consult with key stakeholders in the disability arena in Uganda and Ghana, in order to gain their opinions and suggestions for improvements to the then draft CBR guidelines, as part of a wider global participatory process of consultation on the document., Methods: The INGO Sightsavers gathered qualitative data through focus group discussions and questionnaires in both countries., Results: The participants' critiques of the draft guidelines carried out in multiagency participatory processes were analysed thematically and fed back to the CBR guidelines editorial team., Conclusion: The paper concludes that stakeholders in diverse communities can actively contribute to shaping policy and practice through participatory consultations. Local and national government and non-government organisations and other key informants can inform the development of national and international guidelines and policies. This participatory approach can be successfully facilitated by INGOs. In turn, these processes have prompted organisations to adapt their own policies and programmes in order to be more responsive to the local needs and concerns of PWDs., Competing Interests: The research was funded by Sightsavers. D. Mulligan has been involved in the authorship of the current WHO/ILO/UNESCO/IDDC CBR guidelines. M. Wickenden was involved in reviewing selected sections of the draft guidelines.

Objectives: To quantify the use of sunbeds in young people across England, identify geographical variation, and explore patterns of use, including supervision., Design: Two random location sampling surveys., Setting: National Prevalence Study in England; Six Cities Study in Liverpool, Stoke/Stafford, Sunderland, Bath/Gloucester, Oxford/Cambridge, and Southampton., Participants: 3101 children aged 11-17 in the National Prevalence study and 6209 in the Six Cities study., Results: In the National Prevalence Study 6.0% (95% confidence interval 5.1% to 6.8%) of those aged 11-17 had used a sunbed. Use was higher in girls than in boys (8.6% (7.2% to 10.0%) v 3.5% (2.6% to 4.4%), respectively), in those aged 15-17 compared with those aged 11-14 (11.2% (9.5% to 12.9%) v 1.8% (1.2% to 2.4%), respectively), and in those from lower rather than higher social grades (7.6% (5.7% to 9.5%) v 5.4% (4.5% to 6.3%), respectively). Sunbed use was higher in the "north" (11.0%, 8.9% to 13.0%) than in the "midlands" (4.2%, 2.5% to 5.8%) and the "south" (4.2%, 3.3% to 5.2%). In the Six Cities Study, sunbed use was highest in Liverpool and Sunderland (20.0% (17.5% to 22.4%) and 18.0% (15.6% to 20.3%), respectively), with rates especially high in girls, those aged 15-17, or from lower social grades. Mean age of first use was 14, and 38.4% (34.7% to 42.1%) of children used a sunbed at least once a week. Nearly a quarter (23.0%, 19.8% to 26.1%) of children had used a sunbed at home (including home of friends/relatives), and 24.7% (21.0% to 28.4%) said they had used sunbeds unsupervised in a tanning/beauty salon or gym/leisure centre., Conclusions: Sunbed use by children is widespread in England, is often inadequately supervised, and is a health risk. National legislation is needed to control sunbed outlets.

Driven by growing corporate compound files, the demands of target biology, and attempts to cut cost, the number of solutions to HTS has spiralled. In quick succession new assay technologies and screening platforms are appearing on the market, with the promise of screening faster than ever in low volume high density formats whilst providing high quality data. Within this world of rapid change, Pfizer has applied cutting edge technology to HTS by introducing screening in 1 microl formats utilising single molecule detection technology. Instead of resource intensive in-house development, Pfizer entered into a collaboration with Evotec OAI / Evotec Technologies and introduced their Mark-II EVOscreen platform. In this article we will outline the benefits of the approach taken at Pfizer, Sandwich, and introduce the Mark-II EVOscreen platform, illustrating the potential but also possible pitfalls of HTS miniaturisation.

Country-specific issues affect both the implementation of services for people with communication disabilities and the training of specialists who provide these services. Uganda is a majority world country with an extremely limited specialist service, but is looking to expand it by developing training for specialist workers. This paper reports on the initial processes adopted in Uganda to develop such training. A workshop that brought together all the stakeholders identified key issues. The paper relates these issues to the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics guidelines for education and training and makes suggestions for the way forward., (Copyright 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel)

This paper draws on the experiences of the authors in designing and teaching a new course to educate speech and language therapists in Sri Lanka. This was the first speech and language therapist course in the country and was the result of collaboration between two universities, one in the UK and one in Sri Lanka. Rather than replicating established programmes elsewhere it was more appropriate to design a new course, suited to providing a comprehensive model of service, encompassing both social and medical approaches to rehabilitation. Issues about developing teaching and learning approaches to match pre-existing knowledge and experience of both staff and students are addressed. The particular ways of designing the programme to take account of cultural and language aspects of the Sri Lankan context are discussed., (Copyright 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel)