Answered Questions is a monthly resource for the Spanish language Disability Community that fills an information need. This month’s question is: I am a service provider that works with the Latinx disability community. What information, resources, research are available in Spanish that I may share with this community? This edition of Answered Questions includes items that discuss research and development of interventions and approaches for Latinx parents with disabilities and their service providers; research on obesity prevention among Latinx children with intellectual and developmental disabilities; occupational therapy and the community; the experiences of workers with disabilities in Uruguay; how Spanish-speaking immigrants adjusted to traumatic brain injuries; and more. More about Answered Questions.
NIDILRR-Funded Projects:
NIDILRR (in English) has funded an array of research and development projects that support the independence and participation of the Latinx disability community. The following are just two examples of such projects:
The Parents Empowering Parents: National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities and Their Families addresses the knowledge gaps regarding parents with disabilities and their families through population-based research and analysis of national datasets to inform policy and practice and systematic analysis of state legislation and child welfare policies to identify facilitators and barriers to system change. Researchers develop, adapt, test and scale-up interventions, including a parent peer specialist model for parents with psychiatric disabilities, a virtual peer support intervention for Deaf parents, and other interventions for parents with diverse disabilities. This Center provides information and resources in Spanish for parents with disabilities, social workers, and researchers. Currently, the Center’s blog is in English; however, the Center accepts articles in Spanish from Latinx parents with disabilities who would like to share their stories. The ParentingWell practice is an approach developed by the Center for service providers that makes talking about parenting, children, and family experiences a natural part of the conversation with their clients with disabilities, including Latinx people with disabilities.
There are racial and ethnic disparities within the Latinx community with children and adolescents experiencing higher rates of obesity than their white peers, and these disparities are likely to be heightened among those with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Researchers at the project, Promoting Obesity Prevention Among Latinx Children with Developmental Disabilities and Families Through Engaged Research (PODER), examine the social determinants of health and health disparities among Latinx children and adolescents with IDD; examine health, obesity, and health behaviors among children and adolescents with IDD and their maternal caregivers; and develop and test an intervention for Latinx children and adolescents with IDD and their families to promote health lifestyles.
Research In Focus:
NARIC’s Research In Focus features reader-friendly summaries of the latest research from NIDILRR-funded projects, including their research on Latinx people with disabilities, that presents readers with an overview of a recently-published studies, highlights important findings, and discusses implications or directions for future research. The series is also available in English.
The summary, Spanish-Speaking Immigrants Share Experiences Adjusting to Traumatic Brain Injury, discusses a study where researchers asked Spanish-speaking immigrants with a recent traumatic brain injury (TBI) to describe their quality of life and self-concept after injury. The researchers found that three-fourths of the participants described their TBI as having a meaningful impact on their quality of life. The participants also identified a variety of challenges that they experienced after injury that decreased their quality of life. The authors noted that while TBI may lead to major life changes for all people, Spanish-speaking immigrants with TBI may face additional challenges – such as inadequate access to rehabilitation services, language barriers with providers, or concerns about deportation. This summary is also available in English.
From the NARIC Collection:
Rehabilitation:
The article, Occupational therapy in the community: Complexities, actions, and contexts (abstract in English), discusses a study that systematized the actions of occupational therapists in the community in Cali, Colombia. The researchers wanted to understand the needs of people with disabilities in Colombia and to identify the key actors that have a social impact on disability issues. They found that when occupational therapists adopted a social, ecological, and community approach, they were able to discover the needs of the people with disabilities that they serve and to be coparticipants with their clients with disabilities.
Employment:
The article, From the Implementation of the Quota System to the Experiences of Workers with Disabilities from Uruguay: Access to Employment in the Public Sphere (abstract in English), discusses a study that analyzed access to jobs for people with disabilities through Uruguay’s quota system and its relevance to their educational training, especially considering the link between this measure of positive discrimination and those who reach the tertiary level of education in Uruguay. The results yielded evidence that this system reinforces social inequalities. The authors suggest that it is essential that communities enable new spaces to rethink and address the social inequality of people with disabilities, including in employment.
Education:
The article, Perceptions of English Teachers from the Community of Tomé Towards the Inclusion of Students with Disabilities (abstract in English), discusses a descriptive qualitative study to determine the perceptions of English teachers in the community of Tomé, Chile regarding students with disabilities and their opinions about the inclusion of these students in mainstream English classes. They found that most English teachers had a good attitude towards the inclusion of students with disabilities. The researchers also found that most teachers interviewed did not know the specific curricular adequacies needed for students with disabilities. The researchers suggest training English teachers in Tomé, Chile in inclusive education, curricular adequacies, and special education needs in the community.
Stigma Prevention:
The article, The Role of Group Identity and Stigma Awareness in the Quality of Life of People with Disability: A Study of the Spanish Population (abstract in English), discusses a study of the direct and indirect relationships between stigma awareness, social identity, and quality of life in people with physical and sensory disabilities. The results of the study show that social identity has an indirect negative relation with quality of life, while stigma has a direct negative relation with the quality of life. The researchers concluded that belonging to a stigmatized group does not protect the individual against the effect of stigma awareness on their quality of life.
Resources:
- The Southeast ADA Regional Center provides information and resources related to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for Spanish-speaking organizations and people with disabilities. This Center provides publications and resources in Spanish for the Latinx disability community and their information specialists provide technical assistance related to all questions about the ADA. The Northeast ADA Regional Center provides these services to individuals with disabilities, government, and public entities in Puerto Rico.
- The Learning and Working During the Transition to Adulthood Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (Transitions ACR) (in English) provides publications in Spanish to assist youth with disabilities as they transition from high school to college and employment. The topics discussed include getting accommodations in college, advocacy, saving money, and more.
Further Research:
REHABDATA:
- Discapacidades (in Spanish).
PubMed:
International:
About Answered Questions Each month, we look through the searches on our blog and through the information requests made by our patrons who speak Spanish and pick a topic that fills the largest need. Each resource mentioned above is associated with this month’s information need. We search the various Spanish language news sources and feeds throughout the month to bring you these articles. With the exception of the NIDILRR Projects, From the NARIC Collection, and Further Investigation, all the linked articles and resources are in Spanish – any that are in English will be clearly marked.
Collection Spotlight from the National Rehabilitation Information Center 