Journal of Intellectual Disability - Diagnosis and Treatment

13-20

Authors: Kazuaki Maebara, Asuka Yamaguchi, Toru Suzuki, Aya Imai

Background: Recently, the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education has been promoted in Japan. However, teachers do not yet fully understand using ICT for persons with intellectual disabilities. Objective: This study clarifies the support functions of ICT as perceived by teachers involved in special needs education (support for students with intellectual disabilities).Methods: We conducted in-depth interviews with five teachers involved in special-needs education. We qualitatively analyzed the interview data obtained using content analysis.Results: From the interviews, 53 ICT-utilization episodes were obtained. These episodes were categorized into 13 categories of utilization and seven aspects of support: understanding, communication, behavior, meta-cognition, environment, memory, and opportunities.Conclusion: ICT is a beneficial tool to compensate for intellectual disabilities and help students with intellectual disabilities learn better. We believe that teachers can better assist students with intellectual disabilities by successfully matching individual needs with the ICT features. The results obtained in this study will be helpful while considering support for persons with intellectual disabilities, not only in education but also in vocational training, employment support, and telework support for persons with intellectual disabilities

31-36

Authors: Toshihiro Horiguchi, Kenji Takanashi, Shoichi Sato, Naoki Sone

Background: In a preschool setting, childcare is usually provided to children with disabilities or potential features as well. In this study, we hypothesized that parents might have additionally consulted commissioned pediatricians when their children were reportedly abused by schoolteachers as well as following legitimate grievance procedures. Aims: To estimate the prevalence rate of children with disabilities being abused at nursery schools in Japan, the authors asked the help of commissioned pediatricians of nursery schools. Methods: We sent a questionnaire to 1,607 members of the Japanese Society for Well-being of Nursery-schoolers, who are specialists known to be highly sensitive to abuses. Incident reports from the second half of 2012 to the fiscal year 2014 were collected from 361 members who replied. Results: In total, three respondents, including one pediatrician, had received a complaint(s) from parents that their child with disabilities had been abused by a teacher. No details on each case were provided. Conclusion: Thus, the need for another assessment to administrative was indicated

43-55

Authors: Ikemefuna Taire Paul Okudolo, Victor Ojakorotu

This study analyzes the intrinsic causes of disabled persons' marginalization from elite circles in Nigerian public administration organizations. Its foci among other things are to proffer measures for Nigeria's context of disabled persons' advancement into public bureaucracies' assembly of decision-makers, promote their topmost belongingness in public policy governance, offer ways to sustain disability-friendly public personnel promotion stratagem, propose means to realize public sector-friendly disability inclusivity. Political culture theory is espoused as the theoretical framework. The study parallels the qualitative methodology of a phenomenological inclination. Perceptions, views, and notions on how to promote disability-friendly policies, across all Nigerian public ministries, departments, and agencies (MDGs), toward facilitating upward mobility of disabled public administrators into directorate positions in the public services, derived from questionnaires, interviews, and correlated document analysis constituted data for the study. Content analysis approach guided by heuristic re-constructionism epistemology was adopted for analyzing data. Data from questionnaires were presented in quantitative content analysis. The study finds that there persist low political will towards domestication and implementation of globally agreed affirmative statutes for sustainable advancement of the education, talents, employment, promotion, and generally inclusion of disabled persons, particularly into the elite circle of Nigerian public bureaucracies. The finding mentioned above highlights the immanent variables that constitute major obstacles to the disabled public personnel belongingness as elite public administrators in determining the outputs and outcomes of public administration in Nigeria. It recommends, amongst others, prioritization of disabled persons' inclusion into the top staff echelon of public administration's MDGs across all the Nigerian tiers.