The 3rd of December is International Day of Persons with Disabilities and is also celebrated as National Disability Rights Awareness Day.
The theme this year was “Transformative solutions for inclusive development: The role of innovation in fuelling an accessible and equitable world“.
The World Report on Disability by the World Health Organization states that over one billion people, approximately 15% of the world's population, live with disability and most of them are from developing countries. This global estimate is likely to increase due to population ageing and the high prevalence of chronic illnesses such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and mental illness.
People with disabilities are less likely to be employed than people without disabilities, and have increased emotional stress, physical, and/or social isolation, which consequently affects their quality of life. Researchers working on disability studies remain underfunded and issues affecting people with disabilities are under-researched. Additionally, people with disabilities are often excluded from clinical trials. The first World Report on Disability issued in2011 by the World Health Organization and the World Bank Group made a series of recommendations to remove access barriers and allow for active participation of people with disabilities in society.
These include to “strengthen and support research on disability” as well as to “Involve people with disabilities”. Now, more than ever, there are rising calls for building a critical mass of trained researchers on disability in different disciplines, including epidemiology, rehabilitation, public policy etc. Moreover, some have emphasized the importance of discussing issues affecting people with disabilities during research priority agenda-setting meetings, and these meetings should include researchers with disabilities.
The SAMRC’s Division of Research Capacity Development has made efforts in funding scholars whose research is focused on people living with disabilities and is aligned with the SAMRC’s priority research areas. We hope these efforts add to the ongoing efforts to expand research relating to people living with disabilities. Furthermore, we hope that our scholars will go on to have prolific research careers that will assist in shaping future policies and technological advancements in this field.
Here we profile scholars working on disability research and all of them share the same passion: to improve the lives of people with disabilities.
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| Mrs Nomataru Gontse is an audiologist working on developing a practice guideline to enhance communication between deaf children and their hearing families. | Mr Dimakatso Given Mashala is an optometrist, his goal is to develop supporting intervention strategies that are aimed at reducing the care burden for caregivers of persons with visual impairment and improving the quality of life for visually impaired persons. | Mrs Babalwa Tyabashe-Phume is a social worker, and her work is centred around the development and mental health of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. |
The Bongani Mayosi National Health Scholars Programme