The Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services Project
2023
IDEA was invited to develop and pilot a teaching module on inclusive education at the University of Maroua in Cameroon. Professor Judith McKenzie is representing IDEA on the project.
Zambia Leornard Cheshire Project
2022-present
CBM and Leonard Cheshire invited the University of Zambia and IDEA to collaborate on the “Getting to Know Cerebral Palsy” project. A successful session was recently held in Zambia to discuss the aspects of the project which includes a baseline study. We also conducted training of facilitators and master trainers beginning at the end of this year and continuing into 2023.
Tanzania Leornard Cheshire Project
2022
IDEA supported Leonard Cheshire as the lead partner in Tanzania for teacher education on inclusion. Our contribution was to infuse universal design for learning in the training programme. This was carried out in a staff training workshop on UDL and through the review of training materials to reflect UDL principles.
CBM Follow Up Study
2022
At the beginning of 2022, IDEA started the second leg of its CBM evaluation study- the follow-up to the baseline study completed in 2020/1- following the same methodology in the same eight countries to ascertain if their projects support disability-inclusive development and the creation of social and material environments promoting the participation of people with disabilities in all aspects of community life.
Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction: Insights and Good Practices from the Field
2022
This collaborative IDEA & CBM report authored by Shaun Grech, reports on good practices on Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction (DIDRR) from 5 at-risk countries (Philippines, Niger, Zimbabwe, Haiti, Bangladesh). The report was launched at the UN Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Bali in May 2022. Read the full report here
Disability Inclusive Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA)
2022
CBM commissioned IDEA and the Graduate School of Business at UCT to conduct a review of current practices in VSLA within CBM and its partner networks alongside a literature review on VSLA and disability inclusion. Based on this review, the research team will develop recommendations for methodology and guiding questions for a meta study and a set of guiding questions for individual project evaluations.
Special Olympics Project
2022
Antwerp Management School at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, approached IDEA in May 2021 to assist in the collection of longitudinal data in the South Africa site for a Special Olympics research study across four countries. The project seeks to measure and evaluatethe impact of Athlete Leadership and Unified Leadership Programs on the competences, skills and daily life of people with ID and leaders without ID. Aims of evaluation:
• Evaluate impact of Athlete leadership training on people with ID
• Evaluate impact of Unified leadership training on people without ID
• Evaluate long(er)-term impacts on leadership opportunities for athlete leaders and inclusive behaviors for leaders without ID
Interrogating Inclusive Education from the Global South
2022
IDEA is active in a research collective involving researchers from Brazil, Mexico, Ireland, Ghana, Zambia, and Kenya. The network aims to develop a critical voice in the area and a collaborative research agenda.
Second Disability World Report
2022
IDEA in partnership with CBM has collaborated with researchers from other universities including the Philippines and Jamaica to work on generating evidence on the localisation of the CRPD. This project runs throughout 2022, including an empirical study in 5 countries (Philippines, South Africa, Guatemala, Jamaica, Kenya).
Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction: Scoping Review
2022
This research is aimed at mapping the academic evidence in DIDRR with a view to documenting developments, trends, gaps and opportunity areas in scholarship. This will help understand the extent to which ‘DIDRR’ as discourse is ‘catching on’ (or otherwise) academically, and if, consequently, we can be assured of corresponding changes in practice.
Development of an online open textbook for Disability Studies in Education course
2022
This project involves the compilation of teaching and learning materials to accompany the Disability Studies in Education course. Texts by convenors and guest lecturers participating in the course will follow Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles, to enhance the choice of learning pathways for students by providing course materials, activities and assessment with multiple forms of representation, expression and engagement. This body of work stands to make an important development contribution, in that the course material is tailored to the South African disability context and there is no existing textbook encompassing the range of topics covered in the course.
Disasters, climate change and DIDRR in Community Based Inclusive Development: a critical evaluation of the situation in practice
2022
The aim of this study is to assess the level of inclusion of disasters and disability inclusive disaster risk reduction (DIDRR) within mainstream CBID programmes with a view to identifying key barriers and strengthening opportunity areas to effective, responsive and disaster sensitive CBID so that DIDRR is not a mere add-on, but indeed a transformative mainstreamed practice. In collaboration with CBM, empirical work will be conducted in 15 countries operating CBID initiatives.
Scoping review: Curriculum for children with intellectual disabilities
2022
Globally, curriculum for the education of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) is problematic. Meanwhile, for children with ID, the choice of educational content is crucial in a life span perspective. The aim of this project is to explore what is known in the literature about curriculum for children with IDs in the last 10 years (2012-2022) and to discuss implications for further research.
Redesigning of blended courses
2021-present
IDEA is partnering with the Centre for Innovation in learning and TEaching (CILT) at UCT in the redesign of blended courses. The university’s strategic plan (Vision 2030), the Teaching and Learning Strategy and the continued limitations of the Covid-19 public health requirements, represented an ideal opportunity for rapidly prototyping appropriate models for blended courses. Models must be developed, which can provide greater flexibility and cater to a greater diversity of student learning needs by incorporating the well-established Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles. IDEA has been active in contributing to building models that make it simple for teaching academics to integrate technology for blending learning using the Universal Design for Learning principles. These models will be developed in collaboration with faculty representatives/course/programme convenors with the requisite content knowledge expertise.
Review of UDL in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
2021
IDEA was commissioned by CBM to review UDL practices, training needs and relevant online resources in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The terms of reference were to review the current practice of UDL in LMIC settings with a view to forming recommendations for capacity-development resources and materials, including. Read the final report here
CBM Baseline Study
2021
IDEA conducted an evaluation study for CBM aimed at assessing the effectiveness of Community Based Inclusive Development (CBID) partner-driven projects. These projects have various aims, but broadly support disability-inclusive development and the creation of social and material environments promoting the participation of people with disabilities in all aspects of community life. The evaluation focused on collecting baseline data in 2021, and follow-up data in 2022 and 2024, from 16 programmes across eight countries – Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Togo, Cameroon, India, Honduras, and Pakistan – all of which have diverse goals in inclusive development. Read the report here
Scoping review: disability inclusion at UCT
2021
A scoping review of research regarding disability inclusion at UCT. The report was submitted in October 2021.