Transition of adolescents with intellectual disability from schools for learners with special educational needs: Parents views for the preparedness

Enablers to enhance school-based adolescents with intellectual disabilities' learning: A narrative approach

Society has always understood individuals with intellectual disabilities from a stance of deficiency, resulting in limited expectations and prospects for school-going adolescents with intellectual disabilities. The study used the social model of disability to explore teachers' perceptions of enablers to enhance school-based adolescents with intellectual disabilities' learning and took cognisance of a wave of policies aimed at including adolescents with intellectual disabilities in mainstream education. A qualitative narrative approach was used for the study. Using a narrative methodological framework, unstructured interview questions were posed to elicit teachers' perceptions of enablers to enhance adolescents with intellectual disabilities' learning. A non-probability purposive sampling method was used to select teachers working with school-based learners with intellectual disabilities. Five themes emerged from the analysis: therapeutic setting; learners' resilience; parental support; teaching strategies; and community involvement as enablers for enhancing learning for adolescents with intellectual disabilities. Policy implications are also provided in the study.

A call to give a voice to people with intellectual disabilities in Africa through inclusive research

Research looking into the day-to-day lives of people with intellectual disabilities (ID) is on the increase in Africa. However, not enough is being done to include people with ID as active contributors to this research through inclusive approaches. Inclusive research empowers people with ID as they have the agency and autonomy to speak for themselves and they are given an active voice in the research process and outcomes. This leads to services that cater for what matters to people with ID themselves as opposed to having their needs defined by other people. The common myths and misconceptions attached to ID in Africa, which increase stigma towards people affected by this type of disability can be abated by their visibility in research and evidence of their ability to express themselves. This article makes a call to researchers on the African continent to include people with ID in research as active contributors to the research and not simply as research subjects or respondents. A background is given of global developments that have occurred in inclusive research based on the literature and the author's personal experience, which African researchers can learn from while taking cognizance of the specific needs of their own contexts. This is followed by highlighting the gaps in Africa. The article ends with a discussion of possible reasons for a lack of inclusive research in Africa and suggestions and recommendations to address this gap.