Expertise in disability services is a skill that can help you provide high-quality service to clients. It involves understanding various perspectives and working to make sure everyone gets what they need.
The medical model of disability states that people with a particular condition or symptom are disabled. However, the social model of disabilities considers a person’s ability to participate in society and access life.
Knowledge of People with Disabilities
Expertise in disability services requires a deep understanding of the needs and preferences of people with disabilities. This can be difficult for a person who is not disabled to achieve.
When you interact with people with disabilities, it is important to remember that they are first and foremost people. Labeling them as “disabled” can be disempowering and dehumanizing.
Health care providers who do not have the appropriate training may unintentionally misunderstand a patient’s disability, making them assume that they don’t have pain or are mentally ill, for example. These assumptions can cause distrust between patient and provider, as well as hinder quality care.
The APA recently adopted new Guidelines to Assess and Implement with People with Disabilities. These guidelines highlight increased diversity, equity and inclusion considerations in all aspects. These guidelines are based on an extensive literature review, including a wide variety of theoretical, professional, and clinical texts focusing on specific disabilities as well as disability more broadly conceptualized.
Knowledge of the ADA
The ADA protects the rights of people with disabilities. Its main rules cover access to employment, state and local government services, public accommodations, transportation and telecommunications.
The law defines a disability as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. It covers medical, sensory and cognitive impairments as well as psychiatric disabilities.
However, the ADA does not include conditions that are in remission. This includes episodic conditions, such as glaucoma and high blood pressure.disability Services in Melbourne
There are many other types of disabilities, which do not fall under the ADA’s definition. These include COVID impairments, AIDS, HIV/Diabetes, epilepsy, and others.
Disability advocates must be familiar with the ADA in order to effectively advocate for their clients. People with disabilities need to be able to understand their rights and how to use them. Research shows that people with disabilities are more likely to disclose their disability status when they know about their legal rights under the ADA.
Knowledge of the Law
Quality disability services can only be delivered if you are knowledgeable about the law. This is particularly true of federal civil rights laws, which prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities in areas such as employment, schools, and public accommodations.
The federal government makes it easy for job seekers, employers, and health care providers to understand the laws by providing resources like the EEOC Disability Related Publications page. These documents include fact sheets, questions, answers, and technical assistance documents.
Increased knowledge about the ADA is a great way for people with disabilities to advocate for themselves. Employers should have a baseline knowledge of compliance. But that is not the only step. High-quality services can also be made possible by other factors, such as perceived stigma or the availability of technical support. Research evidence suggests that this is not always an easy process. It is a multi-faceted task that requires constant collaboration with diverse stakeholders to ensure that the most relevant and appropriate information is distributed in the most efficient manner.
The Community: Knowledge
Sharing and applying knowledge is essential to optimize the care and support of people with intellectual disabilities. We conducted a systematic review to identify organizational factors that allow or disable knowledge processes in the care for people with ID.
In the context of a healthcare setting, there are many different types of enabling and disabling factors, including the nature of the healthcare system itself (resource availability, staff capacity, etc. The nature of the disability and society’s attitudes towards it. These enabling and discouraging factors can be more difficult to overcome for people with intellectual disabilities.
A key part of any community integration strategy is modeling appropriate interactions between people with disabilities and other members of the public. Modeling is one of most effective ways to increase awareness and acceptance among the general public. Participating in high-visibility activities such as helping to clean up the neighborhood, volunteering at a local disability organization, and ushering at local plays are all examples of how you can do this.
