Should you go to WHO, you may also want to visit the WHO/World Bank first World Report on Disability released at the UN in June, 2011. http://www.who.int/disabilities/world_report/2011/en/index.html
The Report, which is evidence-based, uses the ICF as its conceptual framework and the Convention as its value base. The Report does not define disability in recognition of the dynamic nature of the concept.
Kate Seelman
-----Original Message-----
From: The Disability-Research Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Eleni Koutsogeorgou
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2012 1:36 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Disability research for PhD, definition of Disability
Dear Dale,
I think it is important that you make sure you have covered all aspects of disability in your research. To get a complete view of the aspects of disability, I suggest you have a look at the official website of the World Health Organization's about the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), which you can also use for the data collection in your research.
From the WHO website: "The ICF puts the notions of ‘health’ and ‘disability’ in a new light. It acknowledges that every human being can experience a decrement in health and thereby experience some degree of disability. Disability is not something that only happens to a minority of humanity. The ICF thus ‘mainstreams’ the experience of disability and recognises it as a universal human experience. By shifting the focus from cause to impact it places all health conditions on an equal footing allowing them to be compared using a common metric – the ruler of health and disability. Furthermore ICF takes into account the social aspects of disability and does not see disability only as a 'medical' or 'biological' dysfunction. By including Contextual Factors, in which environmental factors are listed ICF allows to records the impact of the environment on the person's functioning."
I suggest you have a look also at articles relevant to the WHO ICF framework especially if you are interested in using it for collecting data - apart from the classification itself there are other ICF-based questionnaires that cover various aspects of disability.
You might find useful also this article in particular about the definition of disability:
Leonardi M, Bickenbach J, Ustun TB, et al: MHADIE Consortium. The definition of disability: what is in a name? The Lancet 2006;368:1219-21.
Good luck with your research, and if you need more information on the ICF, please don't hesitate to contact me.
All best,
Eleni
________________End of message________________
This Disability-Research Discussion list is managed by the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds (www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies).
Enquiries about list administration should be sent to [log in to unmask]
Archives and tools are located at: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html
You can VIEW, POST, JOIN and LEAVE the list by logging in to this web page.
________________End of message________________
This Disability-Research Discussion list is managed by the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds (www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies).
Enquiries about list administration should be sent to [log in to unmask]
Archives and tools are located at: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html
You can VIEW, POST, JOIN and LEAVE the list by logging in to this web page.
|