Changing practice: Implications of the World Report on Disability for responding to communication disability in under-served populations

TLDR

The World Report on Disability challenges how services for people with communication disabilities are conceptualized and delivered worldwide, highlighting that many individuals in both majority and minority countries receive limited or no support. The paper examines the global prevalence of communication disability and the data challenges, and proposes that organizational change theory and a biopsychosocial model can guide the development of equitable services, emphasizing the need for novel, population‑based approaches. The authors describe under‑served populations, aspects of service delivery, and apply organizational change theory and a biopsychosocial model to inform service development for people with communication disabilities. The study concludes that the World Report’s nine recommendations present both challenges and opportunities, urging speech‑language pathologists to adopt innovative, equitable service models for communication‑disabled individuals in all settings.

Abstract

The World Report on Disability provides a major challenge to the conceptualization and delivery of services for people with communication disabilities around the world. Many people, in both Majority and Minority World countries, receive limited or no support in relation to their communication disability. In this paper the prevalence of communication disability across the world (and the challenges to obtaining these data) are discussed, particularly in relation to disability more broadly. Populations that are under-served by speech-language pathology services in both Majority and Minority World countries are described. The paper describes organizational change theory and the potential it has, together with a biopsychosocial model of disability, to assist in understanding and influencing development of relevant services for people with communication disabilities (PWCD), particularly those who are under-served. Aspects of, and influences on, service delivery for PWCD are described. The need for novel ways of conceptualizing development of services, including population-based approaches, is highlighted. Finally, the challenges and opportunities for PWCD and for speech-language pathologists which arise from the nine recommendations of the World Report on Disability are considered and readers are encouraged to consider new and novel ways of developing equitable services for people with communication disabilities, in both majority and minority world settings.