The aim of the study has been to explore what participation and hope means for persons with disabilities living in an institution called Horizon House, in Stellenbosch South Africa. The aim has also been to discover the South African approach to disability and how Horizon House fits into this approach. Horizon House is an institution and a protective workplace in Stellenbosch for adults whose main impairment is of an intellectual nature but there are also physical and emotional disabilities. Another aim has been to explore the perspectives of the residents. The research questions of the study are: ? What does participation imply for the residents of Horizon House?? What does Hope represent for the residents of Horizon House?? What importance can hope have for people with disabilities, in their approach towards increased participation? We travelled to South Africa during a two week period in March 2009, where we participated at the protective workplace of Horizon House.

This study investigates a Swedish educational project aimed to incorporate young people with intellectual disabilities into the labor market through internship. This qualitative interview study was conducted with six of the project student?s internship supervisors. The purpose of this study is thus to examine the motives behind the decision to take on a trainee from the program at the workplace. In addition, the study also aims to examine whether and how dif-ferent factors of the workplace affect the trainee?s opportunities for social inclusion in the workplace.

Science has shown that siblings to children with a disability are affected by the family situation. The siblings often let their own needs and requests come secondary to their family members. This study illustrates how different professionals, who keep in contact with families with a disabled child, works with its siblings. The purpose with this study was to see how professionals, working as administrators, counselors at the habilitation and kin supporters in the region of Kalmar, include siblings while working with the families. Representatives from the professionals have been interviewed with a semi structured interview manual.The result showed that professionals have various opinions how siblings are affected by the family situation.

The aim of this study was to investigate the emotions among the staff at the group housings when they observe the caretakers expressions of masturbation and how the staff handles these expressions in their daily and long-term work. The theoretical concepts that were used in this study are group housing as a public and private arena, occupational role, relation, humanistic effort, pedagogical effort, empowerment, care ethic and emotions. The concepts are related to each other and constitutes the foundation for the analysis of the empirical data used in this study. A qualitative study was carried out, in forms of half structured interviews with six informants, of which the majority was women. It came to light that the interviewees only had positive feelings for the caretaker?s expressions of masturbation.

The purpose was to describe the significance of participation concerning leisure time and household duties for persons with mild Intellectual Disability living in a group home with some support from caretakers. Interviews were performed with five persons, two men and three women, living in such a group home. The questions in the interview guide had an open character and were divided into four different areas, leisure time, economy, cooking, cleaning and laundry. The results indicate that all informants felt they participated in all four areas. Further on, the results show there was participation of three different kinds.

The study presented here is about how to make the special needs user who has a profound Intellectual Disability and additional disabilities more involved in their implementation plan. Based on a life story interview the study aims at analyzing perceptions of procedures to enhance special needs users? influence. The method used in this study was a qualitative research approach as an overall approach in order to use a narrative method where life history is the method. The focus has been to study a part of an individual life history - a specific domain in the life of the interviewee?s working career.

Delaktighet är ett multidimensionellt fenomen som gynnas av ett flertal faktorer, främst positiva personegenskaper och underlättande faktorer i miljön. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur vårdare på en gruppbostad för vuxna personer med lindrig utvecklingsstörning uppfattar samt menar sig skapa förutsättningar för brukarnas delaktighet i fritid, mathållning, städ/tvätt och ekonomi. Studien genomfördes med hjälp av 6 individuella intervjuer med halvstrukturerade frågor. Resultatet visade att vårdarna uppfattar brukarnas delaktighet i sin fritid som stor, då självbestämmandet och engagemanget är stort. I mathållningen har brukarna självbestämmande, men de väljer att inte vara delaktiga.

Synen på föräldrar med lindrig utvecklingsstörning har förändrats över tid. Den utveckling som skett har lett till att normaliseringsprincipen förutsätts gälla när människor med lindrig utvecklingsstörning blir föräldrar. Syftet med vår uppsats var att undersöka hur socialsekreterare förstår och arbetar med föräldrar som har en lindrig utvecklingsstörning där de misstänker att deras barn far illa. Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ studie i form av en fokusgruppsintervju med fem socialsekreterare som arbetar med utredning av barn. Resultatet visade på att socialsekreterarna upplever att föräldrar med lindrig utvecklingsstörning har vissa svårigheter i sin föräldraförmåga - som vilka föräldrar som helst.

This bachelor thesis is studying the development of Swedish law in relation with EU-law. There are two different points of view expressed in the theories of Europeanization. One that means EU makes a big influence on national policy, one that says path-dependency will make the national policies differ. The case used in the study is discrimination on the ground of disability as regards employment. The aim of this thesis is, through a case study, to analyze the relation between Swedish and European law and by that shed some light on the matter of Europeanization..

The aim in the study is to search for a deeper understanding of how parents experience a neurological diagnose of the child and how this affects the parenthood. Parenthood was seen in a systemtheoretical perspective as a social construction. The narrative method was used in two lifestory parentinterviews. The analysis was made from parenthood. The result formed stories about parenthood with children having neuropsyciatric functional disability who even came to be a woman?s struggle.

Siblings of persons with disabilities tend to be sidelined and not get the same attention in the same amount as the child with the disability gets, both by the parents and the society. Previous research in this area is limited and siblings of people with disabilities and their experiences of support needs to be explored. The purpose of this paper is to learn about support for siblings of people with disabilities in terms of both adult siblings own experiences from his childhood and from practitioners experience. Six qualitative interviews with four adult siblings of people with disabilities and two professionals were interviewed. Systems Theory and Bronfenbrenners ecological model has provided the theoretical basis for the essay.

The aim of this thesis is to use the bibliometric method author cocitation analysis (ACA) and investigate the cognitive structure in a research field, which is called the intellectual base. The research field in this investigation is social psychology. The main question is: what is the nature of the cognitive structure, which contains of the intellectual base. This question is divided in two sub questions: ? Which are the most prominent authors in the research field? ? Which sub areas, based on groups of the most cocited authors in the research field, can be identified?An investigation with ACA is used to describe the general experience of consensus of later authors in a research field.

AbstractThe aim of the study was to examine how a school team works with formative assessment in compulsory school for pupils with intellectual disabilities. The study had a particular focus on formative assessment in relation to pupils with moderate and severe intellectual disabilities. Since there is a lack of research within the field of formative assessment and pupils with moderate and severe disabilities this study may contribute to new knowledge in this field. A sociocultural perspective has been used as a theoretical framework. A central concept in the sociocultural perspective is that people develop knowledge in interaction with other people and that communication and language is important.  The methodical framework was inspired by an ethnographic approach and the empirical material was concocted by participatory observations and by interviews.

Studiens syfte var att undersöka hur valda delar av forskningslitteraturen beskriver och diskuterar kring föräldrar med utvecklingsstörning. Vi fokuserade på den valda forskningslitteraturen utifrån tre teman: Föräldraförmågan hos utvecklingsstörda föräldrar, riskfaktorer för barn som växer upp med utvecklingsstörda föräldrar och stödet från samhället till föräldrar med utvecklingsstörning. Den metod som användes var en kunskapsöversikt som delvis tolkades hermeneutiskt. Resultatet av studien visar att de flesta föräldrarna var villiga att ta emot stöd av antingen professionella, anhöriga eller både och för att klara av sitt föräldraskap. Barn till utvecklingsstörda föräldrar kan vara en riskgrupp men behöver inte vara det.

Särskolan är idag en skolform för elever med intellektuell funktionsnedsättning. Syftet med denna studie är att få ökad kunskap om och fördjupad förståelse för hur tillhörighet till särskolan kan upplevas och påverka identitetsutveckling hos elever med lindrig utvecklingsstörning. Studien är kvalitativ med hermeneutisk ansats och bygger på semi-strukturerade intervjuer med elever i gymnasiesärskolan. I studien framkommer att eleverna i gymnasiesärskolan upplever tillhörigheten tudelat. Samtidigt som särskolan upplevs som en trivsam och trygg miljö, positiv för social delaktighet och kunskapsmässig utveckling upplever de en skam och sorg över tillhörigheten som de därmed försöker att hemlighålla.