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Lund University in Sweden collaborates with the University of Dhaka but
the University of Dhaka doesn't know much about the disability field in terms
of knowing where people are so we can ask them, so, therefore, we contacted the largest
networking organization in Bangladesh. I think they have nearly 300 networking organizations\
organizations that they network with. And the name of that organization is Center for
Disability and Development. \ So we asked them for their assistance to try
to find out users of assistive technology so they contacted their partners and they
selected 10 organizations which had the highest number of users in it with respect to working
areas, so we collected data from this 139 hearing aid users, 150 wheelchair users in
8 different districts. \ There are 64 districts in Bangladesh. \
And in 6 of these districts we tried to find\ they found out all people, all users
of assistive technology available in their working areas in the 6 districts. \
So if there are two million people on average living in a district and there are 20, 30
users of assistive hearing aids and wheelchairs it's not easy to find these people, so this
was the strategy that we used to find as many as possible. \
>>DARREN: Hi, Darren Zook from the department of political science, University of California
at Berkeley. \ First I think it's great that you've done
this kind of data collection because I work so many places where it just doesn't exist,
but the one thing that caught my eye was when you had the percentages of the participants
in your sample is the kind of skewed gender. You had 63 percent in one and 74 percent were
men and I know from working in Bangladesh especially in the NGOs community, there's
kind of an entrenched social conservatism especially in villages about directing things
towards men. And I'm wondering if in the collection of your data or simply in doing this field
work if you either had to account for this kind of social conservatism or whether you
found that there is this idea that if benefits were available they should be going towards
men or whether gender played any role at all in your data collection. \
\ >>JOHAN: This is basically the reason why
we adjusted for gender. In the regression model, to take this into account. \
There is a well known fact that it's more difficult for women and girls in Bangladesh
to get rehabilitation services not only rehabilitation services but also health services. \
But we have not seen if there is any you call it inequality in the provision of assistive
technology, because we don't know the needs, and the needs may differ between genders.
Normally men are more\ they are more involved in traffic accidents and falls and things
like that. While women maybe are more likely to have other types of impairments that can
lead to disabilities. \ So the actual need we don't know. So we don't
know whether this is\ represents any inequal situation or not, no. \
Thank you. \ >>CHRIS COWARD: Chris Coward, Technology and
Social Change group. \ I'm wondering if if you shared these findings
back with those NGOs, those organizations that were in that network, and whether they
changed their practice or how did they react to it? Because you said that the both of the
wheelchairs and things were given through the ceremonies did not involve the users.
^^^\ Have they\ have they changed their practice?
Or what was their reaction to the findings, if you did share the findings? \
>>JOHAN: We will share the findings. This is the first time findings from this research
project are presented. And we have a couple of manuscripts underway. One relates to the
human rights aspect, whether there's a relation between assistive technology use and human
rights enjoyment. \ And for hearing aid users, we have 12 indicators
of enjoyment of human rights. Using hearing aids is significantly related to 11 of them,
while wheelchair users related only to one, but a very important one, mobility. \
>>PAIGE: My name is Paige Stringer. And my question is, you were talking about the in
your results that there\may be it may be time for alternative strategies for developing
hearing aids. And so was there any hearing aids services, I guess. So was there any\
anything that came out of that, some specific examples of what might be appropriate alternative
strategies? \
>>JOHAN: Thank you for asking that. I didn't
want to take time in the presentation to elaborate on that. I ran out of time. But I learned
from being involved in the guidelines of the Wheelchair Guidelines of the World Health
Organization\ that using nonprofessionals is a possible way forward. \
We met a lot of\ I mean there were physical therapist and occupational therapist involved
in developing the guidelines and they wanted to see very advanced assessments being done
even for very basic needs, so that our representative he kept saying that basic is basic, basic,
basic. Just to keep it as basic as possible requiring a minimum of skills. \
So people\the basic course that is being developed now is a two week course and it basically
is to be able to identify whether a person can sit upright by himself or herself and
then if they can do that, they are able to provide a wheelchair. If not, they should
be referred to the next level. \ And I wonder if it is not possible to do something
similar to reach the millions of people who need a hearing aid or would benefit from one,
by training CBR workers, for example, in checking the ear what the reason can be for if there
is a foreign object in the ear or if there is wax that can reduce the hearing. If not,
maybe to try a hearing aid. If it works, it's fine. If it doesn't work, refer to the next
level. \
>>BECKY: Any more questions? Maybe one more?
\ >>SUNIL: Thank you. We could probably talk
for hours. \ Are we going to have these slides available
for the organizers?\ >>BECKY: Yes.\
>>SUNIL: Okay, Very good. Thank you.\ My question was about your strategy for finding
out this retrospective questioning of these users, historical, recall. You know, is it
possible that people may not remember whether they were asked any questions at all? Is there
a certain kind of assumption that we have about this being such a significant event,
the moment of fitting a wheelchair or being fitted with a device? I'm just curious. \
I was remembering maybe when I learned how to drive a car, did somebody ask me, you know,
"Do you know how to use the brake" or something like that. \
So, what's the sort of logic there to assume that that's going to be actually a useful
way to find this out? \ >>JOHAN: I have a thought about this as well
(laughter), and not a good answer whether they remember or not. \
I know the average time they have used assistive device is about five years, and it may be
difficult to remember what happened five years ago when they were assessed. That's true.
\ So, that can affect the outcome, that's true.
Thank you very much. \ >>DEEPTI: I wanted to follow up on that.
\ >>BECKY: Just kidding. One more. \
>>DEEPTI: Very quickly I think to try and answer maybe his question about whether it's
a significant thing for somebody to be asked these questions. I think at least some of
the literature definitely shows that even in developed countries, a lot of times when
somebody is being fitted with more like medical sort of devices, it is the doctors opinion
and the experts opinion that counts and you're not really asked\ you assume what they
need. You're not really asking them: So, where do you plan on using it? How many hours a
day you might require it? What's, you know, the environment you're in? And I'm just throwing
some questions out there. \ But those questions might actually never be
asked. I think your point about maybe they might not remember it is a good one. But I
do think it's a significant thing to study and to find out. \