Crowley Catherine, Baigorri Miriam, Ntim Clement, Bukari Belinda, Oseibagyina Albert, Kitcher Emmanuel, Paintsil Albert, Ampomah Opoku Ware, Laing Anthony
Department of Biobehavioral Sciences, Speech-Language Pathology, Teachers College Columbia University, Box 180, 525 West 120th Street, New York, New York 10027, USA.
Int J Speech Lang Pathol. 2013 Feb;15(1):53-7. doi: 10.3109/17549507.2012.743036.
The World Health Organization's World Report on Disability underscores the need to identify and address barriers that limit people with disabilities from having access to services. Wylie, McAllister, Davidson, and Marshall (2013) consider the impact of that report on people with communication disabilities (PWCD). Over the past 5 years, the authors have worked together in Ghana to address the needs of PWCD. With only about 10 university-trained speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in Ghana, the barriers to PWCD receiving services are quite high. The authors are working together and with others to establish the first speech-language pathology program in Ghana. The authors also work to identify ways to share with PWCD and their families knowledge and skills on how to improve the communicative function of PWCD. In doing so, the authors have learned valuable lessons about the role of an SLP, especially when considering under-served PWCD, lessons that are applicable to both Majority and Minority World countries. This commentary describes the authors' work over the past 5 years, and describes initiatives that have had some measure of success in reducing barriers to access to information and services needed by PWCD and their caregivers and communities.
世界卫生组织的《世界残疾报告》强调了识别和消除限制残疾人获得服务的障碍的必要性。怀利、麦卡利斯特、戴维森和马歇尔（2013年）探讨了该报告对有沟通障碍者（PWCD）的影响。在过去5年里，作者们在加纳共同努力，以满足有沟通障碍者的需求。加纳仅有约10名受过大学培训的言语语言病理学家（SLP），有沟通障碍者获得服务的障碍相当高。作者们正在共同努力，并与其他人合作，在加纳建立首个言语语言病理学项目。作者们还努力确定如何与有沟通障碍者及其家人分享关于如何改善有沟通障碍者沟通功能的知识和技能。在此过程中，作者们学到了关于言语语言病理学家角色的宝贵经验，尤其是在考虑服务不足的有沟通障碍者时，这些经验适用于世界主要国家和少数国家。本评论描述了作者们过去5年的工作，并介绍了在减少有沟通障碍者及其照顾者和社区获取所需信息和服务的障碍方面取得了一定成功的举措。
