Women with Disabilities: Barriers and Facilitators to Accessing ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES: BARRIERS AND FACILITATORS TO ACCESSING SERVICES DURING PREGNANCY,CHILDBIRTH AND EARLY MOTHERHOODSchool of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College DublinChapter Four: Women with vision and hearingimpairment: barriers and facilitators to accessingservices during pregnancy, childbirth and earlymotherhood4.1. IntroductionInitial sections of this chapter will present the barriers to accessing servicesexperienced by women with a vision or hearing impairment, as identified from18 published research papers (Appendix 4, Table 4). Only 2 of these (and 5other) papers presented facilitators to access (Appendix 4, Table 5), which arediscussed in the final section. One further small section is included in thischapter, exploring the experiences of women with disabilities who are fromethnic minority groups, as the barriers are similar to those encountered bywomen with sensory loss.4.2. Barriers to accessibility of services for women with a visualimpairmentKent (2002) reports that women with a visual impairment may be faced with aconstant battle to maintain a sense of dignity and respect when accessinghealth care. One in 10 women with a vision impairment experiences, forexample, some degree of difficulty in accessing and negotiating the internalenvironment of health care facilities (Nzegwu, 2004). Details of appointmentsand correspondences are usually in written format, which is inappropriate forwomen with a visual impairment. When availing of these services, the majorityof women with a visual impairment will require orientation to the health caresetting (Pierce, 2003). This should include assistance in completing registrationforms, locating a seat in the waiting area, and moving or transferring to andlocating the examination rooms, but very few women receive this assistance(McFarlene, 2004; Nzegwu, 2004). To overcome these challenges, manywomen rely on relatives and friends to accompany them to appointments(Nzegwu, 2004). Lack of orientation to the birthing and postnatal environmentreduces the woman’s familiarity with the area and increases her dependence on75
WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES: BARRIERS AND FACILITATORS TO ACCESSING SERVICES DURING PREGNANCY,CHILDBIRTH AND EARLY MOTHERHOODSchool of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublinhealth professionals, which impinges on her ability to care confidently for herbaby without constant assistance (McFarlene, 2004). Quite often signage,because of its size or format, is unhelpful so women frequently struggle with thefeeling of disorientation. These challenges are further compounded by healthprofessionals’ lack of awareness of how actions or lack of them may or may notimpact on the individual’s perception of self (Nzegwu, 2004).4.3. Barriers preventing accommodation of women with a visualimpairmentObtaining accessible information is a continual challenge experienced bywomen with a visual impairment (Commission for Healthcare Audit andInspection, 2008). The challenges relate to the individual’s level of knowledgeabout pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood, and their knowledge of Braille(Smeltzer, 2007). Health professionals’ attitudes and a lack of awareness ofindividual needs compound these challenges even more (Beverley et al, 2004).The vast majority of vision-impaired women do not receive any healthinformation advice or leaflets in an appropriate or preferred format, for example,large print, pictorial, video and/or audio format or Braille (Nzegwu, 2004), sotrial-and-error learning is a common experience of many vision-impairedparents (Conley-Jung and Olkin, 2001). A recent survey showed that only 56%of the 152 trusts surveyed in England have information available that isspecifically designed for visually impaired women (Commission for HealthcareAudit and Inspection, 2008).4.4. Barriers to acceptability of services for women with avisual impairmentIn her paper Deborah Kent illustrates the challenges she encountered as a blindwoman during pregnancy, birthing, and early motherhood (Kent, 2002). Healthprofessionals’ and societal attitudes feature prominently. She discusses howmotherhood afforded her an ‘exhilarating sense of defiance’ (Kent, 2002:pg. 81)against society’s stereotypical misconceptions. She discusses society’snegative attitudes about blind women and motherhood, and the way theseattitudes become real and tangible obstacles in a blind woman’s life. She recalls76
Page 1 and 2:
University of DublinTrinity College
Page 3 and 4:
WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES: BARRIERS A
Page 5 and 6:
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44: WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES: BARRIERS A
Page 93: WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES: BARRIERS A
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
Page 161 and 162:
Page 163 and 164:
Page 165 and 166:
Page 167 and 168:
Page 169 and 170:
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
Page 175 and 176:
Page 177 and 178:
Page 179 and 180:
Page 181 and 182:
Page 183 and 184:
Page 185 and 186:
Page 187 and 188:
Page 189 and 190:
Page 191 and 192:
Page 193 and 194:
Page 195 and 196:
Page 197 and 198:
Page 199 and 200:
Page 201 and 202:
Page 203 and 204:
Page 205 and 206:
Page 207 and 208:
Page 209 and 210:
Page 211 and 212:
Page 213 and 214:
show all

Women with Disabilities: Barriers and Facilitators to Accessing ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?