Using the ICF to Identify Contextual Factors That Influence Participation of Persons With Deafblindness

Objective: To identify and describe the contextual factors that influence the participation of people with deafblindness in India.

Design: Qualitative study, using directed content analysis approach and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) as a framework to analyze the data.

Setting: Community and social participation settings.

Participants: Community-dwelling individuals with deafblindness (N=16). Age ranges from 18-45 years.

Interventions: Not applicable.

Main outcome measures: Personal and environmental factors that influence the participation of individuals with deafblindness using the ICF framework.

Results: Results indicate that the age of onset and nature of impairment (deafblindness) and willingness to explain the condition (functional consequences of deafblindness) emerged as important personal factors. Access to resources such as assistive technology, social support, and deafblind-specific services were found to be enablers of participation. Lack of services, systems, and policies specific to deafblindness along with negative societal attitude toward disability were highly perceived environmental barriers that influence participation of people with deafblindness in India.

Conclusions: Professionals must acknowledge aspects of the environment in conducting assessments and delivering interventions and understand the dynamic interactions between environment of the individual and his/her concurrent vision and hearing impairments. Approaches to enable participation require rehabilitation professionals to work with those with deafblindness to advocate for removal of environmental barriers and ensure provision of appropriate resources from the government to facilitate their participation. Social policy and government must ensure emphasis on awareness about deafblindness, access to deafblind-specific services, positive societal attitude, and opportunities for full participation for people with deafblindness in society.