The Participation-Inclusion in Action Conference took place in Singapore in November of 2024. This event was co-produced by Healthy Trajectories and the Singapore University of Social Sciences. It was the fourth international conference focused entirely on participation. Our Director, Professor Christine Imms co-led the Scientific committee. With 187 attendees from 16 countries, the conference focused on what is needed to optimise the participation of those growing up with a disability in everyday life.
The conference program was developed to address four main themes, with learning built around six keynote speakers and multiple workshops to consider both how to use what we already know about participation, and what else we need to address in participation-focused research. The four themes were:
Approaches and solutions for equity (public health to individual approaches)
Speakers: A/Prof Dana Anaby, and Ms Nea Vanska
Subtheme: Context and Environment: Examining how the context and environment influence the implementation of a participation-focused approach.
A/Prof Dana Anaby spoke about “Pathways and Resources for Engagement and Participation (PREP) enhancing participation”. This keynote described the importance of addressing environmental barriers to participation experience by young people with disabilities, and the effectiveness of the PREP program in enhancing participation outcomes.
As a researcher, A/Prof Dana is a pioneer in creating the PREP intervention, (Pathways and Resources for Engagement and Participation), which is less focused on targeting any one disability and more focused on encouraging other people to have the flexibility and presence of mind to accommodate people with any disability when they arrive, especially with co-designed modifications.
Canada, the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, India, Israel, Brazil, Taiwan, and Australia are all countries that have successfully implemented the PREP system into different settings such as schools and workplaces, which shows how universally such an approach can be accepted and used to help.
Subtheme: Capacity Building: Enhancing the capacity of stakeholders to co-produce participation approaches that promote equity. Building expertise in using implementation science methods.
Ms Nea Vanska presented her keynote on day 2, “Co-creating Participation”, in which she discussed the results of her studies that have explored including children with disability as “active agents” in their own rehabilitation. This aids in getting them to participate and collaborate with others.
She presented research evidence about the ways that participation-based practices and tools that have been developed together with children, parents and professionals can improve the process of rehabilitation for everyone involved.
How can it be measured, developed, and enhanced?
Speaker: Prof Christine Imms
Subtheme: Co-Production: Exploring methods for measuring, developing, and enhancing participation through collaborative efforts.
Prof Christine Imms presented the results of studies that have utilised the fPRC (Family of Participation Related Constructs); a conceptual framework that was created by Imms, Granlund, Wilson, Steenbergen, Rosenbaum & Gordon in 2017. The fPRC has been cited over 400 times since publication and this presentation described the findings of a scoping review that explored how the fPRC framework had been used in research across the world and what can be learned from that research.
What is needed for authentic inclusion to support learning and belonging, and preparation for adult roles.
Speaker: Prof Kenneth Poon, and Dr Eunice Tan
Subtheme: Capacity Building: Strengthening the capacity of educational institutions, families, and communities to foster inclusive environments.
Professor Kenneth Poon presented on the third day of the conference. His presentation highlighted the key ways that successful participation in education can be realistically measured, addressing the issue that simply placing children with disabilities into regular schools is not guaranteed to help them feel engaged and included in their education.
His presentation first described the concept of engagement in education through a theoretical lens. Next, he explored how engagement is currently assessed and then presented some ways in which families, communities and schools could foster engagement with education in children with disabilities.
Subtheme: Collaborating across service sectors: Emphasising the collaboration between the education sector and other sectors to ensure lifelong inclusive education
Dr Eunice Tan used her presentation on the first day of the conference to share a pilot study on the role of community involvement for youths with higher needs exiting special education schools in Singapore.
She compared international systems for the gradual integration of people with disabilities into wider society to Singapore’s current system, which leaves many young people with disabilities segregated. Dr Tan used this comparison, along with the concerns and suggestions made by staff working in special education schools, to underscore the urgent need for updates to the schooling system. These updates included augmented financial resources, increased staffing levels, and enhanced training protocols. Furthermore, the study underscored the paramount importance of leveraging the unique strengths of these youths as a cornerstone of their developmental journey.
Applying and tailoring knowledge across low and high resource settings
Speaker: Prof Shakila Dada
Subtheme: Capacity Building: Learning from each other and equipping individuals and organisations to effectively exchange knowledge.
Subtheme: Collaborating across sectors and regions: Encouraging cross – sector and regional/global collaboration to facilitate exchange of knowledge, skills and resources.
Professor Shakila Dada presented on the second day, and she talked about the ways in which individual countries’ available resources and global partnerships can affect access to services and supports for people with disabilities. She used the examination to highlight the importance of careful consideration of the best ways to provide services when global partnerships involve countries with different income levels. She reflected upon observed research interactions between South Africa and Sweden, as well as South Africa and India, and the insights she gained upon examining the principles underlying these research partnerships.
Her research is influenced by her experiences of restricted education in apartheid South Africa, and the effects such restriction had on her participation. She emphasizes the importance of including considerations of diverse cultural and contextual perspectives in research about participation.
The SUSS campus has provided footage of some of the presentations from the event. You can watch the YouTube video of Christine Imms’ presentation here.
(Muhd Saifudeen – Circle of friendship. Conference Symbol for the PIAC.)
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