Disabilities

The Réseau de transport de la Capitale (RTC), Quebec City’s public transportation provider, has launched a training program to enhance skills and self-efficacy for using the bus, including training for people with disabilities: “Service d’accompagnement en mobilité intégrée (SAMI)”. This pre-post study with a convergent mixed approach aimed to evaluate the influence of the SAMI program (P-SAMI) on transportation self-efficacy, mobility and satisfaction with the bus use among people with disabilities. The study also explored people with disabilities’ experiences and perceptions with the P-SAMI and bus use. The P-SAMI was delivered, and questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were completed before and after P-SAMI. Paired t-tests, Wilcoxon tests, and deductive thematic analyses were performed. Thirty-three participants (53.7 ± 14.9 years-of-age) showed statistically significant gains in transportation self-efficacy (p < 0.01) and satisfaction with bus use (p < 0.01), with no statistically significant differences in mobility (p > 0.05). Qualitative findings confirmed enhanced transportation self-efficacy and satisfaction with bus use, with participants reporting using buses to carry out some daily activities. The P-SAMI shows promise for improving transportation self-efficacy and satisfaction with using the bus, with the potential to enhance participation in daily activities. Controlled trials should be conducted in the future to test the effectiveness of transportation training for people with disabilities.

The most prevalent chromosomal condition, Down syndrome (DS), is often linked to deficiencies in working memory, executive function, and visuospatial skills. Innovative approaches to promote cortical plasticity and improve cognitive development have been suggested, including play- and technology-based therapies like LEGO^®-based neurohabilitation. In this pre-experimental study, a 16-year-old adolescent with DS undertook 30 sessions of increasingly sophisticated LEGO^®-based therapy, covering everything from robotic assembly and programming to block creation. Before and after the session, a neuropsychological evaluation was carried out using the Rey complex figure, motor control, and five-digit tests. The reliable change index (RCI) was used to analyze changes in performance. Constructive praxis, processing speed, and overall efficiency all showed notable clinical improvements, especially in the copy score, total complexity, and total processing. These findings imply that LEGO^®-based neurohabilitation can provide significant gains in executive efficiency, visual–spatial abilities, and cognitive processing while offering a stimulating, developmentally appropriate therapy setting.

We, five co-authors of this paper, came together for a three-day collective biography workshop to reflect on moments of recognition that have impacted our lives. We told our stories from lives lived with disability; we listened to each other’s stories and wrote and read them to each other with careful attention. In the discussions that followed, both during the workshop and during the following months of finalizing this paper, we explored the ways in which disability is made to matter and how. In that process, we each moved beyond our own singularity, our own particular memories of recognition and belonging, to a new, emergent understanding of our shared materiality and response-ability.