ComRight - Promoting communicative rights in children with disability: Implementation and exploration of the ComBo program in short-term accommodations

Research problem and specific questionsPeople with communication difficulties are often excluded as co-workers and participants in research.

This co-designed and interdisciplinary project aims to explore communicative rights of children with disabilities who have short-term accommodation according to the Swedish disability act based on these questions:​1) How do children with developmental disabilities perceive and experience participation and self-determination? 2) What attitudes towards child participation, communicative rights, and self-determination do short-term accommodation staff have and how are these rights operationalised?3) How does an intervention (“ComBo”) change children’s opportunities for communication and self-determination?.

Data and methodThe project applies a participatory design where children with disabilities, parents and staff are involved in all phases.

Within a qualitative longitudinal study approach, data is collected at 3 time points: an initial descriptive part, post intervention and at follow-up.

The children will be supported to share their experiences through photographs, the Talking Mats method and participant observations. Staff members are interviewed in focus groups to gather high-quality information in a short time.

The AKKtiv KomBo program (www.akktiv.se) includes 8 2-hour sessions where staff gain knowledge about rights, communication supporting strategies and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC, e.g. manual signs, pictures and speech apps). Focus is on practical exercises and video feedback.

Collected data will be analysed with content- and communication analysis.Societal relevance and utilisationCommunication is crucial to be involved in social/democratic contexts. Several laws and conventions emphasise communicative rights.

However, Swedish reports show that social services for people with disabilities lack staff education in communication supporting strategies and systematic methods to assure such rights. This applies particularly to services for children in need of AAC.

Project outcomes include first-hand experiences as well as implementation strategies to inform social work policy to optimise scalability of ComBo.

Plan for project realisationThe project is carried out in close collaboration with Göteborgs stad and is co-designed by people with lived experience (staff, parents, children) and an interdisciplinary research group. The budget includes reimbursement for people involved as co-researchers.