Full Financial Education Programmes for People with Disabilities: a Scoping Review / Programas Integrais de Educação Financeira para Pessoas com Incapacidade: uma Revisão de Literatura

ABSTRACT: Financial literacy has been recognised worldwide as a way to confront social inequalities in work access, own financial control and education, particularly among vulnerable groups. People with disabilities, especially those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, experience additional challenges accessing opportunities to learn financial-related competencies. There is an extensive bibliography on this subject that stretches for decades, but this does not translate into an extensive availability of science-based programmes. To our knowledge, no comprehensive search to find the gaps in this evidence has been conducted. We conducted a scoping review that sought to identify the core goals, contents, approaches, gaps and limitations of full financial education programmes for youths and adults with disabilities. Seven publications met the inclusion criteria, which included implementation of programmes that embrace a multidimensional set of skills. Selection and categorisation of the programmes' contents were conducted independently by three researchers. Findings suggest that money and transactions is the content most consistently addressed in the programmes designed for persons with disabilities. A stronger focus on self-determination skills is needed to support financial-related decision-making and self-advocacy. The results indicate that the use of approaches based on Universal Design for Learning, problem-based learning and the combined use of simulated and community-based instruction are critical strategies to support access to financial competencies. Gaps and future orientations include the need to broaden the number of studies that implement and evaluate programmes considering the multidimensional nature of the financial competencies and its critical role for social inclusion of people with disabilities.

RESUMO: A literacia financeira tem sido reconhecida mundialmente como uma forma de responder a desigualdades sociais no acesso ao trabalho, controlo financeiro e educação, principalmente em grupos vulneráveis. As pessoas com incapacidade, principalmente intelectual e desenvolvimental, enfrentam barreiras adicionais no acesso a oportunidades para a aprendizagem de competências financeiras. A bibliografia é extensa e estende-se por décadas, mas não resulta na mesma proporção em programas completos, baseados na evidência, e que estejam disponíveis. No nosso conhecimento, não existe uma revisão detalhada direcionada para as lacunas desta evidência. Realizamos uma revisão do tipo Scoping Review para identificar os objectivos, conteúdos, abordagens, lacunas e limitações de programas integrais para a Educação Financeira dirigidos a jovens e adultos com Incapacidade. Foram selecionadas sete publicações que cumpriam os critérios de inclusão, designadamente a implementação de programas que englobassem um espectro multidimensional de competências. A selecção e a categorização dos conteúdos dos programas foram conduzidos independentemente por três investigadores. Os resultados sugerem que o uso de dinheiro e as transacções constituem os conteúdos mais abordados nos programas. Parece ser necessário um maior enfoque nas competências de autodeterminação para apoiar tomadas de decisão e autoadvocacia na vida financeira. As abordagens baseadas no Desenho Universal para a Aprendizagem, a Aprendizagem Baseada em Problemas e o uso combinado de aprendizagem em contexto simulado e real foram identificadas como estratégias fundamentais. As lacunas e as orientações para o futuro incluem a necessidade de ampliar o número de estudos que implementem e avaliem programas assentes na natureza multidimensional das competências financeiras e no seu papel crítico na inclusão social de pessoas com incapacidade.

The use of the international classification of functioning, disability and health in an interactive perspective: the assessment and intervention of students' additional support needs in Portugal.

Purpose: Evaluating the influence of person-environment interactions on students' performance is a fundamental requirement for planning individualized educational interventions. Such understanding grounded the use of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health as a reference framework to support special needs assessment in the Portuguese educational system. This study sought to investigate the extent to which special education teams reported relationships between Body Functions, Activities and Participation, and Environmental Factors in Individualized Education Programmes for students with additional support needs and what types of relations were mostly described.Materials and methods: Using content analysis, 176 Individualized Education Programmes were examined. A coding scheme based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health was developed to categorize and quantify code-relations.Results and conclusions: Code-relations consisted in 6.1% out of the total of meaning units found in textual segments concerning assessment and intervention processes. Code-relations were chiefly focused on mental functions, learning and applying knowledge, and products and technology. Intervention plans were predominantly presented as separate lists of goals and strategies, focusing Activities and Participation (67.8%), Body Functions (16.1%) and Environmental Factors (16.2%). Within the reduced amount of contents in which there was a match between goals and strategies, only 8.2% were directly connected with assessment data. Recommendations are made for the implementation of an interactive approach when using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health in educational contexts.Implications for rehabilitationThe adoption of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health in the educational context goes beyond the use of a universal language including, as well, the potential to foster a multidimensional and comprehensive approach to students' needs.Professionals' approach in special needs assessment is often partial and segmented, suggesting a narrow understanding of the relationships between body functions, activities and participation, and environmental factors.Our findings support the need for an expanded focus on person-environment interactions, considering students' participation in different domains of life - besides learning - as well as the impact of environmental barriers over students' participation;Training programmes centred on a biopsychosocial understanding of human functioning, the establishment of a transdisciplinary collaborative culture and the use of dynamic assessment tools may equip professionals with appropriate conditions to use the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health within an interactive perspective.

Portugal's special education law: implementing the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health in policy and practice.

PURPOSE: The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) was introduced in Portuguese education law as the compulsory system to guide eligibility policy and practice in special education. This paper describes the implementation of the ICF and its utility in the assessment process and eligibility determination of students for special education. METHODS: A study to evaluate the utility of the ICF was commissioned by the Portuguese Ministry of Education and carried out by an external evaluation team. A document analysis was made of the assessment and eligibility processes of 237 students, selected from a nationally representative sample. RESULTS: The results provided support for the use of the ICF in student assessment and in the multidimensional approach of generating student functioning profiles as the basis for determining eligibility. The use of the ICF contributed to the differentiation of eligible and non eligible students based on their functioning profiles. CONCLUSIONS: The findings demonstrate the applicability of the ICF framework and classification system for determining eligibility for special education services on the basis of student functioning rather than medical or psychological diagnose. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION: The use of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework in special education policy is as follows: • The functional perspective of the ICF offers a more comprehensive, holistic assessment of student needs than medical diagnoses. • ICF-based assessment of the nature and severity of functioning can serve as the basis for determining eligibility for special education and habilitation. • Profiles of functioning can support decision making in designing appropriate educational interventions for students.