Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal

EDITOR'S COMMENT

Community based inclusive development is the term that is increasingly being used today in connection with some programmes for persons with disability; and is sometimes taken to mean the same as community based rehabilitation (CBR). Community based inclusive development is an aim or goal to ensure that all development is inclusive of persons with disability; and CBR is the tool or strategy to achieve the goal. Backed by the rationale that no one should be excluded from development for any reason, CBR uses the principles of participatory community development, such as social justice, self determination and participation, in an attempt to make development inclusive of all persons with disability. CBR uses a ‘twintrack’approach to achieve the goal of community based inclusive development: working with persons with disability to build their capacity to become self-advocates for inclusion in all development processes; and working with the community and society at large to remove barriers that exclude persons with disability.

The future of CBR lies in more research to address questions related to inclusive development, and the means of promoting it effectively. Some questions on inclusive development for researchers to address at national and international levels:

To what extent are persons with disability included in MDG in different countries?

What are the key factors influencing implementation of CRPD in different countries? How effective are DPOs in this process? What is the level of awareness and engagement on CRPD among mainstream development agencies?

What role do DPOs play in mainstream development debate and implementation?

To what extent and how effectively do mainstream development agencies (including statutory bodies like Human Rights Commissions, Women's Commission) include disability issues?

The future of Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal

The Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal has a readership in 91 countries that include not only Asia, but also Africa, North America, South America, Europe and Australia/Pacific. Over the past 13 years, the APDRJ has attracted a wide range of articles on disability and rehabilitation, with an attempt to focus on community-based rehabilitation. The low frequency of the journal has precluded inclusion in major literature databases, such as Medline/Pubmed. This means that articles, though freely available on the internet, are relatively difficult to find. This problem, combined with the low publishing frequency, can lead to a comparatively low impact factor.

While there is a range of other rehabilitation journals, all are subscription based and expensive, or authors have to pay a fee to get their papers published. Given the increasing importance given to general (i.e. not specifically medical) disability and rehabilitation issues, in particular rights based approaches and community-based rehabilitation, combined with the fact that the majority of people with disability live in low and middle-income countries, there is a need for a journal that is of high international scientific quality, but is free and openly accessible for readers, universally accessible through electronic media and free for authors. In addition, there is a need for high quality information for practitioners and service providers. An upgraded journal that is published more frequently and is available free of charge could help meet this need.

With the growing acceptance of the APDRJ and the fact that it has steadily been gaining recognition from different sources, an attempt will be made in the coming months to upgrade the APDRJ to the above mentioned standard.

The upgraded journal will address the needs of practitioners in the field (particularly those from developing countries), policy makers, disabled persons' organisations and the scientific community. The journal will also be an e-journal, as this would reduce costs considerably, fit with the image of a modern journal and can cater for the large majority of readers. The frequency of publication will also be increased.

The upgraded journal will continue to address a global audience, since issues of disability and community-based inclusive development concern people in all countries. Contributions from different parts of the world will provide interesting lessons, ideas and research questions to readers elsewhere and stimulate intellectual discussion.

We hope to have these changes made operational from 2011.

Dr. Maya Thomas

Editor