Inaccessible childhoods: evaluating accessibility in homes,schools and neighbourhoods with disabled children

Accessible built environments are a critical component of Canada’s commitment to disabled children’s ‘right to enjoy full and decent lives’ [United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. 1989. Convention on the Rights of the Child. New York. [Google Scholar]. Convention on the Rights of the Child. New York.] . Although valid, reliable research data about the accessibility of built environments are key to developing related policies, these data currently do not exist. To begin to redress this gap, we conducted a case study series followed by a survey to determine the accessibility of schools, homes and neighbourhoods directly from disabled children (The ScHaN Project). To present a concise summary of the findings that can inform equitable, evidence-based policies, we developed a scoring system for their homes, schools and neighbourhoods. Although our findings illustrate that eliciting and interpreting data from these children were complex undertakings, it is clear that none of these central environments met Canada’s obligation to enhance equity by enabling their access, inclusion and participation.     

Knowledge That Matters: Identifying Regional Knowledge Assets of the Tampere Region

The existing literature considers knowledge as one of the key drivers of regional development. The idiosyncratic nature of regional knowledge is also acknowledged: each region possesses its unique knowledge assets which serve as the basis of value creation. However, what is currently not well-known is how the region-specific knowledge assets can be identified, for example, in order to manage and develop them. Thus this paper aims first to explore how the relevant knowledge assets can be identified for a given region, and, second, to describe what the context-specific knowledge assets are. These objectives are pursued using a qualitative case approach. As a case region, this study focuses on the Tampere Region in Finland. The study makes a contribution by providing a new insight regarding the contextual identification of regional knowledge assets and by illustrating the key knowledge assets of the case region. These insights are considered valuable for the regional actors responsible for carrying out similar initiatives in their respective regions.