Mirjana Jakovcev , Andrea Gaspar
Croatian Association of Societies of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities, Croatia
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Autism Open Access
School curriculum and textbooks greatly influence the early formation of attitudes towards
people with disabilities. Croatia is currently undergoing a transformation from a medical to
social model of disability. To assess how this transformation is progressing in schools, the present
study examined whether, and to what extent, people with disabilities are presented according to
the social model in elementary school textbooks. The following questions were considered: How
many texts per textbook in each grade mention people with disability? Which type of disability
occurs most often in texts? Is the representation of various types of disability in textbooks consistent
with their actual prevalence in the Croatian population? Are textbook portrayals of people with
disability aligned with a medical or social model of disability? To address these questions, content
analysis was performed on texts randomly sampled from 16 elementary textbooks of the Croatian
language used in the 2016-2017 school year. Each publisher was represented to a similar extent in
the sample. Of the 1,320 analyzed texts, only 25 mentioned a total of 35 people with disabilities,
indicating significant under-representation of people with disabilities in Croatian textbooks. The
most common disabilities presented in the sample were physical (29.41%) and visual (26.47%),
which is to some extent consistent with Croatian statistical data. Most people with disability are
portrayed from the perspective of the social model (55.88%), mainly in the context of positive
discrimination (44.12%). These results may serve as a good starting point for future research on this
subject, and they may help monitor disability model transformation in the country.
Mirjana Jakovcev is the President of Croatian Association of Societies of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities and has many years of experience working with people with intellectual disabilities. She is working on her PhD studies from Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Zagreb, and is involved in activities with aim of improving public policy in the field of human rights, health, employment and quality of life of persons with intellectual disabilities. She is a Member of Commission of the Government of the Republic of Croatia for Persons with Disabilities, Member of Presidency and Assembly of Croatian Union of Associations of Persons with Disabilities - SOIH, President of Association of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities Rego? Slavonski Brod. She has great experience in preparation of project proposals, implementation and managing projects to support persons with intellectual disabilities and their families.
Andrea Gašpar, mag.educ.reh has Masters Degree on Educational Rehabilitation and working as a professor of rehabilitation in regular classes in the elementary school in Slavonski Brod, Croatia, She has many experience in rehabilitation and working with persons and children with intellectual disabilities in various associations. She was volunteering in developing plans and programs of personal support for each member of association, needs assessment, implementation of support programs, team analysis and monitoring of support program implementation, monthly evaluation, individual and group work with persons with intellectual disabilities focused on encouraging and developing skills, psychosocial support for persons with intellectual disabilities and their families, in contact with Centers for social welfare, counseling, writing reports and projects, She was also working on implementing early intervention programs in the family - direct work with the child to develop motor, practical-personal and other skills, counseling and education of parents. Mrs Gašpar has experience in organization and implementation: interestcreative, art workshops, help to children with visual impairment and multiple difficulties, providing assistance in conducting workshops (visual, dance, everyday life), assisting in the exercise of therapeutic horse-riding. Completed course of Croatian sign language in 5 degrees (6 semesters), mastered communication skills with hearing impaired people.
E-mail: mirjana.jakovcev@gmail.com
