Providing effective support services for culturally and linguistically diverse persons with disabilities: Challenges and recommendations

This review examines the impact of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) persons of disability status upon the work of researchers, rehabilitation service providers, and postsecondary education instructors and support personnel. The increasingly disproportionate distribution of CLD persons with disabilities, and the inequitable treatment CLD people experience in receiving services, continues to challenge the disability research field, vocational rehabilitation system, and postsecondary institutions. Disability researchers, practitioners, instructors, and support personnel have not adequately understood the unique issues related to disability in CLD communities and, as a result, have failed in their relationship with CLD persons with disabilities. This review examines the barriers to this relationship which fall into three categories: (a) lack of cultural sensitivity and knowledge regarding CLD persons with disabilities; (b) failure to account for environmental determinants of disability, including natural, social, cultural, and built environments; and (c) inadequacy of current research methodology and approaches by service systems and postsecondary education as applied to CLD populations with disabilities. Recommendations to better relate to the needs of persons with disability in CLD communities are provided.