ABSTRACT

Background

Aphasia creates pervasive communication barriers that make participation in society difficult. There are well over 150,000 Canadians with aphasia, but very few people have heard of it. The consequences of this lack of knowledge is that businesses and organizations are ill-equipped to accommodate customers with this invisible disability. The present study introduces the Aphasia-Friendly Business Campaign (AFBC), which has been designed to address the lack of knowledge surrounding aphasia. This knowledge mobilization project assists businesses in increasing accessibility for people with communication disorders through business-specific training sessions.

Aims

The goal was to increase awareness of aphasia in businesses and to test the efficacy of our approach. The following questions were explored: (1) Does accessibility training about aphasia and supportive communication strategies increase employee’s knowledge of aphasia, and (2) do employees report increased self-efficacy in interacting with a customer with aphasia after participating in training?

Method

Businesses were offered on-site aphasia training and personalized toolkits/resources were designed to accommodate the needs of people with communication disorders. Participating businesses received a training session that included a PowerPoint presentation, video examples, activity-based role-play, and an opportunity for discussion. Pre-and post-training questionnaires assessed changes in employees’ declarative knowledge regarding aphasia and their perceived self-efficacy in the workplace.

Results

226 participants across 15 organizations participated in the AFBC. Participant’s declarative knowledge of aphasia and perceived ability to work with people with aphasia or other communication disorders significantly improved after training. Further, the participants agreed the materials provided were adequate and helpful.

Discussion and Conclusions

The increase in public knowledge regarding aphasia and the perceived ability of local employees to use supportive communication strategies have set the stage for increasing the autonomy of people with aphasia in our community. Improved public understanding of aphasia should reduce stigma surrounding the disorder, facilitate community reintegration, and improve the quality of services provided for people with aphasia. Service providers can better facilitate communication and make appropriate accommodations to assist with vocational, social and community reintegration. Future research should consider assessing longitudinal factors related to training retention and transfer (i.e., do employees remember and use these skills on the job and do they teach new employees). Further, people with aphasia in other regions of Canada continue to find their problems to be misunderstood and unaddressed by extant services, and as such, the need for the expansion of the AFBC program is necessary.

中文翻译：

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失语症友好加拿大：失语症友好商业活动

摘要

背景

失语症造成普遍的沟通障碍，使参与社会变得困难。有超过 150,000 名加拿大人患有失语症，但很少有人听说过。这种缺乏知识的后果是企业和组织没有能力为这种无形残疾的客户提供服务。本研究介绍了失语症友好商业运动 (AFBC)，该运动旨在解决失语症相关知识的缺乏问题。该知识动员项目通过针对企业的培训课程帮助企业提高沟通障碍患者的可及性。

目标

目标是提高企业对失语症的认识，并测试我们方法的有效性。探讨了以下问题：（1）关于失语症和支持性沟通策略的可访问性培训是否增加了员工对失语症的认识，以及（2）员工在参加培训后与失语症客户互动时是否报告增加了自我效能？

方法

为企业提供了现场失语症培训，并设计了个性化的工具包/资源，以满足有沟通障碍的人的需求。参与的企业接受了培训课程，其中包括 PowerPoint 演示文稿、视频示例、基于活动的角色扮演和讨论机会。培训前和培训后问卷评估了员工关于失语症的陈述性知识的变化及其在工作场所的自我效能感。

结果

来自 15 个组织的 226 名参与者参加了 AFBC。培训后，参与者对失语症的陈述性知识和与失语症或其他沟通障碍患者合作的感知能力显着提高。此外，与会者一致认为所提供的材料是充分和有益的。

讨论和结论

关于失语症的公众知识的增加以及当地员工使用支持性沟通策略的感知能力为提高我们社区中失语症患者的自主性奠定了基础。提高公众对失语症的了解应该会减少对失语症的污名，促进社区重新融入，并提高为失语症患者提供的服务质量。服务提供者可以更好地促进沟通并提供适当的便利，以协助重新融入职业、社会和社区。未来的研究应该考虑评估与培训保留和转移相关的纵向因素（即员工是否记住并在工作中使用这些技能，他们是否教新员工）。更远，