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4. MEASURING PARTICIPATION In context of measuring inclusion success, participation can be defined as a long-term result of medical, rehabilitation, education and social programs, focused on supporting individuals whose involvement into the life of family, household, community, school or society is low or of lower quality than they or the society would wish, and that is a consequence of their injury, inborn disability, malfunction or old age. This definition, however, fails in specifying what such an involvement or participation exactly is. Research in the field of special education, rehabilitation or disability studies still needs to answer three fundamental questions when trying to define participation: a) what participation means – what level of participation is necessary? Is participation the complete independence in performing a given act, or is it just the capability to perform them, though with assistance? b) what are the areas of participation – what areas are the key for participation measurement – activities in family, household, employment, community or in the society in general? Do they all have the same weight? c) whose point of view or aspiration is the key one for the participation measurement – the person with disability himself/herself or the society? Should we, when researching participation, take into consideration rather a wish of an individual to participate, or the participation norm valid in a given society? Is it possible at all to describe such a norm? Instruments measuring participation has not yet been developed within the Czech context. However, components leading to the participation measurement as it is defined in ICF are included in several instruments measuring quality of life. Questions about participation and inclusion appear within measuring tools (e.g. SQALA, SF-36, WHOQOL, Index for Inclusion), however, they focus only partially on participation of an individual in his/her community. For instance the Short Form 36 (SF-36) includes 36 questions assessing eight dimensions of life quality: Physical activity limitation as a consequence of health problems, social activity limitation as a consequence of physical and emotional problems, everyday activity limitation as a consequence of physical health problems, physical pain, general mental health, mental disorders, everyday limitation as a consequence of emotional problems, vitality, energy level, tiredness, and general assessment of health condition. It is used in rehabilitation for the determination of participation level of persons with certain kinds of illnesses or disabilities. There are items measuring such dimensions as “role limitation” and “social functioning”, being very close to the indicators developed for participation measurement.
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