Handbook guidance promoting a safe journey for children with disabilities – An evaluation

Previous research has shown that both mobility and safety for children with disabilities are reduced, due to several reasons, one of them being lack of adequate and focused information on safety measures to be taken. A handbook was created and disseminated for free to parents of children with disabilities, organised in parental organisations. The handbook was evaluated from a user perspective, by a parental questionnaire survey. The results confirmed the parents’ lack of information and further valued the handbook as useful. The parents stated the benefits of the handbook to be largest in contacts with drivers of school transportation and special transport systems. Future development and research should focus on: (i) “early intervention” by occupational therapists and paediatricians by providing the parents the handbook at the clinic, (ii) dissemination strategies towards parents not being members of the parental interest organisations, and (iii) translation and evaluation of the handbook for parents not having Swedish as their native language.