Accommodative Policy Research Articles

Do Computer-Based Accommodations Matter? An Evaluation of Bundled Accommodations for Secondary Students With Mild Intellectual Disabilities

Objectives: To investigate the effectiveness of accommodation policies and teaching practices for secondary students with mild intellectual disabilities, the present study compared the probability that the secondary school accommodated students- if they received assistive technology, computer, and various combinations of accommodations for the provincial math and literacy assessments in Ontario, Canada- would acquire levels of academic achievement comparable to non-accommodated counterparts. Methods: A total of 217 bundled packages, consisting of multiple accommodations, for secondary students with mild intellectual disabilities were examined by an adjusted odds ratio method in the present study. Results: Our results suggest that the probability of achieving the literacy standards differed among students with mild intellectual disabilities in relation to who did or did not receive specific combinations of accommodations. We found that accommodations that involved computer and/or assistive technology were more beneficial for literacy, rather than the math assessment, for accommodated students with mild intellectual disabilities. Conclusion: Our findings help identify the computer-based accommodations that produced significant differential effects on literacy in students with mild intellectual disabilities. Implications for education and future research are also discussed in this paper.

Brothers and sisters all: Catholic schools for community with Muslims

This article makes the normative argument that Catholic schools can and should reject Islamophobia by welcoming Muslim students through the acceptance of full accommodation. It reviews research that could assist Catholic schools to take up Pope Francis’s ‘Fratelli Tutti’ Encyclical Letter call for ‘fraternity and social friendship’ with near and distant ‘strangers’, by adopting acceptance forms of community with Muslim students, and rejecting Islamophobia. Currently, illiberal securalist societies have rendered Muslim students eminently vulnerable to cultural racism and racialisation. Many of them experience schools as culturally incongruent, are subject to everyday cultural racism, and also lack a faith-based education. It defines Islamophobia as cultural racism, with gendered forms of racialisation, examines histories of secularisation and of school markets as contexts exclusionary of Muslims. It reviews research on: how non-denominational and denominational schools, teachers, and peers have contributed to, or rejected, the Islamophobia experienced by Muslims students; how they have moved, or can move, to school-based policies of accommodation based on positive difference; and how their religious education pedagogies do, or may, foster the opening of hearts and minds to the respect as equal of Muslim brothers and sisters.

BRICS, sub-imperialism and education in Mozambique

ABSTRACT Are changing geo-political dynamics, and an increasingly multi-polar world, significant for education? We explore this question by engaging a debate on whether BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) can be considered as a form of sub-imperialism or not. We use a limited form of the concept and focus on connections between the BRICS countries and education in southern Africa - specifically South Africa and Mozambique. Drawing on selected secondary and primary sources, we argue that while South Africa fulfils some of the criteria of a ‘dependent regional sub-centre with influence,' relationships in education between BRICS members and Mozambique are not extensive, although displaying similar characteristics to the `aid colonialism' of traditional donors. The article explores modalities of involvement and shows that even in the case of South Africa educational relationships do not yet appear to extend to policy. However, policy accommodation is a key dimension of these relationships.

Integrating refugees through ‘flexible housing’ policy in The Netherlands

The Dutch government recently introduced ‘flexwonen’ (flexible housing) to accommodate refugees, with policymakers encouraging housing suppliers to rent modular houses under temporary contracts. These housing practices, nonetheless, ostensibly conflict with integration policy goals, as integration requires stability. Building on an analysis of policy discourses and interviews with central government and municipal actors, our research adopts a capability-based perspective to assess how policymakers and housing suppliers evaluate housing and integration prospects and securities. Our findings illustrate how national policy discourses emphasise opportunities offered through flexible housing, but also how the actual needs and unique circumstances of those being housed are overlooked. Consequently, local policy actors and housing providers report that they struggle with the implications of uncertain living conditions, with some refugees adapting better than others. This study underscores the importance of considering refugees’ ‘capabilities for integration’ in accommodation policies at all levels of governance.

'Patient' or 'professional'? Negotiating accommodations and identity in fieldwork education.

Despite legislation mandating accommodation policies in postsecondary education, support for students with disabilities is often not implemented within health and human services (HHS) education programs, particularly in fieldwork settings. As part of a Canada-wide study exploring the experiences of disabled students in 10 HHS programs, we examined how HHS students described their experiences accessing accommodations in fieldwork to understand how conceptions of disability relate to students' fieldwork experiences. Using a critical disability studies framework, we explored how HHS fieldwork education understands disability, accommodations and professional competence and what those understandings reveal about the discrepancy between mandated accommodations and what happens in practice. Thirty-five students requiring accommodations in HHS fieldwork education participated in interviews. Through a critical interpretive analysis of interview data, we developed first-person composite narratives to show the richness and complexity of the students' diverse, yet similar, subjective experiences with fieldwork accommodations. Two composite narratives demonstrate how conceptions of disability incommensurate with professional competence expectations influenced student experiences with disclosing disability and obtaining accommodations in fieldwork. Fear of stigma and having one's competence questioned, or having accommodation requests denied for being misaligned with professional expectations, demonstrate how HHS fieldwork education and practice are upheld by ableist systemic structures. The dominant medical model of disability in HHS education creates institutional barriers that require students to constantly (re)construct their 'professional' identity in relation to their 'patient' identity. This patient-professional identity construction relates to HHS professional competency standards and assumptions about what makes a 'good' professional. Suggestions include reworking competency standards and implementing critical pedagogical approaches to teach future and current HHS professionals to question both personal and practice assumptions. With institutional backing, such changes may support diversity within HHS and a culture shift toward more equitable education and health care.

Relationships Between Religious Commitment, Workplace Experiences, and Professional and Psychological Outcomes Among U.S. Muslim Physicians.

To examine relationships between religiosity, workplace discrimination, religious accommodation, and related professional and psychological outcomes among US Muslim physicians. In 2021, the authors surveyed 264 physicians from 3 U.S.-based Muslim clinician organizations. Religious commitment, as measured by multiple items, was evaluated as a possible predictor of workplace discrimination and accommodation; job turnover; career satisfaction; workplace motivation; and belonging, burnout, and depression. Bivariate regression models were used to identify possible significant relationships between predictor and outcome variables. Predictors with meaningful bivariate analyses were included in separate multivariate regression models for each outcome. Participants' mean age was 39.5 years (standard deviation, 10.03). Most were male (160/246; 65%), U.S.-born (146/244; 60%), completed medical school in the United States (190/243; 78%), and wore a beard/hijab (135/235; 57%). Participants identified as African American (40/247; 16%), Arab (55/247; 22%), South Asian (82/247; 33%), and White (70/247; 28%). Multivariate models demonstrated that religious importance was positively associated with discrimination from patients (odds ratio [OR] = 3.78; P = .02) and depression (OR = 5.36; P = .002), and negatively associated with prayer accommodation at work (OR = .20; P = .001). Engaging in congregational religious activities was negatively associated with discrimination from patients (OR = .64; P = .006) and job turnover (OR = .63; P = .02) and positively associated with accommodations for prayer (OR = 1.42; P = .008) and general religious identity accommodation (OR = 1.47; P = .01). Additionally, participant race and ethnicity were variably associated with these outcomes. This study demonstrates how religious identity may negatively associate with workplace experiences and well-being among U.S. Muslim physicians and highlights the buffering role of religious practice. It spotlights an urgent need for academic medical centers to ameliorate religious discrimination and implement workplace accommodation policies for Muslim physicians.

Persistence in power of long-lived parties

This paper presents a dynamic model of electoral competition in which parties are long-lived organizations. In each period, the incumbent chooses between two policies. The competitive policy yields a greater reelection probability, but absent electoral effects, the incumbent would prefer the accommodative policy. The analysis reveals that parties’ incentives to win reelection feed on themselves via a dynamic strategic complementarity effect: the incumbent’s incentives to prioritize reelection today increase if it expects its rival will prioritize reelection once in power. This complementarity effect is more relevant when competitiveness harms the opposition electorally- and policy-wise. As a result of this effect, checks and balances disincentivize parties’ competitiveness not only under divided governments but also when government is unified. Lastly, competitiveness is disincentivized by political turnover, party discipline, and parties’ impatience. The model applies both to settings of “virtuous” and “perverse” accountability, in which the competitive policy is socially better or worse, respectively.

The Lutheran Experience in the Ottoman Middle East: Stephan Gerlach (1546–1612) and the History of Lutheran Accommodation

Abstract This article examines what it meant to be Lutheran in the early modern Middle East. Its point of departure is a letter in which Stephan Gerlach, a sixteenth-century Lutheran chaplain to the imperial ambassador in Istanbul, asked his superiors about the type of behaviour that befitted him as a Lutheran. Was he allowed to wear a Turkish turban to see mosques and learn about Islam? Was it permissible for him in exceptional circumstances to accept communion under both kinds from a Roman Catholic monk? Was he allowed to postpone the Sunday sermon to attend Greek Orthodox ceremonies? Reconstructing how sixteenth-century Lutherans who had business in the early modern Middle East tried to resolve such issues not only affords new insights into the Lutheran experience in the Ottoman Empire; it also raises a set of fundamental questions about late sixteenth-century Lutheranism itself. Did Lutherans in this period develop forms of religious accommodation similar to those of early modern Catholics? Did travel in the Eastern Mediterranean demand a more flexible and more fluid form of Lutheranism? Could one even adhere to Lutheranism’s core principles so far away from the place where the movement had first taken root? Through an examination of various Lutheran treatises and travelogues, I show that sixteenth-century Lutheranism did not develop an official policy of accommodation. Instead, Lutheran responses to questions about accommodation, (dis)simulation and conformity were often makeshift and idiosyncratic, because Lutheranism formulated little to no official guidance on the movement as a lived religion.

Ambivalent Subjects: The Ottoman State and Its Non-Sunni Muslim Population. Introduction to the Special Issue

ABSTRACT This thematic issue brings together articles on non-Sunni Muslim communities in the Ottoman Empire between the sixteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing on case studies from Bayrami-Melami, Kızılbaş, Nusayri and Twelver Shii contexts, the issue investigates the different modes in which the Ottoman state and these parts of its population encountered and perceived each other. At times severely persecuting them, the state also applied other, more accommodative measures towards these groups, which Sharia-minded Muslims may regard as ‘heretics’. This thematic issue explores the dynamics of these different relations between the state and these ambivalent subjects. Focusing on specific constellations of time and place and using a variety of sources from both local and central administration archives, the articles explore the historical context of the diverse policies of persecution and accommodation, collaboration and resistance that were implemented. The overall argument is for a perspective that historicizes Ottoman politics of difference in order to go beyond essentialist notions of timeless ‘heretics’ on the one hand and a seemingly monolithic, Sunni Muslim body politic on the other.

Calculator Provision as an Accommodation for the Canadian Forces Aptitude Test (CFAT)

The impact of calculator provision on the reliability and validity of a version of the Canadian Forces Aptitude Test—Problem Solving subtest was investigated in order to inform testing accommodation policy. Two hundred and fifty-four Canadian Armed Forces recruits undergoing basic training participated in the experimental research design, which consisted of a calculator and a no-calculator condition. Results supported that the convergent validity of the test was maintained in the calculator condition, as indicated by similar validity coefficients with other measures of cognitive ability in the two conditions; however, several items showed increased correct responding, and there was mixed support for criterion-related validity when calculators were provided. Additionally, the calculator condition moderated the relationship between calculator dependency and test performance, such that the relationship was positive in the calculator condition and negative in the no-calculator condition. Implications of these results with respect to accommodation policy are discussed, as well as additional research that would be beneficial in this area.

ECB Monetary Policy and the Term Structure of Bank Default Risk

Euro Area banks have been confronted with unprecedented monetary policy actions by the ECB. Monetary policy may affect bank risk profiles, but the consequences may differ for short-term risk versus long-term or structural bank risk. We empirically investigated the association between the ECB’s monetary policy stance and market-perceived short-term and long-term bank risk, using the term structure of default risk captured by bank CDS spreads. The results demonstrated that, during the period 2009–2020, ECB expansionary monetary policy diminished bank default risk in the short term. However, we did not observe a similar decline in long-term bank default risk, since we documented that monetary stimulus is associated with a steepening of the bank default risk curve. The reduction of bank default risk was most pronounced during the sovereign debt crisis and for periphery Euro Area banks. From 2018 onwards, monetary policy accommodation is associated with increased bank default risk, both short-term and structurally, which is consistent with the risk-taking hypothesis under which banks engage in excessive risk-taking behavior in their loan and securities portfolios to compensate profitability pressure caused by persistently low rates. The increase in perceived default risk is especially visible for banks with a high reliance on deposit funding.

OCR finds compliance issues with accommodation policy

Case name: Letter re: Bay Area Medical Academy, No. 09‐22‐2233 (04/12/23).

Drivers of inflation in the Greek economy

One of the hallmark achievements of modern central banking has been to quell high inflation. However, after over two decades of low inflation, a series of shocks, including the pandemic recession, supply bottlenecks, highly accommodative policy, and, perhaps most saliently, the war in Ukraine, have led to multi-decade inflation highs across most advanced economies. Understanding the ultimate causes of this inflation surge is vital for the proper design of policy, yet disentangling the various shocks is hard, particularly when they affect prices in the same direction. In this paper, we apply the novel shock decomposition framework of Shapiro (2022) to Greek data and estimate the contribution of supply and demand shocks to inflation developments over the recent episode, as well as for the 2001-2019 period. For the recent episode, we find that supply forces were slightly more important for headline inflation, but much more important for underlying inflation.

Sasak Boda Observed: The Preservation of Tebango Buddhists’ Cultural Heritage on Lombok Island, Indonesia

Although the government issued an accommodative policy protecting and supporting minority communities, statistics has shown a decline in the number of Buddhism followers in modern-day Lombok, Indonesia. This ethnographic study aims to reconsider the existence of a cultural heritage that provides sustainable values to community development. This study seeks to understand how the vernacular Buddhism of Sasak Boda in Tebango manages to strive as the minority and live their belief amid the dominating Sasak Muslim community. Data was collected through literature review, interviews, and observation. Findings indicate that the decline of Boda devotees in Dusun Tebango of Lombok in number has been affected by the public perception of the vernacular Buddhism movement. Despite such a reality becoming an anomaly in the discourses related to cultural heritage preservation, the Tebango Buddhists are capable of maintaining the tradition through customs that are tangible and intangible. This case signifies a premise that quantitative measurement alone is insufficient to study the sustainability of a local belief system such as the Sasak Boda. Consequently, this study argues that the state of maintainability and materiality of any culture act as determinant factors in the empowerment of locality-based communities.

A National Balance Sheet Approach to the Natural Rate of Interest

We present a new estimation method for the “natural” interest rate and estimate its value for the US economy from 1961 to 2020. Presuming theoretical balance between returns on national assets and cost of national capital, we use US balance sheet information to derive a “breakeven” or implicit fundamental risk-free rate. Because, unlike r-star (r*), our rate does not presume conditions of full employment, its value should generally be lower than that of r*. We find, however, that our rate has remained above r* for much of the past 25 years, suggesting that the Federal Reserve’s accommodative policy for the past two decades has been more aggressive than previously believed. Understanding the difference between our natural rate, r*, and current market rates is critical for proper decisions in the fixed income markets.

Dynamics of Macroeconomic Uncertainty on Economic Growth in the Presence of Fiscal Consolidation in South Africa from 1994 to 2022

This paper investigates the effects of macroeconomic uncertainty on economic growth in the presence of fiscal consolidation in South Africa. Markov-switching dynamic regression (MSDR) and time-varying parameter vector autoregression (TVP-VAR) were performed using time series data from 1994 to 2022. Less attention has been given directly to the investigation of macroeconomic uncertainty in different regimes of economic growth in South Africa. Three states are found for economic growth, with mean growth rates of negative 6.29% and positive 3.90% and 1.47%, respectively. Macroeconomic uncertainty was found to have a negative impact of 6.72%, 4.38%, and 3.08% in states 1 to 3, respectively. Fiscal consolidation provided an accommodative policy, as it reduced the negative impact of macroeconomic uncertainty by 3.17%, 1.80%, and 0.92% in states 1 to 3, respectively. However, fiscal consolidation does not completely reduce the negative impact of macroeconomic uncertainty. The transition probabilities of economic growth moving and returning to the same states are 29.46%, 34.07%, and 58.02%, in each state, respectively. The time-varying impulse response functions showed that the shock of macroeconomic uncertainty harms economic growth. Nevertheless, the multiplier effect is not large; however, the economy operates below equilibrium and does not restore equilibrium after the effect of macroeconomic uncertainty. This reflects that it takes time for macroeconomic uncertainty to filter out of the South African economy. It is recommended that fiscal consolidation be considered as an accommodative fiscal policy to reduce macroeconomic uncertainty but not as a main policy for economic growth.

Fed communication on financial stability concerns and monetary policy decisions: Revelations from speeches

This paper studies the informational content of speeches of Fed officials, focusing on financial stability, from 1997 to 2018. We construct indicators that measure the intensity and tone of this topic for both Governors and FRB presidents. When added to a standard forward-looking Taylor rule, a higher topic intensity or negative tone is associated with more monetary policy accommodation than implied by the state of the economy. Our results are mainly driven by the sample prior to the global financial crisis and the information in speeches of FRB presidents. We discuss several channels to account for these findings.

Quantitative easing in the US and financial cycles in emerging markets

Large international capital movements tend to be associated with strong fluctuations in asset prices and credit, contributing to domestic financial cycles and posing challenges for stabilization policies, especially in emerging market economies. In this paper we argue that these challenges are particularly severe if the global financial cycle is driven by quantitative easing (QE) in the US, and when the local banking sector has large holdings of government bonds, like in many Latin American (LA) countries. We first investigate empirically the impact of a typical round of QE by the US Fed on LA economies, finding a persistent expansion in credit to households and house prices, as well as a significant loss of price competitiveness. We next develop a quantitative macroeconomic model of a small open economy with segmented asset markets and banks, which accounts for these observations. In this framework, foreign QE creates tensions between macroeconomic and financial stability as a contractionary impact of exchange rate appreciation is accompanied by booming credit and house prices. As a consequence, conventional monetary policy accommodation aimed at stabilizing output and inflation would further exacerbate domestic financial cycle. We show that an effective way of resolving this trade-off is to impose measures that directly reduce the inflow of capital. Combining foreign exchange interventions with tightening of local credit policies can also restore macroeconomic and financial stability, but at the expense of a large redistribution of wealth between borrowers and savers.

Workplace accommodations during the COVID-19 pandemic: A scoping review of the impacts and implications for people with disabilities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread changes in the way people work. Some of these changes represent the same kinds of work modifications or adjustments that have often been requested as workplace accommodations, and which may improve labour market and employment outcomes for people with disabilities. The aim of this scoping review was to examine the literature on workplace accommodations in the pandemic and their impacts and implications for people with disabilities. Following a search of six international databases, articles were selected by two reviewers, and data were abstracted in accordance with scoping review methodology. A thematic analysis was used to report the relevant findings. Thirty-seven articles met the inclusion criteria, and three main themes were identified: positive impacts of pandemic-related workplace accommodations on people with disabilities (e.g., improved accessibility, reduced stigma around workplace accommodations, rapid implementation of workplace accommodations, opportunities for advocacy); negative impacts (e.g., worsened physical and mental health, new accommodation needs); and action needed and recommendations (e.g., revisit legislation and policy on accommodations, ensure representation of people with disabilities). Overall, our review identified a mixed assessment of the impacts of pandemic-related accommodations on people with disabilities. However, there was a broader consensus regarding the importance of learning from the experiences of the pandemic to improve workplace accommodation policies in the future. The pandemic may present opportunities for improving workplace accommodation policies, but our review also highlights the need for more research examining how workplace changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted people with disabilities.

The dynamics of Islamic education policies in Indonesia

Since Indonesia’s independence in 1945, policies related to Islamic education have undergone a shift from a domestication approach to an accommodation approach. This paper aims to examine the forms of government policies that have regulated Islamic education during this time period, and to analyze the underlying factors and consequences of these policies on Islamic education. This research employs a qualitative, historical approach, relying on a literature review for data. The findings indicate that the origins of the domestication policy can be traced to differences in views between the government and Muslims concerning the role of religion in state affairs, as well as the slow modernization of madrasas (Islamic schools) and pesantren (Islamic boarding schools), which led to a weak position for Islamic education within the national education system. On the other hand, the accommodative policy was influenced by a variety of factors, including the New Order regime’s efforts to strictly and consistently implement Pancasila as the state ideology; the need to maintain power by appealing to the majority Muslim population; the intellectual transformation of a new generation of Muslim political thinkers and activists towards a more harmonious relationship between Islam and the state, allowing for Islamic ideas to be more easily accepted; and the increased social, educational, economic, and political mobilization of Muslims, which allowed for more educated Muslims to be involved in policymaking.