Implementing the World Report on Disability in Malaysia: A student-led service to promote knowledge and innovation

The lead article by Wylie, McAllister, Davidson, and Marshall (2013) puts forward pertinent issues facing the speechlanguagepathology profession raised by the World Report on Disability. This paper continues the discussion by reportingon a capacity building action research study on the development, implementation, and evaluation of a new approach to earlyintervention speech-language pathology through clinical education in Malaysia. This research evaluated a student-led servicein community-based rehabilitation that supplemented existing and more typical institution-based services. A Malaysiancommunity-based rehabilitation project was chosen due to its emphasis on increasing the equitability and accessibility ofservices for people with disabilities which was a catalyst for this research. Also, expanding awareness-building, education,and training activities about communication disability was important. The intention was to provide students with experienceof working in such settings, and facilitate their development as advocates for broadening the scope of practice of speechlanguagepathology services in Malaysia. This article focuses on the fi ndings pertaining to the collaborative process and thelearning experiences of the adult participants. Through refl ection on the positive achievements, as well as some failures, itaims to provide deeper understanding of the use of such a model.