Editorial

Editorial: African Journal of Disability 2025

Aimee V. Stewart

Copyright: © 2025. The Author(s). Licensee: AOSIS.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

This is my first editorial since taking over as the editor-in-chief of the African Journal of Disability in January 2025. This was an awesome undertaking, and I am certainly standing on the shoulders of all those who conceptualised this journal and got it to the place where it is today.

My task, therefore, is to continue their good work and to build on it so that the journal continues to play an important role in disability research. To do that we, the editorial team, must continually ensure that we publish good-quality studies so that the scientific value of the journal continues to rise. By doing so we will continue to attract good researchers in the field of disability studies. We not only want to attract local researchers but also encourage researchers from the rest of the African continent and further afield.

In 2025 readers have the choice of reading articles that include the voices of those with disabilities; community-oriented primary healthcare; environmental and work factors affecting those with disabilities and caregiving issues affecting their families.

To ensure that our submissions are of good quality, we have introduced appropriate checklists for each kind of study so that authors can do their own checking of their articles. This enables them to see the level of compliance with accepted protocols for different studies. In addition, we are reviewing the type of submissions accepted by the journal to see which are no longer required in a scientific journal and if there could be additional article types that may attract established researchers in this field.

We have two special issues planned for this year. They have been carefully reviewed and edited by guest editors who have ensured these special editions will be of interest to our readers. There are:

• A Festschrift for Prof. Leslie Swartz edited by Liekeseng Ned and Brian Watermeyer
• Disability, spirituality and belonging edited by Chioma Ohajunwa

We have many submissions as described above that highlight the impact of different situations in rehabilitation, all levels of education and the workplace on those with disabilities. The current situation in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent as well as further afield has been well described.

The challenge now is what do we do about these situations? What we now need are large-scale intervention studies (with people with disabilities included at all stages of the studies) that describe how different possible interventions to improve the lives of people with disabilities are being tested. In other words, can we as researchers in the field of disability develop interventions that start to make a difference? So, my call to our researchers is to submit intervention studies to the journal to increasingly show the development in improving the lives of those with disability. The obvious next step is the translation of studies into practice.

As we reach the end of our publication year, I would like to record my sincere thanks to the section editors for their diligence in organising reviewers and in editing submissions. In addition, the remarkable team at AOSIS needs my sincere thanks for their ongoing support. Finally, to our conscientious reviewers – thank you, as without you there would not be a journal.

My best wishes to all our readers, authors, reviewers, section editors and publishers. May next year be even more successful for our journal.