Vulnerability

Persons with disability, according to the Compendium of Statistical Standards, Variables and Concepts for Official Statistics in Ghana, is defined as those who are unable to or are restricted in the performance of specific tasks/activities due to loss of function of some part of the body as a result of impairment or malformation. The scope of protection for people with disabilities in employment focuses on the effect of a disability on the person in relation to the working environment, and not on the diagnosis or the impairment.

People are considered as Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) when they meet all the criteria in the definition: i. Having a physical or mental impairment; ii. Which is long term or recurring; and iii. Which substantially limits their prospects of entry into and advancement in employment (Persons with Disability Act, 2006 Act 715). This chapter analyses the population with disability, type of disability and distribution of disability by type of locality and level of education in Mamprugu Moagduri District.

Population with Disability

The total population of Mamprugu Moagduri District is 46,894 and 1.4 percent are persons with disability (PWDs). Since the district is entirely rural in character, no comparison is made by type of locality i.e., urban and rural. From Table 6.1, a slightly higher proportion of the males (1.5%) than the females (1.2%) suffer from some form of disability in the district.

Type of Disability

Table 6.1 shows the types of disability in the district by sex. The commonest types of disability in the district are sight, hearing, speech, physical, intellect and emotion. It is possible that some of the persons with disabilities could suffer from more than one type of disability. Table 6.1 shows that Sight is by far the commonest type of disability (51.2%) in the district, followed by hearing (20.2%), physical (17.2%), and speech (12.1%). Emotional disability has the lowest proportion of 6.8 percent in the district. With respect to the male and female disability population, sight is the most prevalent with 48.3 percent and 54.8 respectively and the lowest being emotional disability which represented 6.8 percent of all persons with disability in the district.

Table 6.1 further shows that the proportion of males with speech (14.4%) and physical (18.6%) disability is higher than their male counterparts. In contrast, however, a higher proportion of the females suffer from sight (54.6%) and hearing (21.4%) disabilities compared to the males (48.3% and 19.2% respectively).

Disability and Economic Activity

Table 6.2 shows the distribution of the population 15 years and older by sex, disability type and economic activity status in the district. The table shows that, of the 482 persons 15 years and older who have some form of disability, 52.9 percent are employed, 0.8 percent are unemployed and 46.3 percent are economically not active. Persons with sight disability suffer more from economic inactivity compared to others with other disabilities. This is because a little more than half of persons with sight disability (50.6%) are reported to be economically not active compared to less than half of those with other disabilities.

The females with sight disabilities report a much higher proportion of economical inactivity (60.6%) compared to their male counterparts (39.6%). Approximately 49 percent of persons with sight disability are employed compared to about 76 percent and 62.1 percent among persons suffering from speech and intellectual disabilities respectively.

The proportion of persons with emotional disability who are employed is also quite high (76.9%). Table 6.2 further indicates that the proportion of male PWDs who are employed (64.7%) are far higher than that among females (38.0%). For each of the disabilities, females are more likely to be economically inactive compared to the males. Unemployment is also relatively higher among females with some disabilities compared to their male counterparts.

Disability, Education and Literacy According to United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, persons with disabilities should be guaranteed the right to inclusive education at all levels, regardless of age, without discrimination and on the basis of equal opportunity.

In Ghana, Article 17 of the Disability Act 2006 (Act 712) states that the Minister of Education shall by Legislative Instrument designate schools or institutions in each region which shall provide the necessary facilities and equipment that will enable persons with disability to fully benefit from the school or institution and Article 18 of the Act states the Government shall i. provide free education for a person with disability and ii. establish special schools for persons with disability who by reason of their disability cannot be enrolled in formal schools. 41 Table 6.3 presents data on population 3 years and older by sex, disability type and level of education in the district. According to Table 6.3, there are 603 persons who are three years and older with disability in the district.

A total of 83.1 percent of persons with disability have never attended school, 4.1 percent attended pre-school, 9.6 percent has basic school, one percent has secondary school and 1.3 holds post-secondary school education. No PWD in the district has attended a vocational/technical/commercial school or tertiary level education. It is clear that PWDs have lower education compared to their counterparts with no disabilities. For example, 83.1 percent of PWDs have no education compared to 66.9 percent among others with no disabilities.

Among PWDs, those with sight and hearing disabilities have the highest proportion never attended school (87.9% and 87.2% respectively) compared to their counterparts with speech disability with the lowest proportion of 72.1 percent never attended school. Basic school appears to be the highest level of education acquired among those who have attended school in the district and this again varies by disability status where 23.1 percent of persons with no disability had basic school education compared to just about 10 percent of others with disabilities. 

Persons with disability and educational attainment by sex

 
Table 6.3 further shows that females with any form of disability have relatively lower education compared to their male counterparts. For example, while 81.7 percent of the males have never attended any school, 84.9 percent of the females have not done so. Furthermore, 10.4 percent of males with disabilities have basic school education, 3.3 percent have attended secondary school while 1.2 percent have gone up to post-secondary. This compares with 8.7 percent and 1.5 percent of the females with basic and secondary level education respectively with none of them going beyond secondary school. It is also to be noted that females are more disadvantaged relative to males among each group of persons with some disability.