Disability

Introduction

People with disabilities in Ghana are often regarded as unproductive and incapable of contributing positively to society, and rather seen as constituting an economic burden on the family and the society at large. In Ghana, there are rarely strong associations that actively work to improve the living conditions of people living with disabilities. A number of national policies and strategies have been targeting and including the needs of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), either individually in the different sectors or as cross-cutting issues in national programmes. PWDs in Ghana are subjected to various forms of exclusion, discrimination and stigmatization.

This chapter discusses the percentage of the population of the district that is disabled and the predominant forms of disability in the district, namely; sight, hearing, physical, emotional, etc. This will in turn inform and direct policy makers in the formulation of policies.

Population with Disability

Table 6.1 shows PWDs in the district by sex and locality of residence. From the Table, there are 1,364 persons with various forms of disability in the district with 2.1 percent of males and 1.9 percent of females being PWDs. There are more males than females in all the disability types. The Table further shows sight disability (38.9%) has the highest proportion of PWDs followed by physical disability (26.3%). Persons with emotional disability (13.5%) are least. All other forms of disabilities not included in the six common types constitute 7.7 percent of disabilities in the district.

Type of Disability

Table 6.1 again shows the types of disabilities in the Wassa Amenfi Central district by sex. The information presented suggests that some of them could suffer from more than one disability at the same time. The Table clearly shows that sight is the most common type of disability in the district either among the males (40.4%) or females (37.1%). This is followed by physical disability. There is virtually no difference between the proportion of the population represented by persons with hearing (16.7%), speech (16.4%) and intellectual (16.2%) disabilities in the district. The Table also shows that while the proportion of persons with sight and speech disabilities is higher among males than females, the reverse is true for hearing, physical, intellectual and emotional disabilities.

Distribution of Persons with Disability by type of locality

There are far more PWDs in rural (1,281) than urban (83) areas in the district.This is because the district has a much larger rural than urban population. The Table also shows that sight impairment and physical disability are the most common types of disability among either urban or rural populations. However, the proportions with speech, intellectual, hearing and emotional disabilities are much higher in the rural areas compared to the urban areas. In contrast, other forms of disabilities are higher in the urban (25.3%) than the rural (6.6%) areas.

Disability and Education

According to the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, PWDs should be guaranteed the right to inclusive education at all levels, regardless of age, without discrimination and on the basis of equal opportunity. There are 1,313 persons with disability aged three years and older in the District. Table 6.3 presents data on population three years and older by sex, disability type and level of education. The Table shows that 41.4 percent of persons with disability in the District have never been to school as compared with 25.3 percent of those without disability who have never been to school. A total of 47.1 46

percent of persons with disability in the District have basic education (primary, JSS/JHS or middle school) compared to 56.4 percent of those without disability. Less than 10.0 percent (7.0%) of persons with disability have secondary/SHS or higher education as against 7.6 percent of persons without disability.

A  higher proportion of females with disability (54.6%) than their male counterparts (30.3%) have never attended school and 36.0 percent of the females attained basic education as compared to 56.5 percent for their male counterparts.