Disability
Introduction

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) define disability “as an umbrella term for impairments, activity limitations or participation restrictions” and embrace at least three dimensions: body, individual and society (WHO, 2001). The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) states that, “persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others” (United Nations, 2006).

The 2010 PHC defined Persons with disabilities (PWDs) 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 (Ghana Statistical Service, 2012). Disability is any impairment that affects the ability to work or perform an activity in a manner considered normal.

The chapter analyses data on Persons with Disability (PWDs) in the Sekyere Afram Plains District. In the 2010 PHC, data were collected on the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of persons with disability in the country. It explores issues on the population with disability, types of disability, disability and economic activity, education and literacy in the District. The primary goal of collecting data on people with disabilities is to identify strategies to improve their well-being.

Population with Disability

Table 6.1 shows that there are 610 persons living with various types of disability in the District, representing 2.1 percent of the population in the District; and is lower than the regional figure of 2.6 percent.. The male and female PWDs respectively are 2.2 percent and 2.0 percent of the total male and female population in the District (see Table 6.1).

Types of Disability

Table 6.1 further discloses that visual or sight impairment is the most common type of disability in the District accounting for 36.6 percent, followed by physical disability (21.8%) and hearing impairment (21.5%). The other forms of disability recorded the least (10.3%) among the types of disability. In terms of sex, visual impairment remains the most common form of disability among males (32.6%) and females (41.4%). This is followed by physical disability (24.9%) for females and speech (21.4%) among males.

Disability and Economic Activity

Table 6.2 presents information on persons with disability, 15 years and older by economic activity status. The Table shows that 68.2 percent of the PWDs, 15 years and older are employed, 0.5 percent are unemployed and 31.4 percent are economically not active. All the persons with the disability types have more than half of their members being employed. Type of disability with most of their members being economically not active is physical (41.9%), followed by sight (39.0%) and Intellectual (31.1%). Unemployment is high among intellectual (2.2%) and other forms of disability (2.2%). The proportion of the male disability who are employed is high (73.2%) compare to 61.8 percent of the females. Intellectual disability has high (4.8%0 proportion of unemployment among male PWDs whilst that of the female is physical (2.6%). The Table further shows that physical disability has high economically not active males (36.6%) and females (46.2%).

Disability and Education

The distribution of persons 3 years and older with disability in the Sekyere Afram Plains is depicted in Table 6.3. The data reveals that 62.6 percent of persons with some form of disability has never attended school, 30.6 percent have attended basic school, 3.6 percent have attended primary and additional 3.2 percent have attended SHS or higher. From the Table more than half of the all the persons of the various types of disability have attended basic education. The Table further reveals that more of the persons with sight disability (5.2%) are likely to attend SHS or higher education, followed by speech impairment (4.0%) with least being those with emotional disability (1.2%). The Table indicates that the proportion of disability males who have no formal education (63.6%) is slightly higher than the females (61.4%). Similarly, disability males, 3 years and older who have attended SHS or higher is higher 3.8%).