Information was collected on persons with visual/sight impairment, hearing and speech impairment, physical disability, mental retardation, emotional challenges or behavioural disorders and other challenges.

Table 6.1 shows that sight disability recorded the highest proportion (37.0%) of persons with disability, followed by physical (24.1%) and emotional disability (19.2%). The other forms of disabilities are hearing (18.1%), intellectual (16.9%), speech (15.8%) and others (11.9%).

Out of a total male (disabled) population of 1008, 37.3 percent has sight disability, compared to physical (23.1%), emotional (19.5%), intellect (18.3%), speech (18.0%), hearing (17.1%) and others (11.7%).

The female disabled population (735) in the district has sight (36.6%) as the highest proportion compared to physical (25.4%), hearing (19.6%), emotional (18.8%), intellect (15.0%), speech (12.8%) and others (12.1%).

Figure 6.1 shows the percentage distribution of the population by type of disability. It shows that sight disability is the commonest disability in the district.

Distribution by Type of Locality

Figure 6.2 shows the distribution of disability by type of locality. It is observed that, the proportions of persons with sight (36.7%), physical (23.7%) and intellectual (16.2%) disabilities are higher in the urban areas while sight (37.1%), physical (24.2%) and emotional (19.8%) disabilities are higher in the rural areas.

Disability and Economic Activity

Table 6.2 presents the economic activity status of persons with disability by sex for persons 15 years and older. For all types of disability in the district, a total population of 1,435 is disabled. 69.0 percent of disabled persons in the district are economically active with the rest (31.0%) being economically inactive. Within the disabled economically active population,

almost one percent (0.9%) is in the unemployed class with 99.1 percent of economically active population employed. For both sexes, 1.1 percent of the physically disabled persons are unemployed compared to 98.1 percent who are employed. The table also shows 23.1 percent of the population with hearing disability is economically not active.

Table 6.2 further indicates that there is a total of 29,428 males representing 51.8 percent compared to 27,411 females representing 48.2 percent. The percentage for disabled males who are employed is 99.3 percent compared to 98.7 percent of disabled females who are employed). Similarly, disabled males who are unemployed compared to disabled females who are unemployed females are 0.7 and 1.3 percent respectively in the district.

Among the male population, persons with sight disability recorded 39.2 percent employed, 50.0 percent unemployed and 32.1 percent economically inactive. For hearing disability 17.4 percent is economically not active while 0.0 percent and 10.1 percent are employed and unemployed respectively. The remaining forms of disability (physical, intellectual, speech, emotional and others) cumulatively account for less than 60.0 percent employed, 1.0 percent unemployed and about 90.0 percent economically inactive.

Female persons with sight disability recorded 40.1 percent employed, 40.0 percent unemployed and 30.0 percent economically inactive. Also, persons with hearing disability recorded, 19.8 percent employed, 0.03 percent unemployed and 2.6 percent economically inactive.

Disability, Education and Literacy

Table 6.3 shows population 3 years and older by sex, disability type and level of education in the district. The total disabled persons 3 years and older is 1,700 with (57.4%) male and (42.6%) female. Of the disabled persons in the district, 38.9 percent have never attended school, 42.1 with basic education and only 5.8 with Sec/SHS and higher in the district. The table reveals that 65 percent of persons who have never been to school are with speech disability whiles 43.7 percent who have basic education are with sight disability.

With respect to the sex, males constituting 58.8 percent who have never been to school have speech disability as against 46.8 percent who have never been to school have sight disability in the district. Again 11.8 percent males with Sec/SHS and higher education have physical disability. With respect to females the situation is not different, in that the table shows that 76.3 percent females with speech disability have never been to school, 39.4 percent with sight disability have basic education whiles 2.7 percent with physical disability are having Sec/SHS and higher education in the district.