Overview of disability

Some PWDs

Disability is an inescapable human condition and at one point or another, almost every person is exposed to, and may experience temporal or permanent disability (WHO & World Bank, 2011). 

Disability evokes different social constructions depending on the setting in which the concept is used. It is neither a straightjacket social nor a biological construct; instead, it is often hinged on the interactions among health, environmental and personal factors (WHO & World Bank, 2011).

Disability can occur at three levels: impairment in body function or structure; a limitation in activity, such as the inability to read or move around; a restriction in participation, such as exclusion from school or work. 

As such, people with disability include those who are traditionally understood as disabled (for example wheelchair users, people who are blind or deaf or people with intellectual impairments), and people who experience difficulties in functioning due to a wide range of health conditions such as chronic diseases, severe mental disorders, multiple sclerosis and old age (WHO, 2013).

The 2004 Global Burden of Diseases (the most recent) report estimated that about 978 million, thus about 15.3% of the world’s population had moderate or severe disability while about 3% (185 million) had severe disability.

The burden of disability was higher among those aged 15 and above. For those under 15 years, moderate and severe disabilities were 5.1% and 0.7% respectively whereas for those 15 and over years, moderate and severe disabilities were 19.4% and 3.8% respectively (WHO & World Bank, 2011). 

The regional distribution shows that the African region reported slightly the highest proportion of people with severe disability, around 3.1% while the Americas reported 2.6% as the least. Overall disability (severe and moderate) records placed the European region with the highest proportion - 16.4% whereas the Eastern Mediterranean reported the minimum.

With fertility declining in most parts of the world and the ageing population, age-related disability is rising and is predicted to rise in the coming decades. National patterns of disability are influenced by trends in health conditions, environmental and other factors - such as road traffic crashes, natural disasters, conflict, diet and substance abuse. 

Disability disproportionately affects vulnerable populations, in particular, women, older people and people that are poor. Low-income countries have a higher prevalence of disability than high-income countries (WHO, 2013).

In terms of life outcomes, disabled people have some of the worst outcomes in health, education, economic and work activity participation, and higher rates of poverty and vulnerability (WHO & World Bank 2011).

 With the coming into operation in 2008 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the disability “industry” is flourishing and it is been increasingly recognized as a developmental and human rights imperative rather than health situation.

The barriers and challenges disabled people encounter in their routine lives are far greater than those encountered by people who are not disabled. 

These obstacles are manifested through access to health services (rehabilitation services inclusive), education, transport, and employment and these barriers are worsened by inadequate policies and standards, stigma and discrimination against people with disability, inadequate funding, inappropriate technologies and formats for information and communication, and lack of participation in decisions that directly affect their lives. 

In this report, the main preoccupation is to provide a detailed analysis of prevalence of disabilities, that is, visual, physical, speech, hearing, emotional and intellectual in Ghana.

Ref: GSS (October 2014)