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Disability, gender, and employment relationships in Africa: The case of Ghana

NAAMI, Augustina
2015

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The exploratory quantitative study sought to develop an understanding about the relationships among disability, gender and employment in Northern Ghana. A total of 110 individuals with disabilities (20–60 years) from various disability groups participated in the study. The results indicate that many persons with disabilities are unemployed, the majority being women. Discrimination is cited as the greatest barrier to the employment of persons with disabilities, particularly women. The majority of persons with disabilities, typically women, live in poverty; given that some are unemployed and those who are employed worked mostly in marginal, seasonal and menial jobs. Persons with disabilities also experience several challenges on the job, including negative perceptions about their capabilities, discrimination and exclusion, irrespective of the employment sector and disability type. Educational interventions such as workshops, documenting and showcasing success stories of persons with disabilities could be helpful to reduce negative perceptions about their capabilities as well as discrimination against them. Government intervention to support persons with disabilities with start-up capital and funding for formal education is also recommended as these two elements were identified respectively as barriers to self-employment and employment in the public/private sectors. Government interventions to create educational opportunities for persons with disabilities are essential given that lower educational attainment affect their employment.

The complexity of rural contexts experienced by community disability workers in three southern African countries

BOOYENS, Margaret
VAN PLETZEN, Ermien
LORENZO, Theresa
2015

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An understanding of rural communities is fundamental to effective community-based rehabilitation work with persons with disabilities. By removing barriers to community participation, persons with disabilities are enabled to satisfy their fundamental human needs. However, insufficient attention has been paid to the challenges that rural community disability workers (CDWs) face in trying to realise these objectives. This qualitative interpretive study, involving in-depth interviews with 16 community disability workers in Botswana, Malawi and South Africa, revealed the complex ways in which poverty, inappropriately used power and negative attitudes of service providers and communities combine to create formidable barriers to the inclusion of persons with disabilities in families and rural communities. The paper highlights the importance of understanding and working with the concept of ‘disability’ from a social justice and development perspective. It stresses that by targeting attitudes, actions and relationships, community disability workers can bring about social change in the lives of persons with disabilities and the communities in which they live.

The prevalence of self-reported vision difficulty in economically disadvantaged regions of South Africa

NAIDOO, Kovin S
JAGGERNATH, Jyoti
RAMSON, Prasidh
CHINANAYI, Farai
ZHUWAU, Tom
ØVERLAND, Lene
2015

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Background: Vision impairment, resulting in vision difficulties, is a leading cause of disability, and hence one of the key barriers for people to access education and employment, which may force them into poverty.

 

Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of self-reported vision difficulties as an indicator of vision impairment in economically disadvantaged regions in South Africa, and to examine the relationship between self-reported vision difficulties and socio-economic markers of poverty, namely, income, education and health service needs.

 

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in economically disadvantaged districts to collect data from households on poverty and health, including vision difficulty. As visual acuity measurements were not conducted, the researchers used the term vision difficulty as an indicator of vision impairment. Data were collected from 27 districts (74 901 respondents). Logistic regression analysis and chi-square tests were used to determine bivariate relationships between variables and self-reported vision difficulty. Kernel density estimators were used for age, categorised by self-reported and not reported vision difficulty.

 

Results: Prevalence of self-reported vision difficulty was 11.2% (95% CI, 8.7% – 13.7%). More women (12.7%) compared to men (9.5%) self-reported vision difficulty (p < 0.01). Self-reported vision difficulty was higher (14.2%) for respondents that do not spend any money. A statistically significant relationship was found between the highest level of education and self-reporting of vision difficulty; as completed highest level of education increased, self-reporting of vision difficulty became lower (p < 0.01). A significantly higher prevalence of self-reported vision difficulty was found in respondents who are employed (p < 0.01), 17% (95% CI: 12.8% – 21.1%).

 

Conclusion: The evidence from this study suggests associations between socio-economic factors and vision difficulties that have a two-fold relationship (some factors such as education, and access to eye health services are associated with vision difficulty whilst vision difficulty may trap people in their current poverty or deepen their poverty status). The results are thus indicative of the need for further research in South Africa.

Being black in a white skin: Beliefs and stereotypes around albinism at a South African university

PHATOLI, Relebohile
BILA, Nontembeko
ROSS, Eleanor
2015

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Background: Partly because of the legacy of apartheid, and despite being a constitutional democracy, South Africa continues to be a deeply divided society, particularly along racial lines. In this context many people with albinism do not fit neatly into black and white categories and are likely to experience social discrimination and marginalisation.

 

Objectives: The study endeavoured to explore the beliefs and practices regarding albinism within a South African university, and the availability of support services.

 

Method: The research was located within an interpretive qualitative paradigm and was framed within the theories of stigma, discrimination and ‘othering’. Interviews were conducted with five students with albinism and 10 students without albinism.

 

Results: Findings confirmed the existence of myths and stereotypes regarding albinism. Students with albinism tended to exclude themselves from the rest of the student community to avoid discrimination and stereotypes around their condition.

 

Conclusion: People with albinism can teach us about social constructions of race, colour and relations between minority groups and the majority culture. Results have implications for schools, disability units at universities, and albinism societies in terms of opening up channels of communication between people with albinism and the general public and fostering knowledge and awareness thereof.

Deaf identities in a multicultural setting: The Ugandan context

MUGEERE, Anthony B
ATEKYEREZA, Peter
KIRUMIRA, Edward K
HOJER, Staffan
2015

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Often located far apart from each other, deaf and hearing impaired persons face a multiplicity of challenges that evolve around isolation, neglect and the deprivation of essential social services that affect their welfare and survival. Although it is evident that the number of persons born with or acquire hearing impairments in later stages of their lives is increasing in many developing countries, there is limited research on this population. The main objective of this article is to explore the identities and experiences of living as a person who is deaf in Uganda. Using data from semi-structured interviews with 42 deaf persons (aged 19–41) and three focus group discussions, the study findings show that beneath the more pragmatic identities documented in the United States and European discourses there is a matrix of ambiguous, often competing and manifold forms in Uganda that are not necessarily based on the deaf and deaf constructions. The results further show that the country’s cultural, religious and ethnic diversity is more of a restraint than an enabler to the aspirations of the deaf community. The study concludes that researchers and policy makers need to be cognisant of the unique issues underlying deaf epistemologies whilst implementing policy and programme initiatives that directly affect them. The upper case ‘D’ in the term deaf is a convention that has been used since the early 1970s to connote a ‘socially constructed visual culture’ or a linguistic, social and cultural minority group who use sign language as primary means of communication and identify with the deaf community, whereas the lower case ‘d’ in deaf refers to ‘the audio logical condition of hearing impairment’. However, in this article the lower case has been used consistently.

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