Methodology

The purpose of this chapter is to examine how disability is to analyze the factors accounting for the nonenforcement of the Ghana Disability Act since its adoption in 2006. Data was generated through personal interviews with thirteen Ghanaian activists of the disability movement between 2016 and 2017, a content analysis of official policy documents of the state, and a review of secondary literature. The policy documents reviewed include the National Disability Act 715, the 1992 Constitution, the National Disability Policy adopted in 2000, official documents of the Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations (GFDO), the Ghana Blind Union, the Ghana National Association of the Deaf (GNAD), the Ghana Society of the Physically Disabled (GSPD), and media reports. In addition, I relied on my field experience (acquired between 2008 and 2012) in the disability sector during my role as former director of GNAD and a research and information officer of the GFDO.

Background of Disability Policy in Ghana

In postindependence Ghana, the genesis of disability policy can be traced to the early 1960s, when Kwame Nkrumah's Convention's People's Party (CPP) adapted the British social orthopedics model of rehabilitation. As a disability policy, the central objective of the social orthopedics model is to make the disabled population employable. The initiative of the government was informed by the outcome of national surveys in the 1950s that showed that the majority of street beggars were persons with disabilities (PWDs). Thus, between 1961 and 1966, the integration of PWDs into the workforce became the central focus of National Disability Policy. This was coupled with emphasis on special education. The Education Act of 1961, for instance, made provision for the special needs of PWDs. Besides, the rehabilitation policy of the CPP government encompassed the generation of a database of PWD, the establishment of Rural Community Rehabilitation Centers with Urban Industrial Rehabilitation Units (IRUs), and the employment of graduates of the community rehabilitation centers by the IRUs.