Introduction

Persons with disabilities (PwDs) are indisputably one of the most marginalized groups in all societies around the world. The majority of them are poor and record low outcomes in education, employment, health, and political participation (World Health Organization [WHO], 2011). There is a positive correlation between disability and poverty: each can be a cause and a consequence of the other (Braithwaite and Mont, 2009; Filmer, 2008; Mitra, 2006; Trani and Loeb, 2010). Although the challenges faced by PwDs are global phenomena, they are worse for those in the Global South than the Global North, including countries in Africa (WHO, 2011). In Cameroon, PwDs encounter discrimination in all spheres of life, and their access to socio-economic resources, such as education, employment and healthcare, is limited. They often start school at older ages than their colleagues without disabilities, and they have a much higher tendency to drop out. The majority of children with disabilities (CwDs) who manage to access education do so in special schools, which are often poorly resourced and have weak capacities to meet their needs (WHO, 2011). As a result, PwDs have fewer educational qualifications and are more likely to be unemployed. When employed, they usually perform menial jobs with meagre wages.

These issues are true globally, but they are especially stark in the Global South, as (for example) Mitra and Sambamoorthi (2009) show in their 2009 study on India, and as Trani and Loeb (2012) demonstrate in an interesting comparison of Afghanistan and Zambia. Other evidence from Africa includes, to name a few studies, Cramm, Lorenzo, and Nieboer's (2014) comparison of education and employment among South African YwDs and their peers and Échevin's (2013) analysis of discrimination in education and employment among PwDs in Cape Verde. The main factors leading to exclusion from mainstream activities include prejudice and stereotypical attitudes arising from misconceptions about disability, as well as beliefs that PwDs are less human than their counterparts without disabilities (Shier, Graham, and Jones, 2009). It is in recognition of the vulnerability of PwDs that the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 2006.