Disability and Education

Accessibility to quality education is a precondition for the development of any person and paves the way for self-reliance, empowerment and social integration. For persons with disabilities, quality and special education is not always available. According to a study in 1998 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the global literacy rate for adults with disabilities was a mere 3 per cent and only 1 per cent for women with disabilities.[1]  In OECD member countries, higher rates of disability are found among persons with lower educational attainment.[2]  In the Arab region, educational systems continue to exclude as much as 95 per cent of the school-age population at the primary level, and virtually the entire disabled population at the university level.[3]  In Jordan, for example, the illiteracy rate among persons with disabilities is 30.5 per cent, compared to a national average of 9.3 per cent; only 4.2 per cent of persons with disabilities have a university degree; and participation in vocational training is very low.[4]

Another important challenge facing the inclusion of persons with disabilities in educational facilities is their heterogeneity as a group. Specifically, a disability can relate to a physical, sensory, intellectual or psychological affliction; and could have been acquired during conception or later in life as a result of disease, accident or work – related injury.  Consequently, different types and severities of disability affect learning and the working capacities of persons with disabilities, thereby impacting the extent of their integration into society.