Lancaster University Ghana holds conference on disability

Dr Matthew Opoku-Prempeh, the Minister of Education will deliver a special address at the Lancaster University Ghana’s 4th Annual Multidisciplinary Conference on Disability and Development in Accra.

The conference scheduled Friday, March 15, is to consider ways to make Ghana an enabling environment for Persons with Disability, their families and their caregivers.

The theme for year’s event is: “Disability and Development: Education, Employment and Economic Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.”

A statement issued in Accra by the by Maame Yaa Barnes, the Convenor, said the conference was to make Ghana an enabling environment for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) to lead dignified and meaningful lives.

It said the conference provides a platform for vigorous and intellectually stimulating discourse from advocates, policymakers, and academics from various disciplines including healthcare practice, law, psychology, business and ICT.

The statement said Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, would be the Chairman for the occasion with Mr Yaw Debrah, Chairman of the National Council on Persons with Disability, delivering the keynote address.

It said the theme explores another important element of inclusion- socio-economic rights and conditions of PWDs and their families and caregivers, as an essential ingredient of Ghana's development.

“It will provide an opportunity to expose unique challenges that Persons with Disabilities and their families face with regards to inclusive and special education, employability, access to appropriate work environments, amongst others,” it said.

The statement said with rigorous multidisciplinary research, the conference seeks to be progressive and useful not only in shedding light on the economic hardships of PWDs and their families, but also proposing concrete ways of promoting and safeguarding their socio-economic rights, in order to encourage a holistic approach to Ghana’s development.

Several papers will be presented at this conference and each highlights on a key thematic area including: pedagogy and educational resources, inclusive education, different forms access barriers for PWDs, challenges faced by parents, teachers and other facilitators of education, law and policy in respect of education, labour and employment and financial independence of PWDs as a question of fundamental human rights.