Disability Culture in West Africa: Qualitative Research Indicating Barriers and Progress in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana

In 2006, Ghana passed a Disability Rights Bill which proposes that by 2016 Ghana will provide disabled persons in the country with a variety of services and equal employment opportunities. This article presents interviews conducted with community leaders from the Greater Accra region of Ghana in 2009, examining the current views of persons with disabilities in the country. Using qualitative analytic methods, these interviews were coded for themes and examined in relation to historical perceptions of disabled persons in Ghana. The results suggest that there appears to be a growing acceptance that people with disabilities have rights as human beings and that the Disability Rights Bill is a positive step in the right direction for Ghana. There was no consensus, however, on what these basic rights entail, and who is responsible for enforcing and funding new policies. A potential barrier to progress included non-biologically based beliefs about what causes disability, which were reported to resonate strongly with many Ghanaians. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.