Children with disabilities in Eastern Africa face significant barriers to access education: a scoping review

ABSTRACT

The UN Conventions on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities urges the establishment of inclusive education and expansion of educational opportunities to maximize access to education among children with disabilities (CwDs). However, more than 90% of 150 million CwDs do not have access to education Rather, they are left without school participation, specifically in developing countries and low-income settings.

This scoping review aimed at discovering the literature available around the barriers and facilitators to accessing education for CwDs in low and lower-middle income countries in eastern Africa.

Medline, CINAHL, Global Health, ERIC, and Embase were searched. After a rigorous systematic search of peer reviewed articles, 188 articles were obtained, and 15 studies were included within this scoping review after iterative and constant readings and screenings of selected articles. A review of grey literature was also conducted and compared to the results gathered from the research literature.

In this paper, we report on a variety of barriers and facilitators to accessing education in low and lower-middle income countries in eastern Africa described by the literature. The study findings will inform inclusive education policy and practice, as well as future disability and inclusive education research.

KEYWORDS:

• Eastern Africa
• barriers
• children with disabilities
• access to education

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Ms. Paola Durando, Bracken Health Sciences Librarian, at Queen’s University for her support with searching the databases for our scoping review.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Molalign Adugna

Molalign Adugna has completed his PhD in rehabilitation science at Queen's University in December 2021. He is currently working as an assistant professor of Sociology at the University of Gondar in Ethiopia.

Setareh Ghahari

Dr. Setareh Ghahari is an Associate Professor at the School of Rehabilitation Therapy. She is an occupational therapist, and her research goal is improving access to services for marginalized populations.

Sheila Merkley

Sheila Merkley worked on this project as part of her Occupational Therapy degree and graduated in 2018. She is currently working as and Occupational Therapist in Whitehorse, Yukon.

Kelly Rentz

Kelly Rentz worked on this project as part of her Occupational Therapy Masters degree and graduated in 2018. Kelly is currently working as a Mental Health Therapist in Calgary, Alberta.