Background: Cerebral palsy (CP) is a non-progressive disorder of posture or movement caused by a lesion to the developing brain that results in functional limitations. The diagnosis of CP can vary from one child to another, causing family stress because of vague and unknown outcomes of the disorder. Although there are negative attitudes in Ghanaian societies towards primary caregivers and children with disabilities, fewer attempts have been made to understand their experiences.Objectives: The main aim of this study was to explore the experiences of primary caregivers across the trajectory of the diagnosis (before, during and after) of CP in the setting of a tertiary hospital.Method: Using Social Capital Theory as framework, 40 primary caregivers of children with CP, who were receiving treatment at a major referral hospital in Ghana, were interviewed about their experiences before, during and after diagnosis.Results: The results that emerged from the thematic analysis were discussed as follows: experiences before diagnosis, experiences during the diagnosis and experiences after the diagnosis. Particularly, participants discussed their inability to access essential services such as education for their children with CP.Conclusion: In light of systemic challenges faced by participants and their children with CP, the need for health policymakers to prioritise the public education about CP, promoting the well-being of caregivers and other implications of the study have been discussed.

Access to education for children living in rural communities is widely known to be hampered by inequitable teacher deployment to rural schools. While much is known about the barriers encountered by teachers in Ghana, little is known about the factors that enhance teacher retention in rural schools. In this study, the four-capital teacher retention model was adapted as the conceptual framework to examine the factors that promote teacher retention in rural schools in Ghana. The Teacher Retention Scale (TRS), consisting of 12 items and two sub-scales, was administered to 164 teachers recruited from 15 schools in 10 communities in a single district in Ghana. The results show that the participants were slightly positive on structural capital and social capital as well as high positive correlation between both sub-scales. The need for policymakers to consider both capitals in designing teacher retention strategies in rural schools is discussed.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities requires state parties to make deliberate laws, policies and administrative measures to safeguard the right to work of persons with disabilities. However, many countries, such as Ghana, run afoul of this requirement. Currently, there are intense campaigns in Ghana aimed at prioritising the education of persons with disabilities so as to enable them to explore their potential. Moreover, universities have demonstrated commitment towards the inclusion of persons with disabilities. However, little is known about the university preparation of persons with disabilities, the transition of graduates with disabilities from school to work and the attitudes of peers towards them. This study focused on visually impaired (VI) graduates because of their large population in Ghana and their unconventional mode of communication. Using a tracer approach, 24 VI graduates and their employers/supervisors were recruited to explore their views on the transition process from university to work and their job-related competencies and challenges. The results showed that VI graduates acquired relevant work-related capabilities such as time management, interpersonal and team work skills from their university education. However, they encountered considerable challenges during their transition period and were confronted with barriers such as lack of assistive technologies and communication equipment at work. There have been discussions about the need for direct university involvement in the transition process, engagement with other stakeholders to facilitate job searches and for employers to make reasonable accommodations for VI graduates in the workplace.

Effective parenting promotes the physical, emotional, mental and social well-being of children. However, communication barriers between hearing parents and their deaf children can hinder these children’s upbringing and deprive them of the benefits of parental care and support services. While much is known about the challenges faced by persons with disabilities in Ghana, there is a dearth of knowledge about the parental experiences of raising deaf children. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 hearing parents of deaf children (3–15 years) to determine how they provided personal care to their deaf children, the support survices available to them and the challenges they faced. The participants spoke about their inability to communicate with their deaf children because they lacked sign language proficiency. This has had adverse impacts on the ability of most of the participants to provide basic skills training or determine their deaf children’s needs. We discuss the need to develop comprehensive support programmes to equip parents with skills to raise their deaf children.

Equitable access to quality education has been recognised as an important human right in several international conventions. Despite the importance of education to persons with disabilities, their participation has been found to be ineffective. In the Ghanaian context, most previous studies have largely reported on barriers encountered in primary and secondary school, with a limited focus on the participation of students with disabilities in tertiary institutions. Therefore, the specific objective of this study was to explore the university experiences of employed graduates with visual impairments (VIs) in Ghana. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with graduates with VIs (n = 14), who were recruited from three regions in Ghana. The interview material was transcribed verbatim, and a descriptive thematic analysis was performed. Due to a lack of formal support, many participants reported that they relied on their sighted peers in their studies and for other daily living activities. They also encountered significant challenges during their higher education, such as inaccessible programmes and unfriendly physical environments, financial hardship, inadequate learning materials and lecturers’ negative attitudes towards them. The policy implications of the findings and the recommendations and limitations of the study are also discussed.

Pre-service teacher training has been identified as one of the key factors in the promotion of inclusive education. In this study, 200 final-year pre-service teachers from three colleges of education in Ghana were surveyed about their views and knowledge on inclusive education and special educational needs (SEN). The results showed that almost all of the participants had been introduced to the concept of inclusion during their studies. However, only one-third felt highly, or somewhat, prepared to teach children with SEN. The level of knowledge and feelings of self-efficacy were highest among those pre-service teachers who had personal experience of supporting children with SEN during their practicum. The participants tended to prefer those inclusive instructional strategies that were easiest to apply in general education classrooms. Significant differences in the outcomes were found between the three colleges studied indicating strong effects of the teacher education model applied in each college.