Illiteracy among adults with disabilities in the developing world

A review of the literature and a call for action

Datos Bibliográficos

ID15085069
AutoresNora Ellen Groce, Nora Groce (0000-0002-7885-7042, Leonard Cheshire, autor de correspondencia), P Bakhshi (0000-0002-4439-4617, University College London)
Año2011
Volumen15
Número10
Páginas1153-1168
Fecha de publicación2011-12-01
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Journal of Inclusive Education (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1360-3116 • E-ISSN: 1464-5173
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13603116.2011.555068
OpenAlexW2067342258
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas9
Referencias citadas10

In the early 1990s, UNESCO estimated that perhaps 97% of the world's 650 million disabled persons were unable to read or write, leading to significant efforts throughout the developing world to ensure that all children with disabilities attended school through ‘inclusive education’ programmes. But what of the vast majority of persons with disabilities who now are adolescents or adults, well beyond the reach of classroom education, or the estimated 90% of disabled children who will still ‘age out’ of the system before such inclusive education is available in their communities? In this paper, we review findings from a global literature search on literacy of adults with disability in developing countries which shows that there is currently little in international development, education, health or disability research policies or programmes that addresses this issue. On the basis of these findings we argue that while inclusive education efforts for children are important, more attention also needs to be directed to providing literacy skills to illiterate and marginally literate disabled adolescents and adults. A concerted effort to improve access to basic literacy and numeracy skills through both inclusion in general adult literacy programmes and disability-specific adult literacy programmes is urgently needed to reach the goals for education and poverty eradication established by the new United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and by the Millennium Development Goals

Convention · Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities · Functional illiteracy · Literacy · Mainstreaming · Medical education · Numeracy · Pedagogy · Political science · Poverty · Social science · Sociology · Special education · Child Nutrition and Water Access · Education Systems and Policy · Medicine · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Psychology