Faculty of Humanities
School of Professional Social Sciences
Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC)
Selected Highlights from Research Findings
In spite of areas of disagreement and, in particular, the challenge of the low priority assigned to disability by many development agencies, there would appear to be a basis for closer cooperation between the development and disability sectors, although this would require a more systematic approach to mainstreaming disability in development. The aim of this research project was to assess the extent to which disability has been included in development in South Africa and to explore the opportunities, constraints and potential strategies for mainstreaming disability in development. Towards this end, interviews were conducted with the representatives of 32 disability and development agencies currently operating in South Africa. The survey showed that while there was some understanding by development agencies of the relevance of disability to development, it was clear on a number of levels that the majority of development agencies operating in South Africa did not place a high priority on disability. Development agencies repeatedly rated disability as a lower priority than the disabled peoples’ organisations (DPOs) rated development. However, there were also a number of positive signs in relation to the integration of disability in development. Half of the development agencies and 80% of the DPOs in this study were engaged in projects that included elements of both disability and development. In addition, 66% of the development agencies interviewed had formal policies or position papers relating to disability and development. The study also indicated fairly extensive contact between the development and disability sectors. On the other hand, there were clear indications that in many cases policies and guidelines developed at the central level by international organisations had not filtered down to staff working at the country or regional level. Furthermore, the majority of projects in the development sector specifically targeted people with disabilities, rather than making provision for people with disabilities in more general development projects. Inclusive approaches to development were more apparent in the disability sector where a number of projects included both disabled and non-disabled people or aimed to encourage partnerships between the two. In terms of orientation to disability and development, there were both indications of common ground and differences between the two sectors. For example, disability was most commonly characterised by both sectors as a human rights issue, with 75% of DPOs and 50% of development agencies seeing disability as a human rights issue. This overlap in the emphasis on human rights could play an important role in facilitating understanding between the two sectors, particularly as right-based approaches to development have gained considerable ground in recent years. These and other findings of the survey were assessed against the background of evidence that poverty and disability are strongly related to one another in South Africa, as in other parts of the world, and that the combination of disability with other social inequalities, such as gender and race, can create extreme vulnerability and exclusion
Contact person: Prof E Alant.
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