Disability as form of child vulnerability in Uganda

Yovani Moses A Lubaale, Makerere University
Gideon Rutaremwa, Makerere University

Disability is one of the forms of vulnerability that countries need to address. It is estimated that there are 500-650 million persons with disabilities in the world, 10% of the world population, 150 million of whom are children. Based on the 2002 Uganda census, 2% (over 250,000) of all the children were reported to have disability. The proportion of children with disability was less than that reported in the general population as disability increases with length of exposure of an individual. The main types of disability were hearing difficulty (21%), limited use of legs (20%),sight difficulty (13%), limited use of arms (6%), deafness (5%), loss of legs (2.1%), blindness (1%) and loss of arms (1%). In general, most of the disability (85%) is physical. This paper uses the 2002 Uganda census to compare achievement between disabled and normal children and if disability is a form of vulnerability among children.