LACK OF PROPER ACCESS TO QUALITY EDUCATION FOR WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES CONTRIBUTES TO THEIR INEQUALITY

Education for persons with disabilities is an area of concern and still seems to be a very big problem. And in most cases the disabled women are faced with it more as compared to the men with disabilities and also the non disabled men. Statistically, disabled women are five times as likely as non disabled women to get access to eight years of formal education, 17.4% of all women with disabilities have less than 8 years of formal education as compared to 3.5% of non-disabled women. Only 16% of all women with disabilities are likely to have any college education compared to 31% of non-disabled women and 28% of men with disabilities. This is according to a study that was carried out by Bowe.

It has been a common trend to find that children who have special needs have been taken to segregated schools for education, or even if they are taken in regular schools, then they are put in special classes. They have been taken through a form of education that is seen to be inferior when compared to the rest of the pupils or students in the school. There is still need to ensure that the children with disabilities get free and appropriate education in a very least restrictive environment. And when research on education is carried out, in most cases the findings show that boys are likely identified as being in need of special education as compared to their female counterparts or rather girls with disabilities.

The research that have been carried out shows that the education of disabled boys is seen as a priority and they are always identified as needing special education so as to prepare them for the future to enable them support their families, this is a clear show that gender based discrimination is so much seen also in the disability community.

The other thing that still leaves a lot of unanswered questions is that, we find that the boys with disabilities and the girls with disabilities receive a very different kinds or even levels of education. This is a clear picture showing the role that gender is playing in special education.
Even though it is common to find that students are treated differently when it comes to gender, it is even more worse when the cases of disability are involved and more worse when the student has a mental disability.

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