Social-economic and demographic factors affecting persons with disability in Soroti district, Uganda.

Abstract

About 12% (4 million) of the population in Uganda have disabilities of which 22% are unemployed which limits their access to social- economic opportunities (job opportunities) with society and even where they possess skills. The unemployment rate among disabled persons shows 2.8% increase from 2019 which was at 7.3% to 10.1% in 2021. The main objective being; exploring the social- economic and demographic factors affecting persons living with disabilities participating in development programs and analyzing the influence of social factors, with disabilities in the development programs, examining the influence of economic factors with disabilities in development programs and finally examining the influence of demographic factors with disabilities in development programs. 94 disable persons were asked which form the sample size. Structured questionnaire was constructed and through the use of face to face interview, the data was collected. The analysis was done using binary logistic regressions by the use of SPSS software. out of which female compose of 55.23% compares to male 44.62% and there is a general significant relationship between social factor and participation of disability in development programs p=0.000 and general Coefficient=1.661 and Wald=34.797 There is need to involve Persons with Disabilities directly at the planning process of development activities such that issues that may hinder their participation are originally identified from project initiation. Program implementation teams need to source for such Persons with Disabilities who have the required talent, skills, knowledge and qualifications to per take particular tasks in the implementation process. Such persons may be given the appropriate time and resources to ensure their performance and this may clear the wrong and negative perception towards Persons with Disabilities that they do not have the capacity to handle hard tasks and are slow in handling different tasks in community development programs.