Abstract:
The study investigates the attitudes of the public, workers towards persons
with disability in the Tema and Accra municipality and metropolis respectively.
The study employed a cross-sectional study design to interview one hundred and
fifty three respondents made of fifty three Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) and
one hundred able workers or Non Persons with Disabilities (NPWDs). The one
hundred NPWDs were interviewed to collect views on their attitude towards fellow
workers who are PWDs while the fifty three PWDs were interviewed to collect
their views on attitudes of their fellow able workers towards them as well as to
confirm or disconfirm the information gathered from the NPWDs. The PWDs
included in the sample for the study were selected by means of referral (snowball
sampling) while the NPWDs were selected by simple random sampling technique.
Most of the respondents interviewed have worked at least within one year
to fifteen years and as result have adequate information about PWDs they work
with. The study revealed that most PWDs do not work in the service sector as
compared to their counter parts the NPWDs even though the respondents indicated
that it’s their right to get jobs in the industry. The major recommendation of the
study is that an intensive education should be given to the few NON-PWDS and
PWDs who still hold on to old traditional beliefs and conceptions about disability
which has perpetuated the negative attitudes recorded about PWDs despite the
modern understanding of the disability concept.
