Collaborations to address barriers for people with communication disabilities in Ghana: Considering the World Report on Disability

The World Report on Disability: An impetus to reconceptualize services for people with communication disability

“…Authors writing about the development of speech-language pathology university programs in Majority World countries (see Ahmad, Ibrahim, Othman, & Vong, 2013;Atherton, Nguy n, & V õ , 2013;Barrett & Marshall, 2013;Crowley, Baigorri, Ntim, Bukari, Oseibagyina, Kitcher, et al, 2013;Topouzkhanian & Mijiyawa, 2013) refer to the lack of services and the numbers of under-served PWCD as drivers for these educational developments. In writing about speech-language pathology service development and delivery issues from a range of countries including Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, China, India, Malaysia, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the UK, and the US, contributors highlight under-served populations in those countries and outline philosophical, cultural, political, and practical frameworks for identifying, engaging with, and meeting the needs of these populations (see Buell, 2013;Cheng, 2013;Davidson, Hill, & Nelson, 2013;Goldbart & Sen, 2013;Jones, Marshall, Lawthom, & Read, 2013;Kathard & Pillay, 2013;Roulstone & Harding, 2013;Van Dort, Coyle, Wilson, & Ibrahim, 2013;Westby, 2013).…”

“…A number of the contributions provided examples of knowledge transfer and exchange between Minority and Majority World countries, or more developed services to less developed services, as examples of strategies to meet the needs of under-served PWCD (see Cheng, 2013;Crowley et al, 2013;Goldbart & Sen, 2013; Worrall, Howe, O ' Callaghan, Hill, Rose, Wallace, et al, 2013). Contributors advocate for increased input on communication disability within the training of other disciplines (see Goldbart & Sen, 2013;Worrall et al, 2013) to build knowledge and skills in responding to PWCD.…”

“…Several papers in this edition have described knowledge exchange programs between SLPs and colleagues designed to empower non-SLPs to support PWCD in under-served groups (see Crowley et al, 2013;Worrall et al, 2013). Such papers illustrate evolution to the development of mid-tier workers (World Health Organization and the World Bank, 2011) in order to expand the reach of speechlanguage pathology services.…”

Meeting the Needs of Children and Families with Communication and other Developmental Difficulties in Accra, Ghana—An Assessment of the AwaaWaa2 Community-based Program

“…The burden of late detection and an absence of treatment options for these children affect all areas of functioning (Olusanya and Newton 2007). This is even more so in cultures, like Ghana, where oral and face-to-face communication seems to be the preferred means of communication dominating everyday life (Crowley et al 2013).…”

“…This caters to a very small number of the children with special education needs. The focus on this subgroup of children is understandable given that they are some of the most disadvantaged and marginalized (Crowley et al 2013). It does however leave the greater number of children with CDD without much needed attention even though they are equally prone to marginalization and exclusion.…”