Improving Disability Data and Access of the Disabled to Education

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This project seeks to expand a Bank initiative to improve the collection of data on disabilities. In July 2002, the Bank convened a meeting of the heads of census bureaux in the Mercosur countries to review recent census data on disability. Participants at that meeting identified two needs: first to collect and analyse data on disability that existed at the national level. These data were collected by in ad hoc surveys, censuses, by governmental and non governmental sources. Many of the data have not been analysed. The second need, was to develop a common instrument that could be used in pilot surveys to measure disability and its relationship to poverty, gender, ethnicity, education, and labour force participation. This type of analysis would expand the thinking on disability and identify the policy and programmatic response necessary to improve the conditions of the disabled and their care givers.In the area of education, the Bank has on-going and pipeline operations at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. However, the development and evaluation of inclusive education pilots has not been supported by lending operations. Inclusion raises questions of cost; impact on disabled and no-disabled children, teacher and parents; and the need for physical and technological changes in the classroom.