title: Collaborations to address barriers for people with communication disabilities in Ghana: considering the World Report on Disability.
abstract: The World Health Organization's World Report on Disability underscores the need to identify and address barriers that limit people with disabilities from having access to services. Wylie, McAllister, Davidson, and Marshall (2013) consider the impact of that report on people with communication disabilities (PWCD). Over the past 5 years, the authors have worked together in Ghana to address the needs of PWCD. With only about 10 university-trained speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in Ghana, the barriers to PWCD receiving services are quite high. The authors are working together and with others to establish the first speech-language pathology program in Ghana. The authors also work to identify ways to share with PWCD and their families knowledge and skills on how to improve the communicative function of PWCD. In doing so, the authors have learned valuable lessons about the role of an SLP, especially when considering under-served PWCD, lessons that are applicable to both Majority and Minority World countries. This commentary describes the authors' work over the past 5 years, and describes initiatives that have had some measure of success in reducing barriers to access to information and services needed by PWCD and their caregivers and communities.
authors: Department of Biobehavioral Sciences, Speech-Language Pathology, Teachers College Columbia University, Box 180, 525 West 120th Street, New York, New York 10027, USA. crowley@tc.columbia.edu
authors: Catherine
authors: C
authors: Crowley
authors: Miriam
authors: M
authors: Baigorri
authors: Clement
authors: C
authors: Ntim
authors: Belinda
authors: B
authors: Bukari
authors: Albert
authors: A
authors: Oseibagyina
authors: Emmanuel
authors: E
authors: Kitcher
authors: Albert
authors: A
authors: Paintsil
authors: Opoku Ware
authors: OW
authors: Ampomah
authors: Anthony
authors: A
authors: Laing
mesh_terms: D003147:Communication Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D014943:Global Health; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D035862:Vulnerable Populations