EMERGING FROM THE SHADOWS: A CASE STUDY ON THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES IN MONROVIA, LIBERIA

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2014

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Abstract

People with disabilities are often the last group to be included in development agendas. For children with disabilities, this translates into exclusion in the educational setting with piecemeal agendas created by various governments. In Liberia, children with disabilities are not only excluded from the classroom, but the government's most recent education law singles children with disabilities out as individuals that may be excluded from the classroom. It is difficult to find research on people with disabilities in low-income countries that have experienced recent conflict. In an attempt to better understand the lives of children with disabilities in Liberia, I developed and implemented a case study the examines the lives of families with children with disabilities at an educational center in Monrovia, Liberia called The Alliance Center for Children with Disabilities , hereafter referred to as the Center. I used Schalock and Keith's (2000) Quality of Life (QOL) Framework to gauge the influence the Center has over the lives of the families and Critical Disability Theory as a base for a discussion on societal norms and people with disabilities. Through intense analysis of interview transcripts, documents and observations, this study concludes that the families associated with the Center currently have a better quality of life based on the domains in Schalock and Keith's (2000) Quality of Life framework than those with children with disabilities not attending the Center.

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