“There is something like a barrier”: Disability stigma, structural discrimination and middle-class persons with disability in Ghana

Abstract

Discrimination against persons with disability is not just a relational phenomenon. It has a structural dimension that is equally oppressive. Structural discrimination can occur even in places and instances where individual discrimination may not be present. Structural discrimination is not always easily noticeable and thus cannot be legislated against easily. This study explored the lived experiences of structural discrimination as experienced by 16 middle-class persons with disability in Ghana. The participants shared experiences of simultaneous acceptance and limited access or in some cases rejection in educational institutions, places of work, religious spaces and the service industry. These experiences of structural discrimination happen because the social class positions of middle-class persons with disability qualify them to enter mainstream social, economic and political spaces but the stigma which their impairments elicit compromises their identities in these spaces, making their full integration into mainstream activities challenging. Corporeal differences ought not to be used as basis for denying access to resources and opportunities. Societies have to consciously work to identify structures that oppress persons with disability and inhibit their integration into mainstream activities. There is the need for the creation of an inclusive society that actively pursues the dismantling of exclusionary structures and normative systems within society.

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