Accessibility of People with Disabilities to Productive Resources in Nigeria: Dream or Reality?

Abstract

This study assesses access to productive resources amongst People withdisabilities, (PWD). Specifically, the study examines the constraints to accessing productive resources among them and proposes an effective strategy towards addressing the constraints. One hundred and five respondents that were members of PWD associations were interviewed through the use of a structured interview schedule. Frequency counts, percentages, mean, standard deviation, and parson correlation were used to analyze the data. The results showed that more than half (63.6%) of the PWD were males and were of working age. The majority (74.4%) were illiterates. All the PWD claimed that access to productive resources was of the necessity for sustainable livelihood but in the real sense it has turned to ordinary dream. Most of the PWD claimed that productive resources such as accessibility to education and information, employment, appropriate technology, health and rehabilitation facilities were not provided and those ones provided were inadequate. Positive and significant correlations exist between PWD access to productive resources and socio-economic characteristics such as education, income, and source of information at p ≤ 0.05. In conclusion, there is a need to create an enabling environment through the provision of adequate productive resources in order to make life momentous for PWD.

Keywords: Accessibility, sustainable livelihood, disability, productive resources