Ghana passes disability bill.

Parliament has approved the long-awaited Persons with Disability bill aiming to improve the quality of life of Ghanaians with physical and mental disabilities and better integrate them into mainstream society. The new legislation, which enacts article 29 of Ghanas 1992 constitution guaranteeing the rights of disabled people, gives disabled people full access to public places and transportation as well as attempting to redress the inequalities in employment opportunities. It also provides for the creation of a national council on persons with disability to oversee programmes for disabled people. However, the intended beneficiaries are unlikely to see many improvements just yet as the law contemplates a ten-year moratorium to allow the required changes to be implemented. In Ghana around ten per cent of the population is thought to have some form of physical disability and suffers various forms of discrimination at home, in the local community and by society at large.