Empowering Children with Disabilities through Accessible and Inclusive Education for Sustainable Development

Abstract

With its no poverty and quality education goals, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 
remain one of the most potent tools for empowering children with disabilities. However, the 
extent of achieving this feat will be determined by how accessible and inclusive education is 
for children with disabilities. The objective of this paper revolves around empowering children 
with disabilities through accessible and inclusive education for sustainable development. It 
underscores stemming poverty and making education more accessible and inclusive for these 
children so that the 2030 SDG agenda can be realized for all and especially for children with 
disabilities. This paper posits that poverty is an adversary for educating and empowering 
children with disabilities. It suggests that persons with disabilities are more likely to live in 
poverty due to societal barriers of discrimination, limited access to education and employment 
and lack of inclusion in livelihood and other educational and social programmes. It 
conceptualizes accessible and inclusive education in the context of global best practices. The 
study concludes that SDG will not be fully achieved unless children with disabilities were given 
ample opportunities for empowerment.