Inclusive Education for Deaf Learners in Ghana

Inclusive education is a key policy priority in Ghana and across the globe giving equitable access to education for many learners with disabilities. However, for deaf learners, there is often a tension between the social model of disability which underpins inclusive education and the linguistic human rights perspective which sees Deaf communities as cultural and linguistic minorities with strong emphasis on sign language. This chapter explores this tension conceptualised as a contestation between social and linguistic values by analysing Ghana's inclusive education policy and the country's sociolinguistic environment. Both international and national documents were reviewed to highlight inherent challenges in the implementation of inclusive deaf education in the regular classroom. It is proposed that in Ghana, the bilingual-bicultural framework that uses Ghanaian Sign Language (GhSL) as a primary language accessible to deaf learners while training them in English literacy is best to prepare deaf learners to participate fully in society.