For the PhD-thesis entitled “Education for Children with Disabilities in Addis Ababa/Ethiopia”, research is currently accomplished on school-aged children (8-12 years) with disabilities in the Ethiopian capital. The research question is focussing on environmental barriers and facilitators (WHO, 2007) children with disabilities are experiencing in school and what impact these are having on the child’s participation and activity during class and school related activities. This research is connected to the international reseach project CLASDISA, and is therefore part of an international comparative research between Austria, Thailand and Ethiopia (project webpage: http://classifications-of-disabilities.univie.ac.at/).

The approach that is being referred to as theoretical background is the Capability Approach of Amartya Sen (1992/2001). Different authors already referred to Sen’s theory regarding people with disabilities. “The capability approach allows researchers to analyze (a) disability at the capability level; (b) potential disability; and, at the functioning level, (c) actual disability. This framework also helps explain how disability may result from three types of factors: the individual’s personal characteristics (e.g., impairment, age, race, gender), the individual’s resources, and the individual’s environment (physical, social, economic, political).” (Mitra 2006, 236)
Chapter 5, the “environmental factors” of the ICF-CY (International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health – Child and Youth Version, WHO 2007), is playing another important role for the theoretical background of the thesis. It is also being used as a basis for developing research instruments.

Ethiopia is a home to more than 80 different ethnicities and there is a huge gap between the rich and the poor parts of the population. These factors amongst others lead to tensions within the population. Addis Ababa is a very quickly changing and growing city. Houses, hotels and shopping centres are built everywhere, the number of governmental schools is growing very fast and also people and attitudes are changing. Regarding these aspects, one can imagine that this city is confronting people, and especially children with disabilities, with lots of challenging aspects in their daily life.
Due to various factors, there is a high number of people with disabilities living in Addis Ababa (Tirussew, 2005). May it be because of the high occurrence of Polio and also of Lepra or because of injuries that couldn’t be healed appropriatley, other illnesses, accidents, mal-nutrition or the occurrence of children being born with disabilities.
The Ethiopian government has good legal foundations for people with disabilities, but like in other countries, it is not enough to have good regulations to make things happen or change. Furthermore, Ethiopia ratified several international agreements on different topics and also aims at fulfilling the MDG’s.
Children with disabilities are getting special attention when it comes to the goal of Education for All (UNESCO, 2007). Education should be accessible for all, but accessibility means more than only the possibility to visit a school every day.
The focus for the presentation will lie on findings of the first phase of field research as well as on experiences regarding the adaptation of the research instruments. Furthermore, it will include a presentation of the planned second phase of field research and some comparative elements regarding Austria and Thailand.

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