**1. Introduction**

The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly swept through the world's population affecting over 200 million people and causing over 5 million deaths. Clearly, the unprecedented global pandemic has affected every aspect of people's lives [1] resulting in severe

disruptions in livelihoods and access to social services for populations across the globe. Sub-Saharan Africa and similar low-income countries were severely hit by the pandemic disrupting the delivery of health, education, and other essential services as these countries were ill-prepared to deal with the effects of such a sudden major disaster [2].

The pandemic resulted in closure of schools in over 188 countries worldwide, affecting the learning, and threatening the future of over 1.5 billion learners, that is, 91% of all learners [3]. In Africa, about 250 million students were affected. Learning completely stopped for most of them, and millions of students were at risk for permanently dropping out of school, adding to the 100 million out-of-school children before the pandemic [4].

In Uganda, for example, during the 2020 wave, to control the rapidly transmissible infection, 51,000 learning institutions were closed between March and October, meaning that approximately 15 million children missed school for half a year. This was shortly followed by a second wave that resulted in a total lockdown and closure of schools from March 2021 for the rest of the year, amounting to almost 2 years of school closure, the longest on record. During the school closures, children not only lost substantial time of their learning, but they were also prone to several risks including abuse, neglect, teenage pregnancy, child labor, mental health disorders, and suicide, among others.

While all learners were affected, children with disabilities are believed to have been disproportionately disadvantaged by the pandemic since they were already grappling with challenges of access to education services due to disability. People with disabilities (PWD) are often overlooked, their capacities underestimated, and their needs given a low priority [5]. It is likely that as a result of COVID-19, preexisting learning challenges for learners with disabilities were complicated while new ones emerged, further widening the gap in access and learning between these learners with disabilities and their normal functioning counterparts. To date, there is little consolidated information on how the pandemic impacted the learning of early childhood education (ECE) learners with disabilities in sub-Saharan Africa, what approaches were used to tackle the challenges, and what lessons can be drawn for future improvement. In this chapter, we examine available evidence on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on access to education/learning for early learners with disabilities in the context of sub-Saharan Africa, the challenges, and opportunities and possible strategies for bridging the gaps. We focus on three key questions:


Effective planning and institution of appropriate interventions to optimize learning for children with disabilities during the current and future crises will depend on a good understanding of these issues.
