**1. Introduction**

The World Health Organisation estimates that more than a billion people live with some form of disability globally, representing about 15% of the world's population. The majority of PWDs live in developing countries. In Africa, it is estimated that about 10% of the population live with disabilities with the majority living in poorer regions of the continent [1]. In Ghana, getting up-to-date statistics on PWDs is a challenge as a result of the lack of well-coordinated data on the actual number of PWDs living in the country. The 2021 Population and Housing Census General Report estimates that about 2,098,138 (representing 8%) of the country's population of 30,832,019 live with some form of disabilities. It is worth mentioning that this figure represents the population of 5 years and older. This suggests that the actual prevalence rate of disability in the country could be more if data were collected on PWDs below this age. The Census data could also be underreported because PWDs are one of the hard-to-reach populations, exacerbated by prejudices and discrimination against PWDs [2].

The 2012 Human Rights Watch report states that over 5 million people in Ghana live with disabilities, a remarkable difference from the Census data. The estimate of the Human Rights Watch report collaborates with the World Health Organization's projection that disability affects 15–20% of every country's population. Five million Ghanaians with disabilities is a huge number that cannot be ignored in any developmental discourse.

Ghanaians with disabilities continue to encounter challenges, including sociocultural, physical, information and transportation inaccessibility, which impede their inclusion and full-effective participation in mainstream society [3, 4]. These challenges impede socio-economic and political participation as well as the overall well-being of PWDs. For example, there is evidence that the challenges PWDs encounter impact their educational attainment [5], social participation, including sexual reproductive rights and marriage [6, 7], freedom to participate in political and civic life [8, 9], labour market inclusion [10–12] and access to healthcare [13–15]. The COVID-19 pandemic could increase the vulnerabilities of PWDs [16].

But what services exist to address their needs? How relevant and useful are existing services? What challenges do both service providers and service recipients experience? What strategies can social workers adopt to provide sustainable disability-inclusive services? This paper attempts to answer these questions.
