Impact of disability on the transitions to adulthood of men and women in Cameroon

Abstract

The transition to adulthood is a critical stage in human development because it shapes the future lives of many young people. Little is known about how disability affects this transition. Most of the available evidence comes from high-resource settings, where the situation differs greatly from that of resource-limited countries. Using the data from the HandiVIH ANRS 12302 study, we aimed to examine the effect of disability on the social markers of the transition to adulthood in an African context with regard to gender and the nature and severity of the limitations. Our results show that men and women with disabilities experience significant delays in completing the different transitions to adulthood and, consequently, live in more precarious situations at the beginning of adulthood. We also found complex variations in the effects of disability with regard to disability characteristics and gender. These results call for gender- and disability-sensitive transitional programmes to achieve the goal of equal opportunity as envisioned in the sustainable development goals.