S. (2011) 'Mobility, education and livelihood tra jectories for young people in rural Ghana : a gender perspective.', Children's geographies., 9 (3-4). pp. 395-410. Further information on publisher's website:http://dx.doi.org/10. 1080/14733285.2011.590705 Publisher's copyright statement:This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor Francis Group in Children's geographies in 2011 available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10. 1080/14733285.2011.590705 Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. AbstractThis paper examines the gendered implications of Africa's transport gap (the lack of cheap, regular and reliable transport) for young people in rural Ghana, with particular reference to the linkages between restricted mobility, household work demands, access to education and livelihood potential. Our aim is to show how mobility constraints, especially as these interact with household labour demands, restrict young people's access to education and livelihood opportunities. Firstly, the paper considers the implications of the direct constraints on young people's mobility potential as they travel to school. Then it examines young people's (mostly unpaid) labour contributions, which are commonly crucial to family household production and reproduction, including those associated with the transport gap. This has especially important implications for girls, on whom the principal onus lies to help adult women carry the heavy burden of water, firewood and agricultural products required for household use. Such work can impact significantly on their educational attendance and performance in school and thus has potential knock-on impacts for livelihoods. Distance from school, when coupled with a heavy workload at home will affect attendance, punctuality and performance at school: it may ultimately represent the tipping point resulting in a decision to withdraw from formal education. Moreover, the heavy burden of work and restricted mobility contributes to young people's negative attitudes to agriculture and rural life and encourages urban migration. Drawing on research from rural case study sites in two regions of Ghana, we discuss ethnographic material from recent interviews with children and young people, their parents, teachers and other key informants, supported by information from an associated survey with children c. 9-18 years.

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In spite of its role in the development of nations, transport has also been identified as a means of spreading some communicable diseases. However, few studies have been conducted to assess the spread of diseases on road transport. This study sought to explore the views of operators and passengers about the spread of communicable diseases on the public road transport system in Accra, Ghana. Adapting the Disease Transmission Cycle as the conceptual framework, and following a qualitative research method, data for the study were collected through in-depth interviews and observations and were analysed manually based on the emerging themes. Though various diseases were identified to spread on the public road transport system, there were divergent views on the risk of being infected. Meanwhile, respondents indicated they would feel uncomfortable putting up with people suspected to be infected with communicable diseases. The study emphasises strict adherence to internationally acceptable standards on road transport in order to minimize the spread of communicable diseases on public transport in Ghana.

In pursuance of the UN’s Convention on the Right of Persons with Disability and Ghana’s disability act, the University of Cape Coast has equally instituted a string of interventions to ensure equitable access to its facilities to all students regardless of one’s disability. Emphasis on this has however focused on the modification and inclusion of disability accessories in the construction of new facilities as well as the enactment of disability inclined policies related to admission, residential status and others aspect of campus life. One key area that has not received much attention has been the nature of campus walking environment and how it promotes easy mobility among all students’ groups. To assess the nature of campus walking environment, the study employed the use of an accessibility auditing scheme and also engaged 30 visually impaired and one wheelchair user who were reached through snowballing. An in-depth interview guide was used as the primary data collection instrument for the qualitative study. The study found that the absence of walkway in some high pedestrian traffic areas, discontinuity of sidewalk and path obstructing objects were key factors that reduced the ease with which students with disability use sidewalk on campus. The study recommends an overhauling of the current walking environment as well as enforcement of state and international policy regarding the development of an inclusive environment.

Public transport is a viable option that can help persons with visual disability to overcome mobility challenges. The main aim of the review is to identify existing provisions, barriers, and/or access to public transport services for persons with visual disability. A scoping review was conducted based on the framework proposed by Arskey and O’Malley. A total of 16 studies were systematically selected out of 273 published literatures which was obtained from electronic database searches. Four themes emerged from the selected studies. The major theme was challenges related to accessing public transport from the perspective of persons with visual disability (PVD) with presentation of information, drivers/workers attitude, bus design, technological barriers, and accessibility of public spaces being the subthemes. The other three themes were the challenges reported by the transport drivers, available facilities/adaptations and resolutions, and policies and recommendations. In conclusion, the current review suggests that access to public transportation for persons with visual disability is considerably inadequate. Poor presentation of information, inappropriate driver attitude, and inconsistent bus design seem to be the major barriers persons with visual disability encounter during public transport travel.