City of Cape Town Link

Understanding disability

Our city is an inclusive city. It’s up to all of us to create and support ways for people with disabilities to play active roles in everyday life..

Disability in Cape Town

Fast fact

20% of the global population has a disability, which means most of us will have an experience of disability in our lives, whether it be personally, through our family and friends, or in our workplaces and communities.

At the City, we continue asking ourselves the following kinds of questions:

How can we understand disabilities better?
Can all people get around easily?
Can people with disabilities easily find jobs?
Do people with disabilities have equal access to education?
Can we make it easier for a person with disabilities to move in the public environment?
Can we change the way our society thinks about disabilities?

The City supports disability issues in all of our policies and plans, such as the Vulnerable Groups Policy and Transport for Cape Town's Universal Access Policy.

For more in-depth information on disability-related issues and awareness, please visit the Disability Desk.

Do's and don'ts

We put together some basic tips on how to change the way you think about disability and engage with people with disabilities.

**Disability do's and don'ts**
Do	Don't
See the person first, not the disability. People should not be described as ‘disabled’. They are ‘people with disabilities’. When you call someone disabled, it makes disability seem like the most important thing about that person.	Don’t think of people with disabilities as ‘handicapped’; we need to make our environments friendlier for people both with and without disabilities.
Ask yourself the question: ‘What would I expect right now if it were me?	Don’t grab someone’s wheelchair and push it unless you are asked to do so.
Speak directly to the person with the disability if it looks like they may need help. If the answer is no, leave it at that. If the answer is yes, find out how.	Don’t grab people who are visually impaired by the arm or pull them along. Offer them your arm and let them hold on to you, and they will guide you as you walk.
Give details if you are giving directions to a person with a disability. For example, don’t say: ‘There’s a step coming up.’ Instead say: ‘There are three steps coming up’ – and give the location of the steps.	Don't shout when speaking to people with impaired hearing. They can usually read lips. Look at them directly and speak normally to make it easier for them to lip-read.

Facts and figures

People with disabilities are all unique, but there are some patterns and trends in South Africa that we should all be aware of.

Disability in South Africa:

It can be assumed that 10-15% of any population have some form of disability. In South Africa, that is more than 5 million people.
In developing countries, such as South Africa, the ratio of people with disabilities to the general population is always higher – about 15 – 20%. This is owing to higher levels of crime, poverty and car accidents.
Only 20% of all people with disabilities are born with those disabilities or become disabled in early youth. About 80% of people with disabilities become disabled later in life; usually between the ages of 18 and 35.
More than a million people in South Africa are considered legally blind. 20 – 25% of these people have no vision at all.
Only 10% of people with visual disabilities use and know Braille – a form of written language for the visually impaired. Many people have turned to audio assistance instead, such as screen readers and talking gadgets on computers and smartphones.
The biggest challenge for people with visual disabilities is mobility in public. Some people use canes while others use guide dogs. There are currently only 600 guide dogs in the country.
People with visual impairments need to be trained to use a cane. This is called ‘orientation and mobility’ (O&M) training. There are 33 mobility training instructors in South Africa.
More people use sign language than speak the venda and ndebele languages combined.
75% of people with hearing disabilities still have some hearing and are considered ‘hard of hearing’. The remaining 25% are ‘profoundly deaf’, which means they cannot hear at all.
One in four people worldwide have a mental health condition. This includes autistic disorders, dyslexia, Down’s syndrome and dementia.
In South Africa, 75% of people with a mental illness have no access to mental health services.
65% of children living with disabilities in South Africa don’t go to school.
While most children with disabilities who do attend school receive special education, only 68 of those 400 schools offer matric.

Supporting people with disabilities is a core focus of the City of Cape Town. We are working hard to create systems, policies and plans that can make life easier for a person with a disability in Cape Town. For more in this regard, read about our efforts to establish universal access in Cape Town.

Document downloads

1. Universal Access Policy for Accessible Transport in the City of Cape Town
  28/05/2025, Policy - 1 MB
2. Vulnerable Groups Policy
  01/12/2013, Policy - 375.8 KB

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