Millions of children with disabilities and special educational needs (CwDs/SEN) are excluded from education due to undiagnosed learning barriers and a lack of teacher capacity to provide inclusive support. In Ghana, only 0.3% of school enrolments identified as having disabilities, despite estimates that up to 16% of children require SEN support. Teachers often lack the training and tools to identify or support these learners. Paper-based screening systems are inaccessible, unscalable, and delay interventions. The Disability Detect App addresses this gap.
Disability Detect addresses the root cause of exclusion for children with disabilities and special educational needs: they are often not identified in the first place. Our theory of change starts by equipping teachers with a user-friendly mobile app that enables them to screen children for disabilities and learning differences using a standardised, evidence-based tool.
Disability Detect is a low-bandwidth app that empowers teachers in low-resource settings to identify CwDs/SEN early and accurately. Developed for Chance for Childhood by local Ghanaian social enterprise Techera Africa, the App is grounded in the widely-used Washington Group Child Functioning methodology and adapted for classroom use in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Teachers use the app to conduct structured, intuitive screenings across functional domains such as vision, hearing, mobility, and learning. Based on results, the app generates tailored referral guidance, supports record-keeping, and offers anonymised dashboards that inform school- and system-level planning. It can function offline, supports local languages, and includes in-app safeguarding and disability awareness materials.
The App is backed by government, including Special Education Division (SpED). Director Helena Mensah said “This App addresses the challenge by providing easily accessible tool that teachers and parents to ensure that disabilities in children are detected early for the right intervention to be provided.”
Disability Detect is currently used to serve children in under-resourced public schools in Ghana and Uganda, particularly CwDs/SEN who are currently invisible to education systems. These children often go unidentified due to a lack of screening tools, trained personnel, and stigma around disability. As a result, they are excluded from quality education, are at higher risk of droput, and rarely access the support they need to thrive.
The app also serves the teachers who work with these children daily but often lack the training or confidence to recognise and respond to learning differences. By putting a simple, evidence-based screening tool in their hands, the Disability Detect App empowers educators to take the first critical step in inclusion: seeing the learner in full.
To date, the app has screened over 18,600 children in both Ghana and Uganda. It has led to thousands of referrals and follow-up support, including the provision of assistive devices and tailored interventions including individualised learning plans (IEPs). The App is a scalable tech solution that is keeping children with disabilities in school for longer, and helping them to fulfil their tremendous potential.
The App is available on Apple and Android smartphones or tablet devices and can be downloaded free of charge.
