HALANGAN KEPADA PENDIDIKAN DAN LATIHAN BAGI WANITA KURANG UPAYA FIZIKAL DI MALAYSIA.

The Malaysian government has developed significant disability provision, policies and legislations since the period of colonialism but disabled people still encounter major barriers in education and training. Research involving Malaysian disabled women in terms of education and training is very limited although disability is argued to have some relation to gender and culture. This paper therefore sets to explore how Malaysian women with physical impairment experience their opportunity for education and training. This study used a full qualitative research approach in which the data was collected from in-depth interviews with 33 Malaysian women with physical (mobility) impairment. Over a period of 6 months, 17 Malays, 8 Chinese and 8 Indian women were interviewed twice in Peninsular Malaysia. The majority of women came from low-income and rural families. The findings demonstrated that many of the women had limited access to education and training due to structural and attitudinal barriers. Hence, their situation was exacerbated by complex interactions between individual, familial, sociocultural and gender factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]