RESUMO
Background: People with disabilities have been coping with barriers that make it difficult for them to access public services. Many of them are poor, illiterate and out of work. Objective: To describe some characteristics of disabled people living in the communities of Chi Linh district, Hai Duong province. Subject and methods: Interview all of the 18.473 disabled people living in the seven communities of Chi Linh district, Hai Duong province. The contents of the interviews includes: economic-social information (income, education, job and martial status) and disability status (disability form and cause). Results: Nearly three fourths of disabled people are at the age of 45 and over. There are more women than men, with the male/female ratio at 1:1.8. Almost all of the disabled people are the Kinh in Chi Linh and 10.8% of them belong to the poor households. One in ten disabled people are illiterate and two thirds of disabled adolescents are at lower secondary school or lower. Difficulty in seeing is the most common among the kinds of disabilities, accounting for 81.9% of disabled people and about three fourths with one disability. Among the causes of disability, aging accounts for 71.5%, this is followed by illness. Conclusion: There is the need to reduce the rate of disability at the age of 45 and over, reducing the rate of sight related difficulties and increasing the accessibility of disabled people to educational services.