The Influence of Decision Making on Social Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities: A Case Study of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Decision making is an essentially social process adopted by individuals or groups to identify and choose the best choice among several alternatives. Decision-making choices are influenced by the preferences, values, and beliefs of the individuals or groups involved in the decision-making process. This study was conducted to analyze the social inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in the context of their participation in decision making. The study area consisted of 8028 PWDs registered with the government of Pakistan, from which a sample of 488 PWDs was selected through a multistage stratified random sampling technique. These PWDs included physically disabled, blind, crippled, and deaf persons; however, the data were collected from those who were able to be interviewed. Chi-square and Kendall's Tau-b tests were used to determine the strength, level, and direction of association among variables. At the multivariate level, the study found a spurious relation between social inclusion and participation in decision making when controlling for gender, monthly family income, and level of disability of the PWDs. The results highlighted that participation in decision making improved the social inclusion of male and moderately disabled PWDs more positively. However, participation in decision making was a universal feature explaining the social inclusion of PWDs irrespective of their monthly family income. The logistic regression model explained that the social inclusion of PWDs was more likely to occur when PWDs were married, had high monthly family income (PKR 16,500 and above), belonged to a joint family, and actively participated in decision making. The study recommends that ensuring the participation of PWDs in decision making in family, community, school, and other relevant institutions ultimately enhances their social inclusion.