The Disability Price Tag of Raising a Neurodivergent Child in Qatar

Children with disabilities (CWDs) have historically been considered a highly vulnerable group, often subject to significant injustice and lack of access to equitable opportunities. CWDs rely on their parents to meet their complex needs, but these can very often outstrip the family’s financial capacity to afford the required services. Despite Qatar’s recent hyper-awareness of disability in society, very little is known about the economic costs of raising CWDs in the country. At the cross-sections of microeconomics, disability, and age, this thesis sheds light on the extraordinary disability price tag of raising CWDs in Qatar. It identifies three key challenges: the lack of capacity in the public health sector to provide diagnoses and adequate therapy interventions for CWDs, an overwhelmed and unsupported private sector for therapy provisions, and an unregulated and discriminatory private education sector. The thesis utilizes a multi-stakeholder approach within a transformative framework in order to illustrate the critical role of the state in reorganizing and regulating the healthcare and education industries. It offers a number of stakeholder-generated recommendations that can support better accessibility, inclusion, and social justice for CWDs residing in Qatar.