Back to Index

Mainstreaming disability in development
Womens Coalition
Extracted from E-Coalition Issue 3
September 2005

The Disabled Women Support Organisation (DWSO), through their Executive Director, Gladys Charowa, share ideas in which disability concerns may be incorporated in development. Mainstreaming disability means that all policies, programmes and projects should include disability as a key issue. Monitoring and evaluation should track both the involvement and empowerment of people with disabilities in the design and implementation of policies, programmes and projects.

Disability and Development
Even though disabled people comprise between 15% and 20% of the poorest in developing countries, they are not actively included in development programmes. People with disabilities are among the poorest and most marginalized. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) cannot, however, be achieved without taking into account the needs of people with disabilities. The MDGs include targets to:

A twin track approach is needed to meet the needs of people with disabilities in development. This would both recognize and address the inequalities between disabled and non-disabled people (mainstreaming disability) and support specific initiatives with people with disabilities as well. People with disabilities have specific needs to be met over and above those of other people living in chronic poverty. Empowering people with disabilities will further empower society, as they will meaningfully contribute to their respective counties’ economies.

Rights
The difference between disability and other forms of disadvantages is that people with disabilities can only organize themselves to claim their rights once their additional practical needs, such as mobility and hearing aids, have been met. People with disabilities face numerous barriers in realizing equal opportunities: environmental and access barriers, legal and institutional barriers, and barriers of attitude which cause social exclusion. Disabled Persons have faced numerous barriers including to marriage, due to objections from leaders in religious institutions who believe that people with disabilities, especially wheelchair users, cannot have sex, although these beliefs are often unfounded.

Rights are paramount to successful development initiatives with people with disabilities. Inclusive and empowering activities are required to provide platforms to access rights. Negative stereotypes are commonly attached to disability where people with disabilities are often assigned a low social status and in some cases are considered worthless. Disabled people have a right to be included in all aspects of life. To actively campaign for rights, they need to live in an environment in which they are empowered.

HIV/AIDS and Disability
People with disabilities are not excluded from the spread of HIV/AIDS but lack access to programmes and information on this deadly disease. People with disabilities are sidelined in both education programmes and from HIV testing. Recent studies in Tanzania and Zimbabwe showed that the majority of people with disabilities had not been invited to HIV and AIDS awareness training or events. Dialogue with development agencies show that although most HIV and AIDS programmes are designed to be inclusive there appears to be a breakdown between programme planning and implementation, with ignorance about disability, the sexual rights of this segment and associated prejudice amongst health professionals and HIV and AIDS workers. Our organisation encourages all members to go for HIV testing. Several were turned away or ridiculed by medical professionals.

People with disabilities are vulnerable to HIV and AIDS due to lack of information; segregated schooling, which doesn’t include HIV/AIDS information and higher risks of assault. Yet many people with disabilities are victims of rape and abuse, both within the family and by outsiders. People with disabilities are seen as easy targets and ‘victims’. Urban myths and folklore encourage these rapes; where there is a myth that sleeping with a disabled person can cure someone of HIV virus. It is widely believed that people with disabilities especially; wheelchair users are not sexually active, as no one would want to sleep with them. They have therefore been regarded as ‘safe-sex options’ and so free from the HIV virus hence they are being raped.

DWSO are appealing to government, private sector and NGOs especially women NGOs to integrate people with disabilities into their programmes. This will go a long way to reduce the suffering of people with disabilities, as they are the poor of the poorest world over.

*DWSO is an organisation run by women and girls with disabilities. Its main thrust is to physically and economically empower women and girls with disabilities.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP