An invisible community
Why are people with disabilities so often forgotten or ignored by development agencies and what needs to be done? World Vision provide some answers.
Most estimates place people with disabilities as 10-20 per cent of any population group, and more than 80 per cent who live in developing countries live below the poverty line, even though there is a UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Convention is signed by 147 countries and ratified by 97 –including the EU - that includes an article (Article 32) obligating all development agencies to ensure international development programmes are inclusive and accessible.
Given these facts, why do such an enormous number of marginalised people continue to be ignored by development agencies? These are the most common reasons given – how many of them would apply to perceptions in your agency?
‘We need to sort out the problems of “normal” people first’
But disability is normal and people with disabilities are in every community. Good development work challenges conditions which exclude the oppressed.
‘It’s not cost effective’
Including people with disabilities is largely seen as an ‘extra’, but saying ‘there’s only enough resources for the basics, so we can’t afford to include them’ denies the reality that disabled peoples’ needs are the basics. It doesn’t necessarily cost much more to be inclusive, especially if planned from the outset - for example, physical accessibility is estimated to account for additional construction costs of between 0.1 and 3 per cent.
‘There aren’t many people with disabilities here, so it’s not an issue’
Disability is often treated as a specialist area because of the misconception that their number is insignificant. This myth arises because many people with disabilities are invisible – hidden away due to stigma, or excluded from meetings because of a lack of access.
‘We don’t “do” disability – that’s for specialist agencies’
People with disabilities are often regarded as a distinct target group for separate programming, however, only a small number participate in programmes of specialised agencies or targeted work. By not including disabled people, mainstream programmes fail to address the needs of at least 10 per cent – and perhaps up to 20 per cent – of any given population.
‘We don’t have the skills’
Working with people with disabilities is not significantly different from working with any other group and indeed many needs are the same. Sometimes the approach to meeting them is different. It’s largely about changing attitudes of the implementers.
‘Let’s create a special programme for them’
It’s unrealistic to expect a single specialist intervention programme to address all the needs and rights of all people with disabilities, who are a diverse group. Many of these needs are shared by other people and are not disability-specific and are best addressed within the framework of the whole community.
There are a number of key factors needed to facilitate change including policy development, programme guidelines, office champions, senior level commitment. The biggest one though is the attitude of development workers themselves including to recognise and acknowledge the legitimate right to be included in development programmes.
World Vision made a formal policy commitment to include people with disabilities in our work six years ago, following four years of intense lobbying by committed grassroots staff. Since then, tangible progress has been made in a number of countries in our Partnership to include people with disabilities across our work. We have a long way to go, but we have learnt much already. We are still learning and are always happy to share our story with others. The more we do, the more we feel shocked that we didn’t consider disability inclusion sooner.
Written by Sue Coe, Senior Disability Adviser at World Vision UK and member of the Bond Disability and Development Group.
Bond training on disability issues
On 3 March, Bond is running a one-day training course, Travelling together, developed by World Vision as part of its new publication Travelling together: how to include disabled people on the main road to development. This practical, interactive, fun training day has a track record of kick-starting change towards disability inclusion in development work, and will give you the understanding needed to deliver the course to others. Read more about the course and book a place.
For more information, see Travelling together – how to include people with disabilities on the main road of development.
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