News
Peter Torres Fremlin

Shallow, siloed and tokenistic: critiques of inclusion

Plus: assisted suicide, access to the air, and the bodies we dream of.
Illustration of a stick figure inside a maze. A dotted line traces the path from the figure to the outside, where a bus waits
A long way to inclusion, by Tan Kuan Aw

Hello Debriefers!

We're back to updates on disability news, and this month we examine critical reflections on inclusion. Two recent papers have raised concerns about the way international organizations are working on disability issues.

This edition looks at how categories we make to work on inclusion can fragment our work and questions whether current approaches are too superficial only benefitting a privileged few (and whether that's the right direction). And a recent talk unpicks what it's like to be the “token deaf character” in media.

As with other Debrief news editions there's plenty more news from around the world, with high/lowlights on covid, assisted suicide, flying as a wheelchair user and how we see ourselves in our dreams. I also share some memories of Romeu Sassaki and the legacy of contribution to inclusion he leaves in Brazil. Today's link buffet has 200+ links from almost 50 countries.

Thanks all for your kind wishes on my rehab. I'm recovering mobility, independence and energy after the operation, so things are on track.

About the newsletter: If you haven't already, sign-up to get these mails. Disability Debrief is supported by Sightsavers. This edition has support from Center for Inclusive Policy. Many thanks to a new contribution from Ashton. Reader contributions help develop the Debrief.

Oppression doesn't fit in our categories

One of my enduring concerns working on disability inclusion is precisely the category of disability, as if disabled people were somehow a separate group or community (we're not). We advise organizations to adopt processes around disability, but is this best way to get the changes we need?

ODI, a think tank, has done a review of inclusion and exclusion in humanitarian action which takes a serious look at the way organizations working on crisis response are trying (or otherwise) to serve those most in need. It describes how inclusion is conceived in terms of categories of people, focussing on specific groups or needs, such as “gender, people with disabilities, people with diverse [sexual orientation and gender identity], religious and ethnic minorities, and beyond”.

The review shows how working on inclusion in terms of categories has a series of consequences for the way it turns out in practice. (I turned it into bullet points):

  • Too many approaches: “Different categories all requiring their own specific approaches has led to a sense of [staff] being overwhelmed and being asked to do too many things at once.”
  • Hierarchy of inclusion: “The unintended effect of creating hierarchies between different marginalised or vulnerable groups in terms of what or who gets prioritised.”
  • Competition between groups: Inclusion can be reduced to a “question of ‘marketability’ in terms of what gets funded, with [for example] ‘women and girls’ competing with ‘older people”.
  • What these categories miss out: “axes of inclusion that do not fall neatly into categories because they are not always identity-based or easily visible – such as race, social class or stigmatised occupations.”
  • Driven from the top: “In general, these aspects [race, class, etc] tend to lack the same kinds of communities of expertise and advocacy that have forcefully pushed for greater sensitivity to other aspects of inclusion over the years at both the global and response levels.”

I largely agree with these concerns, and they apply more widely than the crisis contexts the report studied. However, it is much easier to ask for an “intersectional approach” than it is to start following an intersectional approach. We have too often been left out when people say they follow an “inclusive” approach, and we have many urgent reasons we want to talk about disability and try to tackle head-on barriers that disabled people face.

In addition, however, we have incentives that point to maintaining and reproducing the specialization of our categories. The disability sector is my community, and if an organization hires me it will probably be as a “disability specialist”. This is the way I get in the door (or your inbox). Disability as an issue touches infrastructure, communications, technology, processes, social values and much more, but often if I'm meeting with someone they think I'm only there to talk about people who use wheelchairs.

The report takes an important step back to see the context for our efforts. In the international humanitarian responses it looked at it found that “inclusion continues to be delayed and deprioritized”, “chronically under-resourced” and seen “as an optional ‘bolt-on’ activity rather than an intrinsic part of good humanitarian programming.” Much as the report raises vital questions for us working on inclusion, the questions and responsibility go beyond:

“Failing to include people who are marginalised and discriminated against is not a failure of inclusion but a failure of humanitarian action.”

Inclusion at the shallow end

It's all very well that inclusion in a crisis response is hard. But what about when you can do longer term work, and focus specifically on people with disabilities? A recent issue of the Journal of International Development focusses on measures to promote employment of disabled people and includes a paper asking if the current approaches are deep enough?

Exploring Inclusion Works, a recent programme working in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and Bangladesh, the paper argues that they were not:

“Shallow approaches, which do not address deep-seated cultural beliefs and assumptions about disability and disabled people (which are pervasive throughout the ecosystem), are likely to perpetuate the existence of opportunities for the already more privileged elite and further disadvantage the rest.”

I have a good deal of sympathy for this, but I also feel a bit prickly about it. I didn't give advice to Inclusion Works, but I have given advice to pretty similar projects and, yes, I might have recommended “shallow approaches”. The way these projects promote employment for disabled people is evolving, and it's hard to tell whether the paper's critiques are of traditional approaches, or of the approaches we've adopted that are trying to remedy their flaws.

Trying to take off my prickles, let's step into the shallow end. The paper argues that the shallow approach leads to “tokenistic” forms of inclusion, such as “upskilling and hiring of the least severely disabled and most employable”. This means that “current approaches to cultivating disability inclusive employment often fail to generate transformative impacts”. The authors do see using a business case for inclusion as shifting employers' attitudes in the right direction but it can become virtue signalling, or, again, lead to only hiring the most employable. Rather than “more radical structure-changing actions”, these projects get “easy wins”. Many of these critiques chime with those made in a recent report on inclusive employment from the International Disability Alliance.

For sure, an “easy win” can be an opportunity for the “already more privileged elite”. However, in the case of disabled folk in these countries that “elite” is often not very privileged at all. And, more importantly, I don't think the paper shows that these efforts necessarily “further disadvantage the rest”. We do need to be concerned about that, but equally “easy wins” can be a way into breaking deeper stereotypes. I wonder if these criticisms of serving a limited group of disabled people are more relevant in contexts where there are established mechanisms leaving people out, rather than where efforts are nascent.

Many years ago I visited to an organization in India that supported disabled people into work. I asked them what they would do if an employer had a limited (and maybe discriminatory) idea of the disabled people they might employ. They responded that that's how they'd start. As trust developed they could then work with the employer to expand their conceptions of disability. Both they and I have seen examples where this works. In short, an “easy win” can be a step towards greater change. The world rarely permits us to achieve radical transformations all in one go.

The paper makes a range of other critiques, including that the project was too top-down and not adaptive enough. I agree with this critique: it applies to every international development project I've ever seen. More concerning to me is the comment that the work with disabled people was not connected enough with the work with employers. Inclusion Works was designed with knowledge of that challenge and tried to avoid it. It's worrying because it would be a case where the new generation of projects is repeating the errors we know about previous work.

Note: Sightsavers support this newsletter and they were the lead organization of the Inclusion Works project.

“I'm done with being the token deaf character”

Speaking of superficial inclusion, the marvellous British actress Rose Ayling-Ellis has given a moving and powerful speech on what it's like to realize her presence is a token. (You can read highlights in an article.) Last year she captured national attention by winning the reality show Strictly Come Dancing, receiving media awards for their show-stopping dance. It's time for real talk:

“I am being careful, as I always am, to explain myself politely. I have a constant underlying fear that if I dare to express my anger I would be seen as difficult [...] and that I'll be replaced by someone who is not deaf. I am presenting a version of myself that I want you to see: the one where I am grateful for everything that happened [...] but the reality is it's been a constant battle.”
“It's been a lonely upsetting journey and while winning Strictly was an amazing experience it shouldn't be allowed to conceal the hardships I have been through to get here. To hold the responsibility of being the first deaf person can be a blessing but it can also be a curse I feel the whole weight of my community resting on my shoulders: and trust me it is heavy.”
“To be very honest with you right now I am petrified and it's not because I'm standing on the stage while you all stare at me: I'm an actress, this is what I love to do! I am terrified of how honest I'm going to be. I'm scared to be the deaf actress standing here telling you the most powerful people in this industry the ways you have made my job difficult.”
“I do feel responsible to make this speech comfortable and nice for you to hear but my reality isn't always nice: it's not nice when my access is compromised. It's not nice to realize that my presence is a token, it's not nice when my favourite TV show doesn't have subtitles, it is not nice to feel frustrated and unheard. However let me clarify one thing: it's not frustrating being deaf. Being deaf is my proudest identity. [...]”
“Every time I get given a new task or a job the first question that comes to my mind is should I speak or should I sign? Today for this speech I have decided to speak. I am speaking because in my experience this is the best way to get hearing people to listen and I really want the hearing people in the room to really listen to this speech. Hearing people can learn a new language, they can learn to sign. I can never learn to hear yet I'm the one making 110% effort to come to your world to adapt to you. [...] We see it time and time again: the minority being made – or rather forced – to adapt to the world designed for the majority.”

More news...

For more on promoting employment opportunities:

  • Approaches for equality in the workplace for autistic people in Brazil.
  • For a detailed look on how these projects work, the closing report of the Making 12.4% Work project, a project by LFTW in Uganda. It gives detailed methodology, including of a youth-led approach.
  • Interviews with key players in Malawi, includes a good diss of international organizations: “They come with their agenda of inclusion. But you'd find that for them to accommodate persons with disabilities, it would not be easy for them. You'd find they have signed commitments, whatever, out there, but [when] they come to Malawi—nothing like that is happening.”

Pandemic, what pandemic?

  • From India, a first-person experience of barely-surviving covid: “My oxygen is dipping. I have blacked out. When I wake up, the nurse is telling me I should lose weight. Am I going to survive? I must be. No one tells a dying person to lose weight, do they?”
  • “By unilaterally disarming in the fight against the coronavirus, the Government is exposing New Zealanders to the very serious ongoing health burden of Covid-19”. New Zealand is definitely not the only country you can say this about.
  • Long covid is keeping millions of people out of work, in the US alone. Doctors weren't equipped to respond to it, but are hopefully, improving. See also profiles of five people around the world living with long covid.

Assisted suicide or death sentence? Much as theoretically I am in favour of assisted suicide, Canada's recent experience is proving the disability sector's opposition to it well-founded. Last year there were many warnings that a law to expand medical assistance in dying (MAID) would be a threat to disabled people. This year, even a sympathiser with the bill sees not just a “slippery slope” but that “we have fallen off a cliff.” Lacking safeguards, people who didn't consider the procedure themselves are being offered it, and some are taking it because they “weren’t getting adequate government support to live.” See also more reactions from activists with a rights perspective.

Taking off: it feels like momentum is growing about the challenges wheelchair users face when flying. Reports on personal experience include a photo-essay from the New York Times, and a UK view on the perils of travelling while disabled. Ideas are being developed about how wheelchairs might go in the cabin of aircraft, Canadian Human Rights Commission raised the importance of assistive devices in travel, Indian aviation has adopted rules protecting disabled passengers, and advocates in Ghana are appealing to airport authorities.

The mental health system works as a gatekeeper. Alberto Vasquez in a vital, wide-ranging conversation on disability rights: “If I want to access a social benefit, I actually have to go to see a psychiatrist that will say that I have a disability and depending on the country, he may say, actually, this person doesn’t take medication; he may need to be assessed to see if he has the capacity to decide not to take medication. [...] You have a system ready to take away your rights.”

What's more...

Words of the month...

  • Access as an ethic: “As an aesthetic, as a practice, as a promise, as a relationship with the audience [...] The disability arts community is really in a moment of vast experimentation.”
  • Backdoor accessibility: “disabled students are routinely offered a lesser quality service that is argued to be ‘better than nothing.’ In order to navigate these barriers, many students reported the additional expenditure of time, resources and energy.”
  • Friendterpreting: and everyday practices deaf and hearing friends use to co-navigate the world.

How we see ourselves...

There's plenty more disability news for me to catch-up on from my time in hospital so hopefully I'll be back soon. Before we jump into the links buffet, I want to remember an important figure in Brazil who passed away recently.

Farewell Romeu

Veja também esse texto em português.

Romeu Sassaki, affectionately known in Brazil as the “father of inclusion” passed away at 84 years old after 60 years of work on inclusion and accessibility. His extraordinary track record of published articles show his work ranging across inclusive education, employment and social services. He hadn't stopped making important public interventions: last year for example, critiquing backsliding on inclusive education. (All links in Portuguese).

I don't think we ever met in person but I am one of the many people whose work he supported. I'm moved to tears to see, in my email archive, how kind he was to me and how frequently. The most recent message was in August, congratulating me on my career and the new Debrief website. Often on a voluntary basis, he translated disability-related documents into Portuguese, allowing them to reach a broader audience. One of them was a report I wrote on trade unions including disabled people. I told him one of my goals is to make the Debrief also available in Portuguese, and I hope I can honour that.

Two years ago I spoke alongside him at a virtual event hosted by the great folk that connected us, Espaço de Cidadania. I was humbled by how good he was as a speaker, and how he could marshal facts so clearly to evidence what he was saying. He had a passion for knowledge and how it can support inclusion, a clarity of purpose and generosity of spirit. Thank you, dear Romeu.

Don't be shy: Agree/disagree with my takes on inclusion, or anything else? Let me know: press reply on email, leave a comment, twitter @desibility or find me elsewhere.

All-you-can-eat news buffet

We have click-off

In the contents section below, the links will take you to the different topics on this page. (I can't tell you how long I've wanted to be able to do that; the previous system didn't let me.) After that, everything is now integrated into the Debrief Library. In the main section of the links, clicking on a topic or country name will take you to that place in the library. This update brings that library to 1600+ curated links.

If something's not working as it should, or can be improved, let me know!

Contents:

We have 219 links from 48 countries and regions, organized by these topics:

Accessibility and Design

Back to contents.

Overview

In International News:

Co-creating Inclusive Public Spaces: Learnings from Four Global Case Studies on inclusive Cities. “Many public spaces are not regulated by conventional building standards, especially when constructed or formed within informal settlements or within privately-owned spaces. This requires broader advocacy and education to ensure clients and built environment practitioners uphold inclusive design standards in their work.” (Jun, Journal of Public Space)

In Europe,

In Singapore, Better accessibility for persons with disabilities set out in Enabling Masterplan for 2030. (Aug, Channel News Asia)

Housing

In the United States, Biden Administration Releases Millions For Disability Housing. (Aug, Disability Scoop)

Ageing

Back to contents.

In International News:

Book-review of the The Aging–Disability Nexus (Jul, Disability Studies Community)

In the United States,

Assistive Technology

Back to contents.

In International News:

Digital Planet audio feature on is disability tech delivering? (no transcript, Aug, BBC)

In Africa, Emerging African Ecosystems for assistive technology: “companies must not only be an expert in AT (not an easy feat), but also need to master financing, hiring, logistics and distribution, warehousing, both physical and digital advertising, customer services”. (Aug, AT2030)

In Europe, A scoping review of assistive technology needs, access and coverage and related barriers and facilitators. “The three key elements significantly affecting the capacity of AT systems to deliver appropriate services to potential users were the relative accessibility of the systems themselves, their financial affordability for users and the acceptability of different APs.” (Jul, Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology)

In India, From Hoping to Expecting: Cochlear Implantation and Habilitation in India (Feb, Cultural Anthropology)

In Nigeria, The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development recently developed a four-year national roadmap on local production of standard assistive technologies for persons with disabilities. (Aug, Inclusive News)

In the United States,

In Yemen, War leads to demand for prosthetics. (Aug, Reuters)

Black Lives Matter and Racial justice

Back to contents.

In the United States,

“Not only did activists in the 1970s fear that assertions of racial identity would divide people with disabilities from one another, but throughout the 1980s activists posed disability rights as the antithesis of welfare, at a time when the term “welfare” became deeply racialized. [...] White activists with disabilities sometimes argued that Blacks had to sit at the back of the bus, but the disabled couldn’t even get on the bus.” (Jul, URevolution)

COVID-19

Back to contents.

Impact

In India, Gasping to live again: A disabled person's account of barely surviving Covid:

“When you live on the margins, you perennially face the threat of deletion. You never know who is redrawing the map: the government, the society or a global pandemic. The last two years have been a heady concoction of panic and anxiety for disabled and chronically ill people like me.”

“My oxygen is dipping. I have blacked out. When I wake up, the nurse is telling me I should lose weight. Am I going to survive? I must be. No one tells a dying person to lose weight, do they?” (Aug, Unbias the News)

In South Africa, How the pandemic lockdown affected mental health (Aug, the Conversation)

In the United Kingdom, Documenting the Pandemic for Disabled people: Covid Disability Archive

Response

In Ethiopia, COVID-19 and social policy in contexts of existing inequality: experiences of youth with disabilities. “The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the marginalisation of adolescents and young people with disabilities [...] as health, education and social protection systems have been slow to mobilise targeted support and address social exclusion.” (Jun, Disability and Society)

In Jordan, COVID-19 and social policy in contexts of existing inequality: experiences of youth with disabilities. “The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the marginalisation of adolescents and young people with disabilities [...] as health, education and social protection systems have been slow to mobilise targeted support and address social exclusion.” (Jun, Disability and Society)

In New Zealand, The daily, grinding tragedy of Covid-19 “By unilaterally disarming in the fight against the coronavirus, the Government is exposing New Zealanders to the very serious ongoing health burden of Covid-19.” (Sep, Newsroom)

In the United States, The Pandemic’s Legacy Is Already Clear: All of this will happen again. “America has little chance of effectively countering the inevitable pandemics of the future; it cannot even focus on the one that’s ongoing.”

“The new coronavirus exploited the country’s many failing systems: its overstuffed prisons and understaffed nursing homes; its chronically underfunded public-health system; its reliance on convoluted supply chains and a just-in-time economy; its for-profit health-care system, whose workers were already burned out; its decades-long project of unweaving social safety nets; and its legacy of racism and segregation that had already left Black and Indigenous communities and other communities of color disproportionately burdened with health problems.” (Sep, The Atlantic)

Living with COVID

In International News:

What Makes Brain Fog So Unforgiving “Brain fog isn’t like a hangover or depression. It’s a disorder of executive function that makes basic cognitive tasks absurdly hard.” (Sep)

Long covid sufferers share stories of chronic fatigue, other symptoms. Five profiles from around the world. (Aug, Washington Post)

If You’re Suffering After Being Sick With Covid It’s Not Just in Your Head. After the 1918-19 influenza pandemic:

‘Many who survived became enervated and depressed. They developed tremors and nervous complications. Similar waves of illness had followed the 1889 pandemic, with one report noting thousands “in debt and unable to work” and another describing people left “pale, listless and full of fears.”’ (Aug, NYT)

In the United States,

Civil Society and Community

Back to contents.

In India, The Protest Toolkit: “with our existence itself being a form of rebellion, our emotions and our community become our tools of protest.” (Aug, Women Enabled International) See also reflections on celebrating disability pride in India.

Climate Crisis

Back to contents.

In Europe, Heatwaves Disastrous for Older People, People with Disabilities. (Aug, Human Rights Watch)

In India, Climate Change Is A Double Blow For People With Disabilities (Aug, Health Policy Watch)

In Madagascar, Climate Change and its Humanitarian Consequences: the impact on persons with disabilities in Southern Madagascar. (Aug, CBM Global)

In the Pacific, Disability and Climate change Findings discussions with disabled people in Kiribati, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu.

“Many of the impacts highlighted in this report relate to exclusionary practices that already exist. This ranges from discrimination within the household to exclusion from policy formation and policy implementation. For example, persons with disabilities may not be prioritised when a household is experiencing a shortage of food or water. Similarly, persons with disabilities are often not considered in disaster risk management, such as the design of evacuation procedures and evacuation shelters. Without concerted action, the impact of exclusion on persons with disabilities will become worse under climate change.”

“Climate change is also introducing new risks; for example, by forcing a change in agricultural and fishing practices. On the one hand, persons with disabilities already experience barriers to engage in farming and fishing, with many reliant on marginal or subsistence agriculture. Most agricultural produce is consumed within the household, with limited surplus sold at market. Falling yields from farming and home gardens further impact on food security and incomes. Persons with disabilities who have been able to overcome barriers and farm or work on small plantations are facing new barriers. As reported, farmers with disabilities may not be in a position to relocate their plantations and/or travel to more remote locations to farm. Similarly, new offshore fishing practices are creating new barriers to entry for persons with disabilities.” (link to pdf, Aug, Pacific Disability Forum)

In the United Kingdom, ‘There’s no support for us at all’: The realities of caring for a disabled child during a heatwave. (Jul, Big Issue)

Communication and Language

Back to contents.

Sign Languages

In the Solomon Islands, Trainings for deaf and hearing people in Australian Sign Language to go out “into remote communities” to teach sign language. (Jul, RNZ)

In the United States,

Braille

In China, New doors open for the visually impaired a feature on use of Braille in China. (Aug, China Daily)

Conflict and Peace

Back to contents.

In International News:

The Role of Accessibility and Funding in Disability-Inclusive Peacebuilding. “Persons with disabilities can be — and have been — the source of solutions in peacebuilding initiatives. Participants in the roundtable emphasized that persons with disabilities are some of the strongest advocates in building peace, especially after experiencing violence themselves.” (Jul, United States Institute of Peace)

In Israel, Shalva Center opens bomb shelter for people with disabilities. (Aug, Jerusalem Post)

Culture, Entertainment and Media

Back to contents.

Overview

In Australia, From homeless and busking to the main stage: Rodney Bell’s wheelchair dance tours Australia | Dance | The Guardian (Aug, the Guardian)

In Taiwan, Thematic Exhibition of Artistic Creations by People with Disabilities art-work and promotion of easy-read materials. (Family of Joy Social Welfare Foundation)

In the United Kingdom, Equity Guide for Casting Deaf, Disabled & Neurodiverse Dancers (Equity)

In the United States,

  • ‘Access as an Ethic’: the dancers at Kinetic Light think about “access as an ethic, as an aesthetic, as a practice, as a promise, as a relationship with the audience [...] The disability arts community is really in a moment of vast experimentation.” (Aug, NYT)
  • Why Beyoncé and Lizzo Changed Same Lyric on Their New Albums. (Aug, Time) See also a linguistic discussion of the word and how it is used differently across communities of English-language speakers, and frustrations with holding Black artists to higher standards.

TV and Film

In International News:

'Cha Cha Real Smooth' Star Vanessa Burghardt on Autism Representation. (Jun, Variety)

In South Korea, Extraordinary Attorney Woo’s episodes have good and bad autistic representation. “In highlighting the realities of discrimination through the microcosmic lens of Hanbada, Extraordinary Attorney Woo excels. [But, as well as reinforcing some misconceptions about autism, the] ultimately supportive nature of Young-woo’s colleagues has led some to criticize the show for being too fantastical.” (Aug, Polygon)

In Uganda, The Ugandan woman behind TV for the deaf (Aug, Disability Insider)

In the United Kingdom,

  • Rose Ayling-Ellis, winner of last year's Strictly Come Dancing, important reflections on representation: ‘I’m done with being token deaf character on TV’: “I had to break through countless barriers to get to where I am. It’s been a lonely, upsetting journey, and whilst winning Strictly was an amazing experience, it shouldn’t be allowed to conceal the hardships I have been through to get here.” (Aug, the Guardian) It's worth watching the whole speech.
  • Channel4 Disability Code of Portrayal commits to more nuanced approaches in portrayal of disabled people, involving disabled people themselves. (Jul, Channel 4)

In the United States,

Media

In International News:

Tips to make your visual journalism more accessible. (Aug, International Journalists' Network)

It's time for the disabled community to take center stage. (Aug, Fortune)

Shutterstock is partnering with disability organizations in a Create Fund for artists from diverse backgrounds that help fill content gaps in stock images, videos and other media. See more on the importance of meaningful visual representation. (Shutterstock)

In the United States,

Clothing and Fashion

In International News:

Gucci disrupts disability inclusion. (Jul, Vogue)

Data and Research

Back to contents.

Overview

In International News:

Household Survey Data on Disability and Education in countries where the Global Partnership for Education works. “There remain 28 countries (out of 76) for which there appears to be no nationally representative, reliable and comparable survey or census data on disability that could be used for disaggregating education statistics for the period 2010–2020” (Aug, GPE)

An analysis of global prevalence of cerebral palsy. “From the limited but increasing data available from regions in low- and middle-income countries, birth prevalence for pre-/perinatal CP was as high as 3.4 per 1000 live births.” (Aug, Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology)

The association between household wealth and the prevalence of child disability. Analysis of surveys in 40 low- and middle-income countries give “robust evidence that in LMICs the prevalence of child disability is disproportionately concentrated in poorer households.” (July, Disability and Health Journal)

In Bangladesh, Preliminary Report on the National Survey on Persons with Disabilities 2021. A cross-sectional survey of 36,000 households finds that in government definitions of disability 2.8% are disabled and in terms of functional difficulty (a preferred measure), 7.1% have a functional difficulty. (link to pdf, Jun, BBS)

In Rwanda, Rwanda to conduct first digital census for people with disability. A pilot digital census, using the Washington Group questions, and a precursor to a Disability Management Information System. (Aug, The New Times)

Research

In International News:

Adapting Disability Research Methods and Practices During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Experiences from the Field (Jul, IDS)

In Uzbekistan, Layers and Ranges of Disabling Borders A chapter exploring enduring legacies of segregation and ableism in the socio-politics of disability in Uzbekistan. (Invisible Borders in a Bordered World)

Digital Accessibility and Technology

Back to contents.

Overview

In International News:

How to Design for Accessibility with Your iOS App (Jul, Intuit Engineering)

Accessibility and QR codes: considerations and guidance for creating accessible experiences with QR codes. (Aug, Tetralogical)

What’s new in Microsoft 365 accessibility for Summer 2022 (Aug, Microsoft)

Tech journalism’s accessibility problem:

“Tech newsrooms (The Verge’s very much included) need informed accessibility coverage. They need articles drawing from firsthand experience. They need to do that without heaping the burden on a small group of disabled writers.” (Jul, The Verge)

Artificial Intelligence

In the United States, How School Tech Treats Students With Disabilities Like Criminals. “The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) needs an update to protect vulnerable kids’ rights in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) and nonstop surveillance.” (Aug, The Daily Beast)

Online Accessibility

In International News:

A how-to on using Firefox for accessibility testing “Firefox has become one of the best tools for accessibility audits.” (Jul, The A11Y Project)

Q&A: Patrick Garvin The creator of two web accessibility bots talks alt text and accountability. “If accessibility is only pitched as something that’s related to code or only related to computers, it’s going to be real easy for people in newsrooms to distance themselves from that.” (Jul, Objective Journalism)

In India,

Technology

In International News:

Disability Inclusion Is Coming Soon to the Metaverse (Jun, PC Mag)

For people with disabilities Consumer Electronics Aren't There Yet (Jul, PCMag)

The Hidden History of Screen Readers: For decades, blind programmers have been creating the tools their community needs. (Jul, The Verge)

Disaster Risk Reduction and Crisis Response

Back to contents.

In Europe, Flooding: Disability Inclusion must be a priority in Disaster Risk Reduction. (Jul, EDF)

Economics and Social Protection

Back to contents.

Overview

In International News:

Spark Inclusive a help-desk for resources on disability inclusion in rural economies. (Aug, IFAD and LFTW)

In Canada, Canadians on disability overlooked amid rising inflation (Aug, CTV News)

In the United Kingdom,

  • What actions are people taking because of the rising cost of living? “Around 4 in 10 disabled people experiencing rising cost of living cut back on food and essentials” (Aug, ONS)
  • Disabled people's experiences with activities, goods and services. “Disabled people with invisible impairments could face a conflict between needing support but not wanting to have to identify themselves as disabled to access it, because of perceived external judgement and negative stereotypes regarding disability; this contributed to a sense of vulnerability which people felt negatively impacted their wellbeing.” (Jul, ONS)

In the United States, New Rule Would Expand Student Debt Relief for Disabled Borrowers (Aug, TCF)

Social Protection

In International News:

Working paper on estimating the Extra Costs for Disability for Social Protection Programs. The paper shows how extra costs can vary dramatically, shows methods to estimate extra costs and how social protection programmes can account for them. (Aug, ILO and UNICEF)

In Malaysia, How an OKU card [disability card] benefits persons with disabilities (Aug, Free Malaysia Today)

In New Zealand, Big gap in support funding between disabled people on Ministry of Health and the national accident compensation scheme. (Aug, Stuff)

In South Africa, The support needs of families raising children with intellectual disability. (Jun, African Journal on Disability)

In the United States, ‘People will die waiting’. America’s system for the disabled is nearing collapse: “Providers for intellectually and developmentally disabled struggle to recruit and retain staff amid soaring inflation, pandemic burnout.” (Aug, Politico)

Education and Childhood

Back to contents.

Overview

In International News:

UNICEF School Guide to Supporting Marginalized Caregivers of Children with Disabilities “Inclusive practices are supported when there is meaningful family engagement.” (Apr, UNICEF)

Value for Money: “Why investing in children with disabilities is worth every penny” (Jul, Able Child Africa)

In Brazil, Studies on disability in education: anti-ableism, intersectionality, and the ethics of care. (link to pdf, in Portuguese, UDESC)

In Germany, Translating Human Rights in Education: The Influence of Article 24 UN CRPD Comparing the meanings of inclusive education in Nigeria and Germany, and how the development of inclusive education has depended on “institutionalized special education” rather than a rights-based approach. (University of Michigan Press)

In Ireland, Special classes not best option for students with disabilities:

“Although special classes have been in existence in Ireland since the mid-1970s, their numbers have increased dramatically over the last decade from more than 500 in 2011 to over 2,000 this year. These developments have taken place in the context of research, by the Economic and Social Research Institute and more recently the Department of Education and Skills (DES) Inspectorate, which show little evidence that students in these classes benefit from such placements.” (Jul, Irish Times)

In Nigeria, Translating Human Rights in Education: The Influence of Article 24 UN CRPD Comparing the meanings of inclusive education in Nigeria and Germany, and how the development of inclusive education has depended on “institutionalized special education” rather than a rights-based approach. (University of Michigan Press)

In the United States,

Higher Education

In Australia,

In South Africa, The subjective experiences of students with invisible disabilities at a historically disadvantaged university. (Jun, African Journal on Disability)

In the United States, ‘It’s Backdoor Accessibility’: Disabled Students’ Navigation of University Campus:

“Introducing the concept of ‘backdoor accessibility,’ this paper examines exclusionary practices and systemic ableism to propose that disabled students are routinely offered a lesser quality service that is argued to be ‘better than nothing.’ In order to navigate these barriers, many students reported the additional expenditure of time, resources and energy.”

Employment, Business and Work

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In International News:

Lessons learned on improving access to employment from Kenya and Bangladesh and the i2i project. (Aug, CBM UK)

Mainstreaming disability inclusive employment in international development: “a key message is that instrumental types of intervention such as policy and practice guidelines, provision of assistive devices and soft skills training for jobseekers with disabilities are necessary but not sufficient to bring about wholesale change towards disability inclusive employment.” (Jul, Journal of International Development)

Achieving disability inclusive employment – Are the current approaches deep enough? A detailed critique of recent programming in international development asking interventions to go deeper:

“Thus, shallow approaches, which do not address deep-seated cultural beliefs and assumptions about disability and disabled people (which are pervasive throughout the ecosystem), are likely to perpetuate the existence of opportunities for the already more privileged elite and further disadvantage the rest.” (Jul, Journal of International Development)

Global Trends Report featuring Technological Innovation for Disability Inclusion. (link to pdf, Jul, Valuable 500)

A policy brief on Making Digital Skills Initiatives Inclusive of Young Persons with Disabilities. (Jul, Decent Jobs for Youth)

In Bangladesh, Capability-sensitive principles for assistive technology to support young graduates with disabilities in Bangladesh and Kenya into employment. “In Bangladesh, innovation hubs, SMEs and enterprise units are increasingly building new assistive technology solutions to strengthen capacity and assist young disabled graduates.” (Jul, Journal of International Development)

In Brazil, A new approach is needed to ensure equality in the work place for autistic people:

“As an autistic woman from a favela, my experience with the job market has always been an uphill struggle because the selection processes are designed for neurotypical people, who generally are at ease with oral communication normative social skills, while the specific communication styles of autistic and neurodiverse people are not considered. My work with the Black Lives with Disabilities Matter Movement (Vidas Negras com Deficiência in Portuguese), a movement that focuses on race and disability [...] has helped me to understand that these selective processes were built to prioritize white and non-disabled bodies.” (Jun, Minority Rights Group International)

In Europe, EU historic agreement on minimum wage covers workers with disabilities. (Jul, EDF)

In Kenya, Capability-sensitive principles for assistive technology to support young graduates with disabilities in Bangladesh and Kenya into employment. (Jul, Journal of International Development)

In Malawi, Disability inclusive employment in urban Malawi: A multi-perspective interview study. Explores the gap between policy and practice, looks into the informal labour market, economic factors as a source of discrimination and includes a scathing remark about international NGOs that “come to Malawi”:

“They come with their agenda of inclusion. But you'd find that for them to accommodate persons with disabilities, it would not be easy for them. You'd find they have signed commitments, whatever, out there, but [when] they come to Malawi—nothing like that is happening.” (Jul, Journal of International Development)

In South Africa, The matrix of linguistic exclusions impeding career construction for D/deaf learners: “experiences at home, school and in social contexts combined, impact negatively the process of career construction and its prospects.” (Jun, African Journal on Disability)

In Uganda,

  • Celebrating “Make 12,4% work” a project for economic empowerment of persons with disabilities. Report discusses the way disability inclusion facilitators implemented the program and a detailed description of methodology and lessons learned. “Disability Inclusive Development is an emerging field with no blueprint readily available for practitioners developing and implementing programmes in the sector. In addition, a high level of complexity exists due to intersectionality and the diversity in disability.” (Sep, LFTW)
  • Banking on Inclusion the experience of Stanbic bank. See also Lekker Bakery and Riley Packaging. (Jun, Make 12.4% Work)

In the United Kingdom,

  • Disability Pay Gap: “Mandatory reporting would only capture a snippet of the full picture as only large organisations would be required to report”. (Jul)
  • Employers influencing disabled people’s employment through responses to reasonable adjustments. Employer reactions to requests for adjustments in the workplace go on to influence the rest of disabled people's careers. (Jul, Disability and Society)

In the United States,

In Uzbekistan, Barriers to disability-inclusive employment: A pilot qualitative study of disabled people's lived experiences. “The current institutional and policy framework is rooted in the Soviet legacies of disability assessment which conflates disability with the loss of working capacity.” (Jul, Journal of International Development)

Gender Equality and Women with Disabilities

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In Nigeria, Assessing impact of Disability Act on Nigerian women (Jul, BluePrint)

In Pakistan, The stigma against women with disabilities: Women with disabilities suffer from discrimination and are less likely to get married. Why? (Aug, T-Magazine)

Health

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In Africa, Taking steps towards disability inclusive (sexual and reproductive) health: exploring lessons from programming in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Rwanda. One disability focal point in a health centre in Ethiopia said: “Once we received a deaf woman who came to the center for help. We understood that she was raped and was pregnant, and as showed the test she was HIV positive. Yet, none of us could explain it to her and inform her on necessary treatment. So she left and never came again. We all remember this lady, so we are committed to learn sign language to be able to address such cases next time.” (link to pdf, Feb, See You Foundation)

In Indonesia, Healthcare Ensured short video feature on accessing universal healthcare. (Aug, Disability Justice Project)

In Nigeria, Healthcare Services Should be Inclusive of Persons with Disabilities: Here is How. (Aug, Nigeria Health Watch)

History and Memorial

Back to contents.

In International News:

Book review of Disease and Disability in Medieval and Early Modern Art and Literature (Jul, H-Disability)

State of the Field: Disability History. An overview of many strengths of a growing field, and reflections on some of the gaps, which include:

“As impressive as disability scholarship on activism is, its lack of chronological depth obscures the full range of disabled people's political actions. Most studies focus on the last one hundred years, especially the period after the emergence of the modern DRM in the 1970s. This limits our understanding of disabled people's activism by implying that their engagement in meaningful political action is a relatively recent phenomenon, concerned primarily with the fight for disability rights. Yet, disabled people have a longer and richer history of activism than this. From factory reform to women's suffrage, they have fought for many causes, often taking up prominent roles in the process.” (Jul, History)

In Brazil, Romeu Sassaki died at 84 years old a vital figure working on inclusion in Brazil. (Links in Portuguese, Sep, Terra) See more about his 60 years of work on inclusion and an online meeting with tributes.

In Europe, A book review of an interdisciplinary account of deaf history in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. (Jul, H-Disability)

In the United Kingdom,

  • Book review of Shakespeare and Disability Studies, a book which argues that a disability studies view should not focus just on disabled characters but rather ‘theater as a “social phenomenon” in which both disabled and nondisabled bodyminds engage with one another and the text.’ (Aug, Disability Studies Community)
  • Book review of Those They Called Idiots: The Idea of the Disabled Mind from 1700 to the Present Day. “The conflation of race and intelligence is vividly documented in this volume. The long and complex history of ideas that have bound these concepts together helps us understand today’s deeply institutionalized racism as well as the entrenched we/they ableism of our educational and social service institutions.” (Aug, Disability Studies Community)

In the United States,

  • Crip/Mad Archive Dances: Arts-Based Methods in and out of the Archive (May, Theatre)
  • A new book: Work Requirements: Race, Disability and the Print Culture of Social Welfare: “yoking the project of social welfare to the consolidation of a work society and powerfully revealing their shared entanglement in racialized fantasies about the ‘able’ body.” (Jul, Duke University Press)
  • The upsetting online market for historic asylum patient records. “These files contained details such as physicians’ notes on diagnoses, test results, and therapy notes, in addition to accounts of violent treatments like electrotherapy and hydrotherapy” (Jul, Slate)

Humanitarian, Migrants and Refugees

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In International News:

All Under One Roof: disability-inclusive shelter and settlements in emergencies. Technical guidance for inclusion to improve on how “post disaster shelter and settlement responses are invariably designed to provide standardised solutions to an affected community”. (May, Global Shelter Cluster)

Under the Radar: Surviving Wars With a Disability:

“I was like a double-burden to my mom. The pressure was so much that one day, she decided to get rid of me.” She threw him into a shallow body of water and was ready to move on. But Mauot’s sisters refused to leave him behind. They picked him up as he cried, until their mother relented.” (Jul, Pass Blue)

Inclusion and exclusion in humanitarian action: findings from a three-year study. A call to treat inclusion more holistically. Important reflections on a ”fragmentation of approaches”, and how it creates a siloed approach:

“In many cases, inclusion is still understood in categorical terms, focusing on specific groups of people or categories of need, such as gender, people with disabilities, people with diverse SOGIESC, religious and ethnic minorities, and beyond. This has a number of implications for how inclusion is operationalised in practice. First, seeing inclusion largely as a proliferation of different categories all requiring their own specific approaches has led to a sense of being overwhelmed and being asked to do too many things at once [... Also] it can have the unintended effect of creating hierarchies between different marginalised or vulnerable groups in terms of what or who gets prioritised. [.. . ] Breaking things down into categories can reduce inclusion to a question of ‘marketability’ in terms of what gets funded, with ‘women and girls’ competing with ‘older people’ [...] Absent altogether from these hierarchies are axes of inclusion that do not fall neatly into categories because they are not always identity-based or easily visible – such as race, social class or stigmatised occupations. In general, these aspects tend to lack the same kinds of communities of expertise and advocacy that have forcefully pushed for greater sensitivity to other aspects of inclusion over the years at both the global and response levels.” (Jul, ODI)

In Afghanistan,

In Australia, Small changes could bridge communication and cultural gaps for people from refugee backgrounds who need disability support. (Jul, the Conversation)

In Bangladesh, 5 Years After The Genocide: Rohingya refugees’ needs are higher than ever. Report calls for international actors to pay more attention to needs of persons with disabilities. (Jul, MedGlobal)

In Haiti, It’s Time to Recognize the Leadership of Persons with Disabilities for Inclusive Humanitarian Response. (Aug, DRF)

Indigenous People

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In Australia,

Institutions and Deinstitutionalization

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In Canada, Making the invisible visible: an interview with Megan Linton about the harms of the institutional system, COVID-19, and disability justice. (Aug, Canadian Dimension)

In the United States, Medicaid's Money Follows the Person has allowed over 90,000 people with disabilities and seniors to move out of nursing homes and back into their communities. But Congress still won’t make the funding permanent. (Aug, 19th News)

International Cooperation

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In International News:

An evaluation of CBM Australia's Inclusion Advisory Group dedicated to advising partner organizations on disability inclusion, and an important model of how capacity on disability inclusion might be provided. (May, CBM Australia)

Lived Experience and Opinion

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In International News:

From the Debrief's own Áine Kelly-Costello: Social Role Valorisation: What is it, and what’s the problem? “When people hold roles that are valued by others, they will become more valued as individuals”. Unfortunately this can have the side-effect of ”perpetuating the devalued status of disability and disabled people” by focussing on individual conformity. (Jun, A Frame on Life)

In Australia, Forming body image as a blind person “When I was younger, I trusted other people's perceptions of my appearance more than my own.” (Aug, ABC News)

In Egypt, The reaction of Egyptians to meeting blind people on the street. Mostafa Attia shows, in a video, how Egyptians are the most helpful of any country he's travelled to. (in Arabic, Jul, Mostafa Attia)

In India, Not Your Everyday Ableism a series of short videos to “to unlearn everyday ableist notions, acknowledge the need for creating disability affirmative spaces, and understand the ways for taking action, one conversation at a time.” (Aug, That Sassy Thing)

In Ireland, I've Used A Wheelchair Since I Was 19. Why Don't I Need It In My Dreams? Is it denial, long-term memory of previous ways of mobilizing or mirroring what we see? It can take years for our dreams to catch-up with how our bodies change. (Jul, Huffington Post)

In Kuwait, Head Above Water: a disabled writer shares her journey with multiple sclerosis in a new book. “Head Above Water excels in exploring the mental and emotional scars of being a mixed-race disabled woman in a very traditional and patriarchal society.” (Jul, Disability Horizons)

In Mexico, A wonderful short video on inspiration porn reflecting on ableism, privilege and presentations of disability online. (In Spanish, no image description, Jul, Ruido En La Red)

In Nigeria, It’s The Little Things: stories and life experience of people with visual impairments. (Jul, Unbias the News)

In the United Kingdom,

In the United States,

  • My Experience as an Immigrant and Expectant Mother with a Physical Disability. (Aug, Blogs @ Brandeis)
  • I’m Going Blind. This Is What I Want You to See. “It’s time to expand our definition of blindness.” (Aug, NYT)
  • My ICU Summer: A Photo Essay. Alice Wong's harrowing experience in the hospital system. (Aug, Disability Visibility Project) Alice is fundraising to get the resources needed to live in community.
  • Care Tactics an essay on “hacking an ableist world”, the tech that goes viral versus the adaptations we actually use the new worlds that disabled people and their caregivers are building. (Jul, The Baffler)

Mental Health

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In International News:

WHO World Mental Health Report “Stigma, discrimination and human rights violations against people with mental health conditions are widespread in communities and care systems everywhere. And in all countries, it is the poorest and most disadvantaged in society who are at greater risk of mental ill-health and who are also the least likely to receive adequate services.” (Jun, WHO)

In Australia,

  • More than 1,200 people are detained indefinitely with no criminal conviction. “People detained indefinitely without conviction are most commonly those who are found unfit to plead after being charged with a criminal offence, or who are found not guilty because of a mental impairment.” See more in how advocates have responded. (Aug, the Guardian)
  • Mental distress is much worse for people with disabilities, and many health professionals don't know how to help. “Someone may present to a disability-specific health service, and be turned away due to a co-occuring mental health difficulty. They might then present to a mental health service and be turned away due to having a disability.” (Aug, the Conversation)

Mobility, Travel, Transport and Tourism

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In Canada, People with disabilities bearing the brunt of travel woes: “Whereas a lost or damaged suitcase is an inconvenience, a lost or damaged mobility device robs people of their dignity, their mobility, and their independence, and it can pose a risk to their health. This is far more than an inconvenience. In many cases, it may be a violation of fundamental human rights.” (Oct, Canadian Human Rights Commission)

In Ghana, Disability Advocates Appeal to Ghana Airport Company to investigate mistreatment of people with disabilities. (Aug, Disability News Africa)

In India, India's aviation authority adds new disability rule for airlines. (Jul, Disability Insider) See also from NDTV and an example of air India failing to deliver a wheelchair at destination airport (Jul, Dignified Flying for Disabled).

In the United Kingdom, ‘I have to plan for if I am stranded, if I am dropped, if my chair is damaged’: the perils of travelling while disabled. (Aug, the Guardian)

In the United States,

Policy and Rights

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In International News:

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities had its twenty-seventh session reviewing reports from Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, Macau Special Administrative Region of China, Indonesia, Japan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, New Zealand, Republic of Korea and Singapore. See also documentation from the meetings. (Aug, OHCHR)

CIP Discussion on how development partners influence governments in taking ownership of disability inclusion? (Jul, CIP)

Disability rights: How ‘nothing about us without us’ powered a global treaty. A vital, wide-ranging conversation exploring development of the Convention and onwards onto tensions today, with focus on legal capacity, mental health and psycho-social disabilities:

“The medical model that the disability community abandoned is still very prevalent for persons with psychosocial disabilities. It’s very hard to do advocacy that is not framed through mental health lens. [...] When people talk about your rights, (they) think we need to ensure access to mental health services and quality support, but nobody’s talking about my right to employment, my right to education. [...] The mental health system works as a gatekeeper. If I want to access a social benefit, I actually have to go to see a psychiatrist that will say that I have a disability and depending on the country, he may say, actually, this person doesn’t take medication; he may need to be assessed to see if he has the capacity to decide not to take medication. [...] You have a system ready to take away your rights.” (Jul, Strength and Solidarity)

In the Asia-Pacific, Framework for disability policies and strategies:

“The essential elements of a disability policy include a commitment to disability mainstreaming, intentionality around ensuring disability inclusion efforts are part and parcel of the national development agendas, the allocation of adequate budgets, the establishment of robust implementation mechanisms, the articulation of implementable objectives, and guidance for disability strategies. The essential elements for disability strategies include the completion of a situational analysis and the identification of priorities, actions to put into practice the state’s obligations to implement the CRPD, the identification of intended outcomes and objectives, and finally the adaptation of national development mechanisms and plans so they are fully inclusive of persons with disabilities.” (Jul, UNESCAP)

In Bangladesh,

  • Input to the UN Committee highlights areas of concern that Human Rights Watch hopes will inform the Committee’s consideration of the government’s compliance with its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. (Jul, Human Rights Watch)
  • Inclusive development needs disability-friendly budget. (Jun, The Daily Star)

In Canada, Death shouldn’t always be the sentence for suffering Canadians. “As our Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) laws expand, even supporters of MAiD have become alarmed at how widely the net is being cast. [...] We have not witnessed a slippery slope in Canada, we have fallen off a cliff.” (Jul, National Observer) There are warnings from experts that a lack of safeguards mean it might be suggested to people who would not have otherwise considered the procedure, and of instances where “people have sought to be killed because they weren’t getting adequate government support to live.” (Aug, AP News) See also reactions from activists (Aug, BioEdge). One woman in her late 30s asked “If I'm not able to access health care am I then able to access death care?” (Jun, CTV News).

In China, Input to the UN Committee highlights areas of concern in consideration of the government’s compliance with its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. (Jul, Human Rights Watch)

In Ghana, Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations urges the government to Implement UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. “Ghana still has traditional practices that promote abuse and, in some ways, the killing of some children with disabilities including some category of adults in spite of constitutional provisions that prohibits inhumane cultural and traditional practices.” (Aug, Ghanaian American)

In Indonesia, Input to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Aug, Human Rights Watch)

In Japan, Conclusions from the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on the rights of people with disabilities in Japan: “Committee Experts commended Japan’s compensation of victims of eugenic surgery, while asking questions on institutionalisation and inclusive education.” (Aug, OHCHR)

In Myanmar, Disabled face discrimination in Myanmar. “There is little wonder in a society that is attempting to develop economically and culturally after decades of military regime mismanagement that those on the bottom rungs have a particularly hard time, in part because they tend to be ignored.” (Jul, Mizzima)

In New Zealand, Lack of cross-government ownership a major barrier warns disability rights report, which particularly emphasizes the need for consultation with disabled people. One of the authors says “there is still a quantum leap required to remove disparities for disabled people in New Zealand”. (Aug, Ombudsman)

In Zimbabwe, A call to include people living with disabilities in development programmes. (Aug, Chronicle)

Politics and Elections

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In Brazil, A network of People With Disabilities in the PSOL party, São Paulo “We want to get out of invisibility and construct an anti-ableist and inclusive society.” (in Portuguese, Jul, PcDs do PSOL SP)

In Burkina Faso, Guide to disability inclusive elections. (Mar, LFTW)

In New Zealand, $1m Election Access Fund gets mixed response from disabled people. (Jul, Stuff)

Relationships, Sex and Reproductive Rights

Back to contents.

In International News:

Some experiences of sex workers with disabilities who find opportunities in their work. (Jul, URevolution)

In Europe, The Fight to End Forced Sterilization of Disabled Women and Girls (Aug, Women's Media Center)

In the United States,

Resources

Back to contents.

In the United States, Disability Justice Resource Directory evolving curation of disability justice tools, resources and best practices. (May, Creating Freedom Movements)

Sport and Paralympics

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In International News:

What should the future of para sport look like at the Commonwealth Games? (Aug, ABC News)

In France, Ahead of 2024 Olympics, Paris sponsors accessibility of neighbourhoods. (Jul, The Mayor)

In India, Awaiting the right move. “Persons with Disabilities and activists share their grievances on inaccessibility at the ongoing Chess Olympiad and how it could have been made better” (Aug, The New Indian Express)

In Japan, More accessibility: the Tokyo Olympic legacy for people with disabilities. (Jul, La Prensa Latina)

In Namibia, ‘Once they saw us everybody stood still’ Para cycling making waves (Jul, International Paralympic Committee)

In Qatar, Will FIFA World Cup 2022 mark the beginning of a new era for accessibility in Qatar?

Violence and Harassment

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In India,

In Mexico, Mother of Child with Autism Killed after Seeking Protection from Authorities. “Luz reported being threatened by a neighbor because he didn’t like the noises her son made during crises. She also said the neighbor had attacked her with industrial bleach.” (Jul, Human Rights Watch)

In Zimbabwe, People with albinism struggling against stigma: risks of attacks, rape, trafficking and other discrimination. (Jun, News Day)

War in Ukraine

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Evacuating or Leaving Ukraine

In International News:

Surviving the Russo-Ukraine War with disability – a feature with Tetyana Herasymova of Fight for Right. (Aug, Ink Stick Media)

Situation in Ukraine

In International News:

Ukrainian care center for disabled deals with the trauma of occupation. A story of being under attack, evacuating, and the subsequent return. (Jul, Washington Post)

'Left behind': How war is hitting the disabled in Ukraine. (Aug, Euronews.)

Response

In International News:

No One Should be Left Behind Disabled People in the Russia-Ukraine War and Armed Conflicts (Aug, Politics Today)

Reflections from HelpAge on six months in: delivery, impact and challenges. (Aug)

Cash Feasibility Assessment conducted on adult internally displaced people (IDPs) with disabilities in Ukraine in May/June. “The assessment shows that cash and emergency livelihoods support is highly needed and appropriate given the income loss all IDPs with disabilities have experienced since their displacement.” (Aug, NAIU)

Water and Sanitation (WASH)

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In International News:

Water for Women guide on Partnerships for Transformation for WASH and Rights Holder Organizations includes a section featuring partnerships with organizations of persons with disabilities. (Link to pdf, Aug, Water for Women) See also their other recent publications that have taken efforts to mainstream disability.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Tan Kuan Aw for the illustration and the newsletter logo.

The source for news here is all of you sharing disability news, especially those sharing on twitter. Thanks to everyone for spreading the word about what's going on.

Many thanks to readers, Sightsavers and the Center for Inclusive Policy for support. These newsletters are produced by me, Peter Torres Fremlin. Opinions or mistakes are mine.

Cheers,

Peter

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