Championing Inclusivity at the Global Disability Summit
Health Equity 19/02/2022 • &
disability
Wheelchair users are often left to grapple with inaccessible services.

From barriers to treatment for people with hearing disabilities to preconceptions about albinism and inaccessible COVID testing for wheelchair users, participants in the Global Disability Summit took a fresh look at the wide range of discriminatory practices that an estimated 1 billion people – 15% of the world’s population – living with disabilities have to face.

This summit, the second of its kind, was sponsored by the International Disability Alliance, the governments of Norway and Ghana, and the World Health Organization, drew some 5500 participants during two days of online proceedings, 16-17 February. The conference covered issues associated with a wide range of physical and mental health disabilities.

Speakers talked about the massive challenges of tackling physical and emotional barriers, as well as the legal policies and stigmatization they face in their day-to-day lives.

Olive Namutebi, Executive Director of Albinism Umbrella, Uganda

“Somebody looks at someone with albinism and thinks that their only problem is skin,” said Olive Namutebi, Executive Director of the Albinism Umbrella, Uganda.

“There is a temperature, malaria, fever, they put me to the skin doctor. I have other issues, I’m a human being. Can I be allowed to express myself instead of you having the precognition, thinking that the only problem I have is skin because I am different?”

Across the summit, speakers and world leaders cried out for more “disability-inclusive” healthcare, education, employment, and livelihoods.

“Social and economic development must be right based and disability inclusive. We must leave no one behind,” said Norway Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre at the opening ceremony of the summit. 

Commiting to inclusivity

The summit called for all – governments, world leaders, health organizations, people with disabilities – to collaborate and commit towards this goal of inclusivity.

“All stakeholders, including governments, civil society, multilateral organisations, the private sector, and other partners, must collaborate on taking a disability inclusive approach. We must design equitable programmes, including health services, to ensure persons with disabilities achieve the highest attainable standard of health, as demanded by the World Health Assembly in 2021,” said the WHO Director-General, President of Ghana, Prime Minister of Norway and President of the the International Disability Alliance in an op-ed in the BMJ. 

People with disabilities are three times more likely to be denied access to healthcare, four times more likely to be treated inadequately in the healthcare system, and twice as likely to suffer catastrophic health expenditure, the op-ed authors stated. Some 80% of people with disabilities live in low- and middle-income countries, where access to basic social and economic services may be especially limited for persons with disabilities.

Accessible healthcare and increased disability training

Ashura Michael, IDA-UNICEF Youth Fellow

Speakers called for more accessible, quality healthcare that combats against ignorance mindsets and lack of information.

“Information is power. So many women die because of the wrong prescription. Some go through with operations when they’re not supposed to [do so],” said Ashura Michael, IDA-UNICEF Youth Fellow, speaking about how sight and hearing disabilities can be a barrier to appropriate diagnosis and treatment.

Michael called for doctors and health practitioners to be trained in sign language, so that they can communicate with deaf people and prescribe the correct treatment and medication.

She also advocated for more funds for resources for people with disabilities in schools, and to make disability training more mainstream.

“We have diversity in our disabilities. Let us come together for betterment of persons with disabilities.”

Namutebi called it ‘everyone’s business’ to get involved, especially for people with disabilities to speak up.

“This is not an isolated case of exclusivity. When you exclude me, you are excluding yourself from advancement or enjoying better services… We need to unlearn some of the thing that we’ve grown up knowing.”

Pandemic disruption 

Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light “significant inequalities” in the way persons with disabilities and other marginalized groups in many countries have been underserved in the provision of COVID-19 related health, social protection and financial services, said Nana Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana, speaking in a keynote address.

The way in which the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the day-to-day obstacles that may be encountered by disabled individuals was echoed by António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations.

“Persons with disabilities are losing their lives at vastly higher rates into persistent barriers in our system,” he said.

For instance, when the pandemic led to widespread school closures, many students with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries were left without access to technology and assisted devices for effective remote learning, Guterres pointed out. 

Workers with disabilities faced added worries since they are typically the first to lose their jobs and the last to be rehired, he pointed out.

Disabled women’s health 

Students with disabilities perform dance in rural Bangladesh. Women and girls with disabilities face higher risk of violence and abuse.

One crosscutting theme of this year’s conference was gender – as women with disabilities are even more acutely impacted by discriminatory practices.  The GDS 2022 emphasized the need for gender equality as a key to empowerment of all women and girls with disabilities.  

“Women and girls with disabilities who were already experiencing double discrimination are facing even higher risk of violence and abuse,” said Guterres.

Dr Natalia Kanem, Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund, said that women with disabilities were up to 10 times more likely to experience sexual violence. “Shouldn’t a young woman with disabilities decide what she wants for her own body? Shouldn’t she live free from the harm caused by violence, coercion and abuse?” she said. 

Young women and girls with disabilities are among those groups with the least access to reproductive health information and education, Kanen said, noting that women with disabilities are up to 10-times more likely to experience gender-based violence. 

Said Guterres, “We need to act decisively to realize and promote the rights of persons with disabilities in every corner of the world and in every facet of life. Global inequalities reverberate at the local level when developing countries have struggled financially.” 

The Nairobi-based Bridge Academy helps people with a range of disabilities to build and launch IT careers – paving a way to better livelihoods.

US’ ‘historic’ commitment 

The summit also saw the U.S making a commitment of $25 million over the next five years to the Global Partnership for Assistive Technology, founded by a consortium of partners, including the International Disability Alliance, Norway, Kenya, USAID, WHO and others in 2018.

“We’re committing to disability inclusion as a requirement in all of our humanitarian assistance. This means partnering with persons with disability organisations who all already have the expertise and relationships to make our aid more accessible,” said Samantha Power, of USAID, announcing the commitment. 

The United States made 23 new commitments on disability rights – a vast improvement from the 2018 inaugural summit, when the US made zero commitments. 

Altogether the summit saw over 1250 commitments from national governments, donors, NGOs and the private sector to take concrete steps improving disability rights in areas including: health, education, livelihoods social protection, and capacity building, summit organizers said.

Susceptibility to poverty

People with disabilities are more susceptible to poverty.

Individuals with disabilities are more susceptible to poverty than those without any disabilities.

“Without a disability inclusive approach to recovery and building resilience, persons with disabilities are at an increased risk of being left behind and falling further into poverty,” said Mari Pangestu, Managing Director of Development Policy and Partnerships at the World Bank. 

The theme of poverty and disability was also echoed by Jordan’s King Abdullah II, another featured speaker at the summit. “The political engagement of persons with disabilities is by no means less important than their economic engagement,” he said.

“They are part of societies everywhere, and that must be reflected in education, healthcare, business, sports tourism, in all facets of life. None can be dismissed as a luxury.” 

Examples of other commitments made by countries at the summit included and announcement by the Maldives to increase social protection of people with disabilities, and Angola to strengthen  processes supporting people with disabilities to vote in this year’s election.

Image Credits: Sightsavers.org, Rasmus Gerdin/ Unsplash, GDS, ILO Asia-Pacific, Adam Howarth/Flickr.

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