12 practical ways to push disability up your organisation’s agenda

Disability Rights
General

The Global Disability Summit 2022 is over and many commitments have been made. Now the real work begins. Disability inclusion is everyone’s business, so let’s get cracking. Here are 12 practical tips, no matter what your role!

For Governments and their partners

Make your commitments at the Global Disability Summit count, by ensuring swift implementation and sound monitoring.
Join the Global Action on Disability (GLAD) Network. Bringing together institutional donors, foundations and the disability movement, it is a crucial alliance.
Use the disability inclusion marker of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) as a tool to assess and strengthen your inclusion track-record.
Provide dedicated space for people with disabilities to bring their expertise in policy, planning and decision-making.

“We need more space, more funding and more data. OPDs need to be recognised as meaningful partners. Nothing about Us, Without Us. But every possible agenda is about us. So simply, we are asking for NOTHING WITHOUT US!”
Yannis Vardakastanis, International Disability Alliance, speaking at the Global Disability Summit

For development and humanitarian organisations

Build strong partnerships with OPDs (Organisations of People with Disabilities).
Consult experts with disabilities in your planning, programmes and implementation – as a rule, not an exception.
Budget for inclusion in all your programmes and include disability in your statistics and monitoring.

Helpful tools to guide you: “How to include persons with disabilities in disaster response”, “Aid out of reach”, and the Inclusive Futures resource collection.

a young burkinabe woman on her bicycle, wearing a white lace head cover and matching shawl. Her skirt has red, white and black stripes. her crutch lies horizontally on the bike's handles. — Bintou, a young Burkinabe woman, rides her bicycle to her vocational training institute. She trains as a tailor.

For employers

Create inclusive and accessible work environments which welcome colleagues with disabilities. This guide can help you.
Proactively hire people with disabilities, at all levels of your company.
Connect with initiatives such as InBusiness Kenya, Make 12.4% Work Uganda and the ILO Global Business and Disability Network.

a young South Sudanese man wearing a blue facemask and lilac dress shirt sits at a desktop computer in a training centre. — 28-year-old James is taking a computer class which was advertised on the radio and through OPDs. He wants to use his new skills to set up his own print shop. South Sudan, photo credit Bullen Chol.

For you and me and everyone

Learn how to talk respectfully about disability. Be conscious about bias, stereotypes and intersecting discrimination that might affect people with disabilities.
Make your own social media communication inclusive and accessible, with this toolkit from EDF.