Resources search

One billion people around the world live with disabilities. This report makes the case that they are being “left behind” in the global community’s work on health. This lack of access not only violates the rights of people with disabilities under international law, but UHC (Universal Health Care) and SDG 3 cannot be attained without better health services for the one billion people with disabilities. 

Health and healthcare are critical issues for people with disabilities. People with disabilities often need specialized medical care related to the underlying health condition or impairment (e.g., physiotherapy, hearing aids). They also need general healthcare services like anyone else (e.g., vaccinations, antenatal care). On average, those with disabilities are more vulnerable to poor health, because of their higher levels of poverty and exclusion, and through secondary conditions and co-morbidities. People with disabilities therefore may require higher levels of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment services. However, health services are often lower quality, not affordable, and inaccessible for people with disabilities. In many situations these barriers are even more significant for women with disabilities, compared to men with disabilities.

VOICE has partnered with Elrha to conduct a rapid review to:

1. Improve understanding of how people with disabilities and older people are included in GBV interventions;

2. Assess how strategies for DOAI are aligned with the recently published Humanitarian Inclusion Standards (HIS) for Older People and People with Disabilities;

3. Identify and document positive practice examples of inclusion of people with disabilities and older people in GBV interventions.

The VOICE review team collected qualitative and quantitative data through a range of methodologies, including a desk review of formal and grey literature such as programme documentation, and key informant interviews with key stakeholders.​

How to make social protection systems and schemes more inclusive of persons with disabilities is examined. Social protection can play a key role in empowering persons with disabilities by addressing the additional costs they face, yet the majority of persons with disabilities are currently excluded from schemes.

The report identifies a wide range of barriers persons with disabilities experience in accessing social protection to be overcome. It calls for better data on disability, disability-specific and old age pension schemes and expanded coverage; adapting communications about social protection schemes; and improving disability assessment mechanisms. The research underpinning the report comprised involved a review of the literature, an analysis of household survey datasets, and consultations with key stakeholders and persons with disabilities in seven low- and middle-income countries: Brazil, India, Kenya, Mauritius, Rwanda, South Africa and Zambia.

Topics covered include:

• Types of social protection schemes for persons with disabilities
• Levels of investment in social protection for persons with disabilities
• Coverage of persons with disabilities by social protection
• Impacts of social protection on persons with disabilities
• Barriers to accessing social protection and measures to address them
• Links between social protection schemes and other public services

The Washington Group Questions on Disability are rapidly emerging as the preferred data collection methodology by the global community for national data collection efforts on disability. However, more and more development and humanitarian actors are now using the methodology in their own data collection efforts. This is beyond the original purpose of the questions, which was to generate usable data for governments. Leonard Cheshire and Humanity & Inclusion, two international charities focussed on disability and inclusion, have worked together to share learnings of recent research studies. These studies aim to understand how the Washington Group Questions (WGQ) have been used by development and humanitarian actors and the impact of using the methodology. This summary report outlines the key findings, analysis and conclusions about the application of the Washington Group Questions in a range of contexts. The report concludes with a number of recommendations for different stakeholders.

Representing between 0.2% to 2% of the population, persons with deafblindness are a very diverse yet hidden group and are, overall, more likely to be poor and unemployed, and with lower educational outcomes. Because deafblindness is less well-known and often misunderstood, people struggle to obtain the right support, and are often excluded from both development and disability programmes. This initial global report on the situation of persons with deafblindness seeks to start a dialogue between international disability rights and development stakeholders, and is based on research undertaken by the World Federation of the Deafblind (WFDB) combining the largest population-based analysis of persons with deafblindness conducted to date (disaggregation of 22 population-based surveys from low, middle and high-income countries), an academic literature review, two surveys conducted among members and partners of WFDB and Sense International. Women and men with deafblindness from across the world took part in the Helen Keller World Conference in June 2018, and were consulted to confirm the findings and elaborate on the recommendations for this report.

Data and discussion are presented on people with deafblindess and: inequality; poverty; work; education; health; participation on political and public life; and social life. Datasets are included. 

The Washington Group was set up by the United Nations Statistical Commission. It works with countries to produce better information about people with disabilities. The Washington Group has developed useful questions for countries to use to help find out whether a person has a disability, and to help collect data and information on what the differences are between people with disabilities and people without disabilities.

Persons with a disability are among the population groups most likely to suffer from exclusion from education but data that permit an analysis of the links between disability and education remain scarce. This paper examines educational disparities linked to disability based on data from 49 countries and territories for five education indicators:

● Proportion of 15- to 29-year-olds who ever attended school

● Out-of-school rate (primary school age, lower secondary school age)

● Completion rate (primary education, lower secondary education)

● Mean years of schooling of the population 25 years and older

● Adult literacy rate (population 15 years and older)

The education indicators were calculated with data from three sources, collected between 2005 and 2015: Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) sponsored by USAID, School-to-Work Transition Surveys (SWTS) by ILO, and population census data compiled by IPUMS-International. Comparability of the data across countries is limited because only some of the surveys and censuses used questions developed by the Washington Group on Disability Statistics to identify persons with a disability. The accuracy of the indicator estimates is also affected by sampling and non-sampling errors in the data, the small sample size of many of the surveys that were analysed, and the relatively small proportion of persons with disabilities in each country’s population. Moreover, because of the scarcity of national data, it is currently not possible to generate statistics on the status of persons with disabilities with regard to education that are regionally or globally representative.

Information Paper No.49

A common understanding of how to approach the employment of persons with disabilities in a way that respects social justice, human rights and decent work as a key element of more inclusive economies and societies is sought. Having the employment of persons with disabilities on the G20 agenda is also a reflection of the increased attention to the rights of persons with disabilities both at a national as well as at an international level. The contribution focuses on one particular group of people with disabilities, namely those who may have been born with disabilities or may have developed some during their lives, but either way have remaining work capacities and are at working age. 

Employment-to-population ratio statistics for persons with and without disabilities are provided for some of the G20 countries. Economic and social determinants of low employment rates of people with disabilities are discussed.

Policies across G20 countries for the labour market inclusion of persons with disabilities are discussed

• demand side - promoting disability inclusion within the private and public sector
• supply side - ensuring that persons with disabilities have the skills as demanded by the labour market
• making the environment more enabling 
• mental health as a special challenge
• measurement and quality data to inform evidence-based policies

This report considers the progress being made to achieve older people's right to health amid the global drive towards universal health coverage. It explores how older people are currently accessing health services and what changes need to be made to improve on this. It considers the role of data in driving and informing changes to health systems and the services they deliver. Data must be collected with and about older people to ensure adequate evidence for service design and delivery that is targeted and appropriate. This report explores the adequacy of current data systems and collection mechanisms and how, alongside health systems, they must be adapted in an ageing world. 

This report is supported by 12 country profiles (for Argentina, Colombia, El Salvador, Kenya, Lebanon, Moldova, Myanmar, Pakistan, Serbia, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zimbabwe; see Appendix 1). These provide national information on trends in the physical and mental health status of older people, and population-level information on access to UHC. The profiles are supplemented by data mapping, showing the national data available on older people’s health in the 12 profile countries, and revealing the data gaps. The data mapping results are available at www.GlobalAgeWatch.org.