‘Wait. You’re Blind!’
“You can’t participate!”
Author
Mugambi Paul

People with disabilities learn to be agile as we adapt every single day to an ableist world that isn’t designed or built with us in mind—and worse, doubts that we have something meaningful to contribute. The acute limitations some of us live with require imagination and creativity that often surprise persons who are yet to be disabled who make assumptions or have grown accustomed to expecting less from people who are blind and others with different disabilities. The fact is, we’re quite adept at figuring out alternative ways of getting things done, often because we have to. We don’t have an option!
As matter-of-fact state and non-state actors in the global south do not engage persons with disabilities as major stakeholders in the policy design, planning implementation, monitoring and evaluation in a meaningfully manner.
I observe it is normally a check boxing exercise.
Most of the time they are engaged at the eleventh hour just to rubber stamp the ideas.
How many strategies, policies and regulations measures mennt for public presented at te 11th hour without input of persons with disabilities?
Isn’t it the daily practice?
As disability sausage media we opine When organizations of persons with disabilities are involved, it is often on disability-specific issues, but rarely on broader development issues that also concern persons with disabilities.
It will take more damage control to undo the already messed up disability statecraft.
In other words, this means most policy documents are poorly made disability inclusive and promote exclusion practices.
For proper participation and recognition of Article 4.3 of the UNCRPD requires close consultation with and active involvement of persons with disabilities, through their representative organizations.

Moreover, when persons with disabilities participate in decision-making processes, it provides strong support towards ensuring that policies, strategies, programmes and operations to be more effective in addressing barriers
to inclusion and more relevant in supporting their full and equal participation.
On the other hand, the rights of persons with disabilities are protected and promoted by the 2006
United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
The Convention has served as the major catalyst in the global movement in
shifting the view on persons with disabilities as objects of charity, medical
treatment and subjects of social assistance towards the human rights approach
recognising them as full and equal members of society.

It is also the only UN human rights instrument with an explicit development
Dimension.
Never the less, Persons with disabilities have first-hand experience of the challenges they face and know better what can be don article venues and reasonable accommodation needs to be put in place.
More so, in the Covid era we need to ensure facilitation is guaranteed. Obviously, many barriers remain, such as inaccessible venues and information, inadequate funding for reasonable accommodation, and limited knowledge about how to engage with persons with disabilities.
In other words, state and non-state actors are increasingly inviting persons with disabilities on the table but they do not engage them meaningfully [ida 2020 UNDP 2018 whiteford 2017[.
Several studies have indicated Some groups are rarely invited: persons with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities, persons who are blind, persons with deaf blindness and women with disabilities are among the groups largely left out of consultation and decision-making processes [HI 2019 KAIH 2020].
This is true a a race without an end.
I opine, that as global south emulates policies from the west, they will one day ensure meaningful participation of persons with disabilities.

As a public policy scholar and with lived disability experience I have severally demonstrated that we want to belong to the society. together with my fellow students I remember vividly, under the Australian scholarship we were able actually to create global disability awareness in 2018 through this video which was broadcasted in all Australian missions.
Do not under estimate me:

I know some people with disabilities are gifted with artistry that generates delight when it finds expression.
In the same year luckly, it is when the Australian government recognized me and awarded me “the chief minister award” for my excellence work of making inclusion happen. This was not a mere achievement for me but a confidence which Australians be stalled mean being the first non-Australian and also coming from Africa.

Join us in the disability sausage YouTube channel for much mouthwatering articles
The views expressed here are for the author and do not represent any agency or organization.
Mugambi Paul is a public policy, diversity, inclusion and sustainability expert.
Australian Chief Minister Award winner
“Excellence of making inclusion happen”

See that apocalyptic pic above? That’s the town of Greenville, California. It doesn’t exist anymore. The Dixie Fire incinerated it as it raged through the Sierra Nevada. And there’s plenty more where that came from. Floods in Europe. Germany underwater. Asia flooded, too. Twin heat domes scorching Siberia and North America. Small Canadian towns — Canadian — some of the hottest places on earth.
Something feels very, very wrong. To you, probably, as it does to me. But also to climate scientists. The frequency and magnitude of these “extreme events” is literally off the charts of their worst predictions. Even the experts are being left staggered by how rapidly and severely the planet is warming — or, more accurately, overheating.
The question that needs to be asked is a grim and difficult one. It goes like this.
Are we pushing the planet past its tipping points?
Let me explain. If you’re not versed in these basics of climate science, you should be. It’s not just warming alone that’s bad. It’s that warming triggers “feedbacks” — changes in the planet’s great systems that then accelerate warming. How much? From anywhere from apocalyptic to cataclysmic. Feedbacks can turn a slow, centuries long trend of warming into a quick few decades of sudden, incredibly fast, cataclysmic overheating.
“Tipping points occur when global heating pushes temperatures beyond a critical threshold, leading to accelerated and irreversible impacts.”
How fast are we talking? We’re talking about abrupt warming that happens within one human lifetime. Unfortunately, one that happens to be ours.
What kinds of feedbacks could produce the rapid warming we’re beginning to see — the sudden, abrupt overheating that’s leaving even climate scientists shocked?
To understand that, you need to know about the planet’s great ecologies. The ocean currents recirculate warm water and cool it, keeping the temperature of the ocean relatively low. There are the polar ice caps, which reflect sunlight, and cool the planet. The great rainforests, like the Amazon, absorb carbon from the skies, and breathe out fresh air.
Those you probably have some awareness of — here are a few you might not know about.
The boreal forests — the northern ones — are the largest ecosystem on the planet. They absorb vast amounts of carbon, too. Then there’s the northern permafrost, which keeps massive deposits of methane trapped — and the rocks in those areas do, too. The monsoons keep Africa and Asia cool, and their soils fertile. The coral reefs keep coastal areas of oceans healthy and vibrant with life.
These great ecologies are are also the planet’s great tipping points. There are, depending on how you count, and who you ask, from between eight to ten of them — I’ve barely touched on them, but this isn’t a book. The point is: these are systems we really don’t want to mess with.
Why not? Because collapsing these ecosystems will almost certainly lead to runaway global warming. Each one of these great ecologies plays an equilibrating or balancing role. Push them too far, and they break apart — but breaking them leads to feedbacks. For example, if the ocean currents slow down, and no longer circulate warm water, because the planet’s gotten too hot, then it heats even faster. If the poles don’t reflect light, because there’s little ice left, then the planet heats that much faster.
See what climate scientists mean by “feedbacks” now? You can think of them as simply a vicious circle. The point is to understand that global warming isn’t just a matter of first-order effects — but second and third order ones, too. Heating the planet so much breaks ecosystems, which protected the planet from heating up, and without them, a kind of chain reaction begins.
Now that you’re acquainted with the basics of climate science — and my apologies if I’ve explained it clumsily — let’s go through how many of tipping points we actually appear to be reaching. This is where things start to get pretty frightening, by the way.
Ocean currents? The most important one is the Gulf Stream. But in the last few months, “climate scientists have detected warning signs of the collapse of the Gulf Stream, one of the planet’s main potential tipping points. The research found ‘an almost complete loss of stability over the last century’ of the currents that researchers call the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC).”
Did you get that?
“The signs of destabilisation being visible already is something that I wouldn’t have expected and that I find scary,” said Niklas Boers, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, who did the research. “It’s something you just can’t [allow to] happen.”
Ocean currents slowing and stopping are probably the biggest, most dangerous tipping point of all. Hit that point, and you get into the stuff of sci-fi movies. Just imagine what happens if oceans can’t cool the planet’s waters anymore. Bang. We all cook.
But we’re only just beginning.
What about the ice sheets? “A significant part of the Greenland ice sheet is on the brink of a tipping point, after which accelerated melting would become inevitable even if global heating was halted, according to new research.”
The same is more or less true at the Antarctic, too, where vast portions of the great polar ice now break off regularly.
What happens as this ecosystem is broken? “Large-scale melting of the Greenland ice sheet would have long-term global consequences, beyond rising sea levels. It could halt the Gulf Stream ocean current, with potential knock-on effects on the Amazon rainforest and tropical monsoons.” See how all these great ecologies are connected?
That’s two so far: ocean currents and ice sheets. Both appear to be hitting tipping points.
Let’s do a third one now. What about the methane deposits trapped by the permafrost? “Scientists have been shocked that the warm weather conducive to permafrost thawing is occurring roughly 70 years ahead of model projections.”
The permafrost-methane situation is so bad you can literally see the methane bubbling away in YouTube videos. You can literally see the permafrost melting and the land buckling in satellite imagery. Hence, plenty of scientists describe all this as a “ticking methane bomb.” The clock, though, seems to be running down much, much faster than anyone much expected.
Nobody knows when the clock runs out. What we do know is what happens when it does. Methane is released in massive quantities. Bang. So fast and so hard it’s game over for us and civilization, basically. No, we’re not at that point yet. But we’re getting closer every day — way, way faster than we ever thought we were, so fast that you can literally see it happening.
That’s just three tipping points. The evidence appears to suggest we’re hitting all of them.
Let’s do one more, just for good measure.
The Amazon used to be one of the planet’s great carbon sinks — absorbing more carbon than it emitted. Recently, though — just this summer — that finally went into reverse. The Amazon is now a net carbon emitter — thanks to dieback and loss and deforestation.
That’s a classic, undeniable tipping point being hit. As the Amazon becomes a net carbon emitter, what limiting effect it had on cooling the planet vanishes, and the planet warms that much faster, in a chain reaction of overheating.
We’ve covered about half the planet’s great ecologies — and the evidence, sadly, appears to be that we’re hitting tipping points in each of them. I could go on with the other half — and more or less the same thing would be true.
This isn’t a scientific paper. I raise the issue to begin to try to make a certain link, to try to connect a series of dots.
What is it that explains the incredibly severe intensity with which the planet’s now warming? Why is it that the planet’s overheating so incredibly fast that you and I can literally feel it year by year? Why is it that incredibly extreme events are now suddenly commonplace — California on fire, Siberia melting, Canadian towns the hottest places on earth, Germany flooded?
What’s behind all this?
Well, what would explain all of it is if we’ve indeed pushed the planet past its tipping points. If we’ve set off the chain reaction of runaway global warming. That’s more or less the only thing that would explain the freakish, frightening extreme events we’ve all been seeing — and many of us have been living through — recently.
Doesn’t it feel like that? Like something’s changed? Like we’ve pushed things too far? It does to me. I recently came back to the East Coast of the States. It’s now as hot — trapped under a heat dome — as the Indian subcontinent used to be when I was a kid. Meanwhile, the Indian subcontinent looks like it might not even be habitable in a decade or two. What’s going to happen when “wet bulb” temperatures are reached there — the point at which you can’t survive, period? Nobody knows, except I guess a lot of people die.
It feels to me like something has changed. Like suddenly, we are crossing the planet’s great tipping points. Hence, the way that extreme events are becoming commonplace, and the summers are heating so fast that each one is now noticeably hotter than the last. Hence, the way that mega flood and mega fire — of the kind which can incinerate and wreck whole towns and cities in moments — have become just new normal parts of our lives and vocabularies.
Something is going very wrong. That’s what it feels like to me.
This isn’t science — sorry. But science? That takes time. Decades. Decades we don’t have. That’s not to devalue science — it’s only to offer a bit of perspective. Yes, science can “confirm” that we’ve crossed the threshold of runaway warming — a decade or so after we have. By then? The planet will look vastly different. What will it look like?
The scenario we appear to be heading towards is what climate scientists often call “hothouse earth.” Think about it this way. The last time the earth was this hot was between three and five million years ago. But we’re heating it up so fast that every that by 2050, it’ll be as hot as it was about seven to ten million years or more ago. In other words, we’re heating up the planet so fast that each of our years is becoming millions of years in geological time now.
Hothouse earth means that the climate ends up about 4 to 5 degrees Celsius warmer than its pre-industrial average. That might not sound like a lot, so consider that right about now, we’re only at about one degree or so. And that one degree or so is enough to incinerate California and Australia, flood Europe, and drown Asia.
Two degrees? That’s when places like California become unlivable, when Europe floods massively every year, when “wet bulb temperatures” begin to be reached and human habitability is called into question. Three degrees? That’s when the planet is ringed with Fire and Flood Belts, in which nobody much can live — and vast portions of it are simply flatly uninhabitable. Four degrees? Sea levels rise by meters, coasts recede, the world’s great cities flood, and the basics of our civilisation snap apart like twigs.
Our civilisation is barely, just barely, surviving one degree. It might, just might survive two — though millions will perish. It won’t survive three. And four? Four is the stuff of cataclysm — the planet’s as hot then as it was during the last great extinction of life on earth. At those temperatures, life as we know it becomes an impossibility. Good luck getting timber for furniture, clean water, fresh food, breathable air. Bang. Game over.
And yet it seems to me that only one thing can explain the extreme freakish weirdness we’re beginning to see. Washington DC now as hot as Delhi was just a few decades ago. German towns washed away. Californian towns incinerated. Megafire and megaflood. Heat domes parked over the Northern Hemisphere. Each summer noticeably, dramatically hotter than the last.
It feels to me like we’re crossing the planet’s great tipping points. We are pushing too far, past points of no return, which feel like they’re setting off the chain reaction of overheating that is going to lead to a hothouse planet which resembles an earth from a distant past of millions of years ago.
We human beings? We’ve only been around for 300,000 years. We’re heating the planet to resemble the one of ten million years ago. Maybe you see the problem. We weren’t made to survive on a planet like the one we’re creating. And that, my friend, seems to me spell very bad news indeed.

Dear poverty
Author Mugambi Paul

For today I allow me to go straight to the point since Poverty you want to befriend everyone.
For many persons with disabilities from the global south for instance in Kenya the cycle of poverty is an on-going one. Coupled with the Covid pandemic exclusion and marginalization are increasing at an alarming rate. Unfortunately most state and non state actors take advantage of this circumstance.
This is because most persons with disabilities face discrimination in their community. As disability sausage media we opine that Most persons with disabilities are unaware of their rights and hence unable to stand up for these. Many are poor, with no means of livelihood. They often cannot afford basic services. The result is that people do not access any basic sevices and care when they could greatly benefit from these social services.
In other words, few opportunities for good housing, poor nutrition and a lack of access to basic health and education services moreover, persons with disabilities have less opportunity to find decent work and any means to lift themselves and their families out of the poverty trap. Check boxing is becoming the reality of the day.
As body of research and affirmation by disability sausage media we note that for persons with disabilities and their families this cycle of poverty is even harder to break as disability is both a cause, as well as a consequence of poverty. As Whiteford in his article “2017Disability contributes to and deepens poverty on an individual, family and community level. “As a public policy scholar, I neo there are many policies and regulations which have been developed but we still face the implementation challenge.
When shall we cure with beast of policy implementation?
On the other hand, taking a glimpse on the diffent social media platforms’ it is quite evident that poverty is increasing at a frightening speed. A person with disability and their family are less likely to have access to rehabilitation, education, skills training and employment opportunities.
When a person in the home acquires a disability there are often additional costs that can push the family into extreme poverty [Ilo 21015 HI 2016 IDA 20018]. In most global south there is little or no health and social service provision for persons with disabilities and families are forced to sell their assets to support loved ones.
For example, In Kenya, there is no universal health coverage thus increasing the vulnerabilities rates. Another example is the coverage of the cash transfer which has reached only thirty-three thousand individuals with severe disabilities thus living most majority of persons with disabilities.
At the same time poverty can be a cause of disability: be this through lack of access to adequate nutrition, preventative and curative health care; information, clean water and sanitation or safe housing and employment conditions. To put matters differently, the existence of inequalities and systemic structural challenges have continuously intertwined with disability.
How can this change?
Breaking this cycle of poverty and disability is critical to bring about change in the lives of persons with disabilities and their families and communities.
Join us in the disability sausage YouTube channel for much mouth-watering articles
The views expressed here are for the author and do not represent any agency or organization.
Mugambi Paul is a public policy, diversity, inclusion and sustainability expert.
Australian Chief Minister Award winner
“Excellence of making inclusion happen”

Are persons with disabilities absconding with masses who don’t have mercy with them?
Author Mugambi Paul

Several studies have indicated lack of participation of persons with disabilities in decision making processes [carol 2018, carol 209 IDA 2020[
This is evident in both public and private sectors.
Moreover, Persons with disabilities are not consistently or adequately valued by other local, regional, global and community actors as contributing members and leaders.
For example, many parastatals
or corporates board do not have representation of persons with disabilities.
If it’s there they do not have quality voice of representation. Where did the rain decide to hit the disability crew?
Given the current political context of democratic backsliding especially in the global south, school closures, and social distancing caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, persons with disabilities are facing increased barriers to developing their democratic identities, learning how to be active citizens, and exercising their rights to participate in civic and political life.
In other words, this is what they are calling the new normal of real exclusion! Now more than ever, development practitioners and the international community need to shift their approach to engaging persons with disabilities in democracy and governance programs from one that views them as recipients to one that treats persons with disabilities as partners and considers the unique environments in which they live. As disability sausage media we argue that civic education programs that apply a positive disability development (PYD) approach can inform and shape how persons with disabilities develop democratic identities and habits and directly link these identities and behaviors to building and sustaining democracies. Will the election bodies in the global south entice and create an honest sharing of the cake to persons with disabilities? The disability sausage media YouTube channel will illuminate good practices and lessons learned through an exploration of global civic education programs demonstrating the utility of a PYD approach. We shall also identify areas to consider for the expansion and future of civic education programs to ensure their effectiveness and better link them to the Sustainable Development Goals.
15 % of the population should never be ignored at any public or private decision making processed!
Join us in the disability sausage YouTube channel for much mouthwatering articles
The views expressed here are for the author and do not represent any agency or organization.
Mugambi Paul is a public policy, diversity, inclusion and sustainability expert.
Australian Chief Minister Award winner
“Excellence of making inclusion happen”

Tips for mental wellbeing:
Author Mugambi Paul
Acknowledging the conversations around mental health on inaugural days like R U OK day is important, but conversations should not stop here. Mental health and wellbeing can impact us at any time. Having those conversations takes courage and bravery, but is also facilitated by a supportive culture.
In Kenya in the last one month of July at list 433 cases of suicide have been reported.
This numbers might be even more due to factors which are also coupled with the rising poverty levels, crime and lack of economic support.
Here are some small activities that we do at AND that you can easily implement at your workplace today. These are small changes that you can make as an individual to create an open culture and to support mental health and wellbeing:
Self-care plans
Developing and writing a self-care plan helps you to think about and priorities your mental health and well-being. The self-care plan can take any shape you like – but having a written document can help remind you of the steps you can take to make the best choices for you. Outlining what you can do to support yourself physically, emotionally and psychologically helps you take a holistic approach with your mental health and wellbeing.
Self-care plans can be flexible and change at any time. Plans can easily adapt to new circumstances, and if a certain task is no longer working to support you, it’s easy to swap it out. You can share the plan with someone to keep you accountable, or you can keep it to yourself. If you do decide to share it with your wider team, managers are able to identify what their employees need support.
Tasks can include anything to support you – like making sure you take breaks during the day, getting outside for lunch, logging off on time, or flagging challenging workloads with your manager.
The self-care plan can be informal – something as simple as a list you keep on your desk that only you see – or they can formalize, and you can discuss with your manager at each one-on-one. It’s whatever works best for you, so you can bring your best self to work.
Buddy system
Sometimes chatting to someone really helps. At work, why not buddy up with a colleague to catch-up with to destress or to discuss. Implementing a buddy system may look like a quick 15 minute catch-up every other week during work to discuss anything and everything. Or, it may look like a half-an-hour check in weekly.
Whatever it looks like, a buddy system helps us support each other.
Check in at the beginning of meetings
Have a team catch up, or a one-on-one? Why not start the conversation with a check-in before getting down to agenda items?
This creates a positive and open culture in your workplace and may help alleviate some stress, or open discussions to problem-solving if you need the assistance.
Stretch breaks/online dance breaks
It’s easy to lose sight of getting up from the desk when working from home. Here at AND, we implement stretch breaks and/or online dance breaks in the afternoon.
Invite some co-workers, play some music and together stretch for the length of the song.
Gather socially – either in person or online
Working life looks different for everyone now, but it’s still important to have a social chat. You can organize a monthly lunch with the team to be social, whether in person or virtual, it’s a great way to connect with your team and to provide that much needed social support.
Stay tuned for more from disability sausage media The views expressed here are for the author and do not represent any agency or organization.
Mugambi Paul is a public policy, diversity, inclusion and sustainability expert.
Australian Chief Minister Award winner
“Excellence of making inclusion happen”

Tips for mental wellbeing:
Author Mugambi Paul
Tips for mental well being:
Acknowledging the conversations around mental health on inaugural days like R U OK day is important, but conversations should not stop here. Mental health and wellbeing can impact us at any time. Having those conversations takes courage and bravery, but is also facilitated by a supportive culture.
In Kenya in the last one month of July at list 433 cases of suicide have been reported.
This numbers might be even more due to factors which are also coupled with the rising poverty levels, crime and lack of economic support.
Here are some small activities that we do at AND that you can easily implement at your workplace today. These are small changes that you can make as an individual to create an open culture and to support mental health and wellbeing:
Self-care plans
Developing and writing a self-care plan helps you to think about and priorities your mental health and well-being. The self-care plan can take any shape you like – but having a written document can help remind you of the steps you can take to make the best choices for you. Outlining what you can do to support yourself physically, emotionally and psychologically helps you take a holistic approach with your mental health and wellbeing.
Self-care plans can be flexible and change at any time. Plans can easily adapt to new circumstances, and if a certain task is no longer working to support you, it’s easy to swap it out. You can share the plan with someone to keep you accountable, or you can keep it to yourself. If you do decide to share it with your wider team, managers are able to identify what their employees need support.
Tasks can include anything to support you – like making sure you take breaks during the day, getting outside for lunch, logging off on time, or flagging challenging workloads with your manager.
The self-care plan can be informal – something as simple as a list you keep on your desk that only you see – or they can formalize, and you can discuss with your manager at each one-on-one. It’s whatever works best for you, so you can bring your best self to work.
Buddy system
Sometimes chatting to someone really helps. At work, why not buddy up with a colleague to catch-up with to destress or to discuss. Implementing a buddy system may look like a quick 15 minute catch-up every other week during work to discuss anything and everything. Or, it may look like a half-an-hour check in weekly.
Whatever it looks like, a buddy system helps us support each other.
Check in at the beginning of meetings
Have a team catch up, or a one-on-one? Why not start the conversation with a check-in before getting down to agenda items?
This creates a positive and open culture in your workplace and may help alleviate some stress, or open discussions to problem-solving if you need the assistance.
Stretch breaks/online dance breaks
It’s easy to lose sight of getting up from the desk when working from home. Here at AND, we implement stretch breaks and/or online dance breaks in the afternoon.
Invite some co-workers, play some music and together stretch for the length of the song.
Gather socially – either in person or online
Working life looks different for everyone now, but it’s still important to have a social chat. You can organize a monthly lunch with the team to be social, whether in person or virtual, it’s a great way to connect with your team and to provide that much needed social support.
Stay tuned for more from disability sausage media The views expressed here are for the author and do not represent any agency or organization.
Mugambi Paul is a public policy, diversity, inclusion and sustainability expert.
Australian Chief Minister Award winner
“Excellence of making inclusion happen”

Author Mugambi Paul

Why we should not forget the displaced persons with disabilities!

Guest Author Nabil and
Mugambi Paul

People living with disabilities are often excluded, marginalized, and forgotten during times of war. The Syrian civil war, which erupted in 2011, is one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises since World War II. After 10 years of unrest, Syria has the highest recorded prevalence of disability in conflict worldwide.
Syrian men, women, girls, and boys with disabilities, including those in neighboring countries and refugees’ camps, live in highly vulnerable situations: they face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, such as increased barriers to accessing support and life-saving services. They often face more protection risks than people without disabilities. At the same time, funding for an inclusive humanitarian response in Syria and for programs that service Syrian refugees with disabilities in neighboring countries is at risk.
People with disabilities often are invisible in programs delivery, ignored in refugee and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) assistance programs, and neglected when humanitarian and aid agencies establish targeted services, especially in fragile and conflicted settings. People with disabilities are also often unable to access mainstream assistance programs because of physical or mental barriers.
Adding to this challenging situation, community coping mechanisms, such as extended families and neighbors, are often destroyed during conflict and displacement. This leaves many civilians with disabilities vulnerable and with no assistance. Thousands of people with disabilities across Syria struggle to survive with limited or no access to essential services.
There is an intersection between humanitarian crises and people with disabilities. People with disabilities and their caregivers are disproportionately affected by conflict and face a specific and aggravated set of challenges due to both discrimination and the barriers that limit their access to essential protection and humanitarian assistance. The intersection between gender, age, and disability can compound exclusion and, in turn, vulnerability.
People with disabilities in Syria are excluded and face psychosocial challenges. They face discrimination and physical barriers to life complicated by war.
Despite the frequency and familiarity of the vulnerabilities of people with disabilities, international humanitarian interventions still possess a gap in acquiring people with disabilities needs, which makes accessing the much-needed support unapproachable (OCHA, 2019). “These are major and complex challenges, and unfortunately, they are not always present in mainstream humanitarian debates.”
Shocking Numbers: Prevalence Rate of People with Disabilities
Recent evidence suggests that the individual prevalence rate of people with disabilities living in Syria, aged 12 years and above, is 27%, which is almost twice that of the global average (15%).
Based on the World Health Organization and Handicap International report, about 3.7 million people are injured and living with disabilities in Syria. Nearly half of them have permanent disabilities, including 86,000 amputees. More importantly, approximately 30,000 people are added to the disabled community in Syria every month.
The key findings from the National Assessment of Disability in Syria showed that in addition to the provision of medical rehabilitation services, other environmental factors – such as physical and social barriers and the mental health of people with disabilities – are priorities to be addressed and require urgent attention through adopting a comprehensive, integrated, and multidisciplinary approach to disability-inclusive programming.
Person in need of rehabilitation services.
In response, various international organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have developed initiatives and established programs to increase access to rehabilitation services for people with disabilities in Syria and other regions where refugees live. However, further effective policies are needed to address the needs of disabled people in this war-torn country.
COVID 19: Risk and Limited Protection
While the COVID-19 pandemic threatens all members of society, people with disabilities are disproportionately impacted due to attitudinal, environmental, and institutional barriers reproduced in the pandemic context. Syria is no exception.
People with disabilities are known to be at an increased risk of protection and transmission of the virus. This is because they can face higher exposure rates due to the need for close contact with personal assistants/caregivers, and they can be more likely to have an underlying health condition, as well as face attitudinal, environmental, and institutional barriers to access services. Inadequate and inaccessible WASH facilities and equipment, such as hand-washing stations and hygiene kits, compounds the risk of exposure to the virus and, therefore, the development of severe illness and complications.
The recent socio-economic impact assessment of COVID-19 highlighted that emergency care services for people with disabilities had been compromised due to limited personal protective equipment and uncertainty about management protocols.
To further strengthen the inclusion of people with disabilities during the pandemic and overall humanitarian response, engagement with humanitarian leaders on practical measures related to the Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HPC) and other strategic coordination processes remains necessary.
People with Disabilities: Higher Risk During Fighting
Situations of armed conflict often force people to flee areas when violence erupts. As a consequence, people with disabilities can have a higher risk of harm.
In refugee situations, people with disabilities are particularly vulnerable. Without independent mobility, families fleeing danger may be forced to abandon their family members with disabilities, exposing them to more health and safety risks and reducing their chances of survival. For those who may manage to reach refugee camps, the situation in the camps gives rise to an increase in causes of impairment through poor nutrition and health conditions, injuries relating to conflict, accidents, burns, torture, and trauma.
Refugees and displaced persons living with disabilities are amongst the most isolated, socially excluded, and marginalized of all displaced populations in refugees’ camps. Some refugees and displaced persons may have lived their whole lives with a disability, and others may have become disabled during the conflict or natural disaster which led to their flight. They are “Too often invisible and forgotten.” For refugees with disabilities and their families who have fled from conflict in their country, living with physical and mental disabilities poses enormous day-to-day challenges.
Displaced persons living with disabilities.
“People with disabilities remain among the most hidden, neglected, and socially excluded of all displaced people today,” the Syria Relief report. “As they are often not recognized or calculated in record-keeping and data.
More than 60% of Syrian refugee households include a person with a disability, and 1 in 5 Syrian refugees has a disability, according to a new study by Human Inclusion HI and iMMAP.
Forced displacement disproportionately affects them. People with disabilities are often at higher risk of violence, exploitation, and abuse, face barriers to access basic services, and are often excluded from education and livelihood opportunities.
Disability intersects with other forms of marginalization, including gender, stigma, and abuse, making it even harder for some people with disabilities to access support and services such as food, sanitation, and health care. Children with disabilities in refugees’ camps are affected by armed conflict and also face severe obstacles to accessing education, support services, and assistive technology devices.
What Is Required?
In line with the principal motivation of humanitarian action, which is to save lives and alleviate suffering in a manner that respects and restores personal dignity, consideration of the specific needs of people with disabilities to services and adaptation is essential during a crisis.
Inclusion of people with disabilities in the Syrian humanitarian response and the COVID-19 emergency response must be strengthened, both in terms of protection and assistance, in line with the commitments laid out in the Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action.
People with disabilities must have equal access to essential services and protection by considering specific needs such as diverse communication methods, personal assistance/care, and individual physical contact to support daily activities and independence with physical accessibility to structures.
Syrian refugee girl asking for help.
We must commit to supporting the needs of people with disabilities by reaching out to as many of them as possible, especially those in remote and hard-to-reach areas, refugees camps, and those who are particularly vulnerable to discrimination, exploitation, and violence, including women and girls with disabilities.
The most crucial topics to work on are accessibility, education, and employment. It is also important to monitor the inclusion of people with disabilities in conflict areas, particularly their specific needs and ability to access services. These things can be the magic turn for people with disabilities in Syria, with capacities and awareness raised.
Final Words
All people with disabilities who live in conflict-affected areas have the same rights, as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Refugees with disabilities lack awareness of their rights; many of them are not aware of their rights and are therefore unable to demand them.
As the conflict continues in Syria and the number of injured persons rises, it’s critical to increase the capacity to deliver long-term rehabilitative care.
An inclusive humanitarian response recognizes that there are strategies to address the needs to overcome particular barriers in accessing services for every marginalized or vulnerable group. Inclusion can only be realized by recognizing that it is a core component of moral and practical humanitarian action and requires a commitment at all levels, from the coordination level to service delivery, translated into the provision of dedicated resources, appropriate funding, and deliberate action.
Frustrated multiethnic crowd holding a Syrian flag.
Refugees with disabilities are “forgotten,” “vulnerable,” and “invisible.” We must all work together today to support them.

The melody of my heart:
You know who you are- the brave ones who march to your own beat, never afraid to stand out and be different.
Raising the tune as you present the orchestra.
It’s been a little harder for you because people don’t always understand you.
You’ve been poked at, laughed at and even put down because you choose to be unique.
But you never wavered and stayed true to who you are and what you want.
It hasn’t been the easiest journey, but you refused to compromise who you are..
And that’s simply amazing.
The world needs more of you and your fire-
People willing to stand up and be heard, able to speak up and be heard..
Strong enough to fight for what you want and what’s right.
We never remember the ones who followed the crowd, but we’ll never forget you and your defiant beauty in making your own way.
You’re one of the rebels, the nonconformists and the innovators.
You pave the way for the rest of us to realize it’s okay to be comfortable in our own disability, to be proudly unique and be genuinely honest.
You inspire us to see that there is greatness in all of us, if we have the courage to work for it.
Maybe your journey has been full of heartache and lonely at times..
But I’m here to tell you.. don’t you ever change.
You’re an absolutely beautiful soul with a fierce spirit, big heart and strong will.
You can’t be defeated because you’ll never be the one to give up or step aside.
Keep fighting to make the world better, your voice to be heard and your dreams realized.
We all need you there- out front, leading the way to change and showing us how to evolve.
So, when things get tough and life tries to bring you down, keep doing what you do-
Shining brightly, fighting bravely and loving passionately.
You make us all see that anything is possible if you truly believe.