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Women with Disabilities

Women with disabilities comprise 10% of all women worldwide. Approximately 300 million women and girls around the world have an intellectual, mental, sensory and/or physical disability.

Women with disabilities are likely to face double discrimination based upon gender and their disability, yet inadvertent barriers and discriminatory practices often limit their participation in development programs.

There is a strong need to integrate people with disabilities - especially women with disabilities - into all USAID supported programs, operations, and activities.

Integrating Women with Disabilities into Development Programs

• Women with disabilities can often be integrated into general programming through small programmatic modifications. For example, providing trainings and public events at venues that have ramps and disability-accessible bathrooms versus selecting training sites located on a second floor that are only reachable by stairs. While separate programs that specifically target women with disabilities can at times be useful, it is also extremely important to mainstream women with disabilities into all general programs and activities.
  
  
• Integrating women with disabilities into general programming does not always require additional funds. The majority of the modifications to insure inclusion can be implemented without additional costs to the program.
  
  
• When looking for ways to integrate women with disabilities, the best experts on disability are women with disabilities themselves. Outreach to Disabled Persons Organizations (DPOs) - particularly women's disability organizations - can serve as a great resource for obtaining information on current barriers to participation and how those barriers can be reduced to increase participation.

For more information, please contact:

Rob Horvath, Senior Technical Advisor, rhorvath@usaid.gov

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