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Suprihatin, wearing a blue headscarf, looks up.

Inclusion and rights

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities sets out fundamental human rights of people with disabilities. The convention describes what countries should do to ensure people with disabilities have the same rights as everyone else.

In reality, people with disabilities are often deliberately excluded from school, work, healthcare and community life in many places around the world. We’re working to create a world where all people with disabilities are accepted, included and empowered.

Why do people with disabilities face exclusion?

Awareness and understanding of disability is still lacking in many parts of the world. There can be a strong stigma against people with disabilities, with negative attitudes and perceptions creating a culture of shame and exclusion – to the point where people with disabilities are not able to enjoy their human rights.

Even where stigma is not evident, there can be many physical barriers stopping people with disabilities fully participating in community life, for example poor access to assistive devices like a wheelchair or a pair of glasses, or poor access to the built environment. We must address and breakdown these barriers, supporting inclusion in schools and the workplace, informing policy development and advocating for full and equitable access to public spaces.

A man in a pink t shirt smiles into the camera. He is holding some wool in his hands.

“People often underestimate people with psychosocial disability because the disability is invisible. My hope is that we are not excluded and underestimated because our disability is invisible.”

Sugeng lives with a psychosocial disability in Indonesia.

Our Work

At CBM, we work alongside the disability movement, empowering people with disabilities to know and exercise their basic human rights. We show how everyone benefits when people with disabilities are fully included.

  • We help people with disabilities and their families advocate for their rights by providing them with tools and support, like advocacy toolkits, and training on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
  • We support self-help groups and organisations of people with disabilities to provide peer support and amplify the voices of people with disabilities. Self-help groups are powerful catalysts for change, both for individuals and for whole communities.
  • We strive to influence governments and decision-makers to shape legislation and allocate budgets in ways which recognise the rights of people with disabilities and the valuable contribution they can make. Through policy and advocacy work and raising awareness, we put positive inclusive change for people with disabilities onto the agenda.

Our impact

People with disabilities have been empowered through self-help groups, peer support groups, and organisations of people with disabilities.

Lucy, a disability rights champion, wearing grey and holding a crutch, stands amongst a group of people who are sitting down at desks.
27,000
people with disabilities have been empowered
Budi, wearing a checked shirt sits in his red wheelchair in a courtyard.

Donate now

Please join us in ensuring everyone with disabilities can access their rights and are included in their community.