Disability Inclusion

What is it?

Persons with disabilities are often disproportionally affected by humanitarian crises and disasters, and remain among the most vulnerable. Persons with disabilities often face barriers that prevent from benefiting from emergency assistance in a meaningful manner. Also, disability can intersect with other barriers linked to gender, age, or ethnic origin. 

Disability inclusion, therefore, aims to consider the specific needs of persons with disabilities to ensure the effective access and participation of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action. 

As stated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), disability is an evolving concept: 

In particular, Article 11 of the CRPD covers the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in:

Why is this important?

It is estimated that 16% of the global population has a disability. This proportion is likely to sharply increase in humanitarian crises. 

Yet, ways of delivering assistance and protection to persons with disabilities in humanitarian settings remain insufficiently adapted. And despite gaining prominence over recent years, disability inclusion in humanitarian action remains insufficient.

Due to discrimination and environmental, physical, economic and social barriers, people with disabilities are more likely to be excluded from emergency responses and humanitarian services. They also face additional threats and vulnerabilities. For example, not everyone can hear the warning or has a chance to flee. Therefore, persons with disabilities are often forgotten at the onset of emergencies.

The EU is committed to foster disability inclusion. To ensure their full inclusion and participation in humanitarian action, the specific needs of people with disabilities must be considered. The barriers they face need to be removed and their impact mitigated through protective factors and enablers permitting access to and participation in humanitarian assistance.

How are we helping?

The EU is party to CRPD (2010). In line with the CRPD, the EU is committed to provide inclusive humanitarian assistance. 

Policy

Making humanitarian aid inclusive of and accessible to persons with disabilities remains a priority for the EU. 

The EU has endorsed the World humanitarian summit’s charter on inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action (2016).

The EU promotes meaningful implementation of the 4 must-do actions identified by the IASC Guidelines on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action (2019), namely: 

In 2019, the EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations department published operational guidelines on disability inclusion. Their purpose is to ensure that the needs of disabled people are taken into consideration in all projects supported by EU humanitarian aid. 

The guidelines provide tools to assess and remove barriers preventing meaningful access and full and effective participation of disabled people in humanitarian assistance and protection. 

The aim is to lead to better programme quality and improved, safer and more accessible services, assistance and protection for persons with disabilities in humanitarian operations. 

The guidance recognises persons with disabilities as rights-holders able to claim their rights. To support partners in the implementation of this guidance, the EU humanitarian aid department provided a dedicated e-learning on this topic, as well as a short guidance document to better mainstream disability inclusion in the actions and better reflect it in proposals.

In 2021, the EU published a new European disability strategy. The strategy commits to ensuring that the needs of persons with disabilities are adequately addressed in EU external action by:

• involving persons with disabilities
• cooperating with civil society
• supporting capacity building 

Also in 2021, the Humanitarian Aid Communication included provisions on the inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian assistance and protection.

International engagements and advocacy 

The EU humanitarian aid department continues to raise awareness about the needs of persons with disabilities in emergency situations for instance through conferences, events, and dedicated meetings (for example, disability inclusion featured in the European Humanitarian Forum in 2023, 2024, 2025), but also communication campaigns, making sure it remains high on the political agenda. 

The EU is a member of the global action on disability network (GLAD), a coordination body of donors and agencies, public and private foundations, key coalitions of the disability movement with a common interest in achieving inclusive international development and humanitarian action.  In 2023, the EU organised the annual GLAD network meeting in Brussels.

The EU also actively engages in the global disability summit (GDS), a unique global forum to promote disability-inclusive development cooperation and humanitarian action. It  represents a central event for the international community and for the EU, to take stock of the progress made and to foster disability-inclusive development cooperation and humanitarian action.

At the last GDS, that took place in 2025, the EU endorsed the Berlin-Amman declaration and made a set of commitments, including related to humanitarian aid..

The EU has committed to 

• foster disability inclusion in EU-funded humanitarian aid, ensuring effective access and participation of persons with disabilities
• continue taking into account the specific needs of persons with disabilities
• mainstream disability inclusion in EU-funded humanitarian operations 

Also, the EU has committed to pursue the work on intersectionality for stronger equality and inclusion in EU-funded humanitarian aid. Moreover, the EU will continue to advocate for disability inclusion in humanitarian aid, to raise this topic proactively with its strategic partners, and to promote equitable partnerships with organisations of persons with disabilities.

Funding 

The EU works towards mainstreaming disability inclusion in all projects, as well as providing targeted assistance. 

Mainstreaming inclusion is about ensuring meaningful access, safety and dignity of persons with disabilities (PwD) in funded operations. The needs of persons with disabilities are to be mainstreamed across all types of humanitarian interventions, across all sectors, by all humanitarian actors. Thus,  disability inclusion should not be solely a responsibility for specialised disability rights organisations. 

Elements of mainstreaming include: 

• consultations with organisations of PwD and/or with PwD in the design of the action, and inclusive complaint mechanisms
• accessibility through universal design of school/wash/shelter infrastructures
• providing information through accessible channels, accessible formats, in appropriate languages and locations so that it reaches everyone
• adapting food distribution to needs of PwD through accessible locations and adequate means of distribution and delivery
   

Besides the mainstreaming efforts, several humanitarian interventions also provide assistance specifically targeted to address disability-induced threats and vulnerabilities. These projects are implemented in various sectors (education in emergency, protection, shelter, water and sanitation, among others) and across the globe.

Included activities are for example:

• provision of assistive devices, physical rehabilitation, and specialised medical support
• direct material assistance, including cash transfers, to support mobility, dignity, and ability to mitigate protection risk
• specialised inclusive case management and victim assistance
• provision of adequate educational material and equipment to support children with disabilities 

Over the past few years, there is a steady progress regarding inclusiveness of such projects.

In 2025, 57% of the projects funded by the EU’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations took into consideration and mainstreamed the needs of persons with disabilities, and 9% of the funded humanitarian aid projects specifically targeted persons with disabilities.

Since 2019 the EU has applied the disability marker established by the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee. It allows to track projects specifically targeting the needs of persons with disabilities and mainstreaming disability throughout the response.