Women with disabilities call for change in new consultation report

Global leaders are rethinking the future of development cooperation and redefining their priorities and partnerships to deliver them.

In spring 2026, Sightsavers held a consultation with 16 women with disabilities to explore their life experiences and find out what global leaders need to do to create a more equal world. The women came from a range of countries, backgrounds, ages and leadership levels.

The consultation explored five themes that the participants identified as urgent areas for change: meaningful participation, health, education, climate change, and violence against women and girls.

As one participant said: “Equality starts with empathy. Women and girls with disabilities are experts in their own lives; by working together we can create solutions on the challenges and barriers they face in their everyday life.”

The participants highlighted some key points:

• Meaningful participation is essential in order to meet the promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to ‘leave no one behind’. Participation must be real, not symbolic. This means being involved from the start and being treated with dignity.
• Health systems often fail to meet the needs of women and girls with disabilities. Many face physical, communication and attitude-based barriers when trying to get care. These barriers are even greater when it comes to sexual and reproductive health and rights.
• Significant barriers stop women and girls with disabilities from accessing a quality education. These include a lack of trained teachers, stigma in families and communities, poverty and inaccessible learning materials.
• Climate change is making existing inequalities worse. Women and girls with disabilities have limited chances to take part in decision-making. They often don’t receive information and they may face inaccessible infrastructure. During climate-related crises they face higher risks of violence, poverty and displacement.
• Violence against women and girls with disabilities is driven by overlapping inequalities linked to gender, disability, poverty and exclusion. There are major barriers to justice, new risks in online spaces, and a lack of effective support and protection.

The call to action is clear: global leaders must engage, reflect and act by investing in disability inclusion and the recommendations in this report. We cannot build the future using the non-inclusive models that were used in the past. We must seize the opportunity to build and deliver an equal world where everyone can learn, earn and thrive.

Read the full report and join the campaign for an Equal World.