Information Kit to support the International Day Of Disabled Persons 3 December
A Day to promote the Human Rights of all Disabled People
Information Kit to support the International Day of Disabled Persons Ó 1993 Disability Awareness in Action and Disabled Peoples' International All rights reserved
ISBN 1 898037 03 5
Written by Agnes Fletcher, Disability Awareness in Action
Published b@ Disability Awareness in Action 11 Belgravia Road London SWI V 1RB United Kingdom
DAA is a Company Limited by Guarantee and Incorporated in England. Registered No. 2587833. Registered Charity No. 1002155
This Information Kit is produced through the generosity of the Canadian Secretary of State and the Commission of the European Communities
CONTENTS
1.THE INTERNATIONAL DAY ...............
2. WHAT IS DISABILITY? ..................
3. OUR HUMAN RIGHTS ................
4. TAKING ACTION ..................
5. EVENTS .......................
6. USING THE MEDIA ..................
7. ACCESSIBILITY .....................
8. ASSESSING ABUSES .................
9. EXAMPLES OF ABUSES ................
10. PARTICULAR COUNTRIES ................
11. USEFUL ADDRESS ....................
12. ORGANISATIONS ..................
Our Day At the Special Plenary Sessions to mark the end of the Decade of Disabled Person (1983 - 1992) at the United Nations General Assembly in October 1992, a resolution was passed declaring that 3 December each year will be the International Day of Disabled Persons.
What is it About?
This booklet is designed to support the work of organisations of disabled people to observe and celebrate the International Day. This is Our Day and we can use it to promote our organisations and the rights of disabled people everywhere - at local, national, regional and international levels. It can also be an opportunity to encourage discussion of disability issues generally and publicise good and bad laws, policies and programmes.
We are Valuable
Many of us have been told for years that our lives are of little value. But the truth is that our needs are important; our skills and experience are of huge value to our community, our society, our world.
We have needs, skills and rights like everybody else.
J From now on we will have our own International Day each year to tell the world about these needs, skills and rights and to make sure that they are respected.
Events to mar the International Day
should :
· Involve disabled people and their organisations
· Celebrate our experience and expertise
· Raise awareness of disability issues
· Promote the human rights of all disabled people
Long-term aims include :
· Gaining opportunities equal to non-disabled people
· Ensuring that people can participate fully in community lie
· Making sure that disabled people have a say in the programmes and policies that affect our lives Eliminating the violation of our human rights
Issues
Here are some of the things to concentrate on : Rehabilitation that is appropriate to our needs and ensures participation and independence. Access to decent affordable housing and to all new public buildings and facilities, plus alterations made during refurbishment of older buildings. Transport services that are accessible to all, not segregated provision. Intergrated education, with support if necessary. Access to employment and equal pay and conditions. Information available in alternate media. Influence over programmes and policies that affect us.
Together we are Strong
REMEMBER No one can change very much on their own. By coming together in organisations and presenting ourselves as strong, contributing members of our communities with needs, skills and rights. We, disabled people, can have an influence on the societies in which we live.
Explanations of Disability All over the world, disabled people are amongst the poorest of the poor, living lives of disadvantage and deprivation. Why?
Traditionally, disability has been seen as the "problem" of the individual and it has been the individual who has had to change, or be changed by professionals through rehabilitation or cure.
Now, disabled people and their organisations have described, from their own experience, how it is economic and social barriers which stop people with impairments participating fully in society.
These barriers are so widespread that we are prevented from ensuring a good quality of life for ourselves.
The explanation is known as the social model of disability, because it focuses on society's disabling environments and barriers of attitude, rather than on individuals with impairments. The social model was formulated by disabled people and has now also been accepted by many non-disabled academics and professionals. It stresses human rights and equalisation of opportunities.
Promoting this way of thinking about disability is what the International Day is all about.
Finding Solutions
The new challenge is for disabled people and policy makers to share their expertise and to decide on alternative solutions to the "problem" of disability, based on removing society's barriers and on full integration, allowing disabled people full and equal participation in society.
Stressing Rights not Charity
There are many people who don't yet understand :
· That disability is a human rights issue
· That abuses of disabled people's human rights happen every day in every country of the world
· That these abuses are based on age-old prejudices
· That they are institutionalised in the administrative systems of each country.
In this document, you will find some facts and figures about the global nature of disability and some particular examples from a number of different countries.
It's up to your organisation to identify the specific abuses faced by your members and to make these known to the wider community.
Human rights include civil, political, economic, social, cultural and development rights
Civil and political rights include the right To life To freedom of opinion To a fair trail To protection from torture and violence
Economic, social and cultural rights include the right;
To work in just and favourable conditions
To social protection
To an adequate standard of living
To the highest possible standards of physical and mental health
To education
To enjoyment of the benefits of cultural freedom and scientific progress
Development rights are the rights of nations
To development
To economic autonomy
To peace and security
These rights are defined in many international human rights documents. They apply to everyone, regardless of sex, race, langue, religion or impairment.
They are our rights. We must make sure they are honoured.
"Human Rights. Know them. Demand them. Defend them."
(Slogan of the World Conference on Human Rights, Vienna, Austria, June 1993)
There are several international documents specifically for disabled United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Ill Persons United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons United Nations World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons
The two Declarations define our rights :
· To enjoy a decent life, with respect for our human dignity
· To medical, psychological and functional treatment
· To medical and social rehabilitation, education, vocational training and rehabilitation, aid, counselling, placement services and other service which enable us to develop our capabilities and skills to the maximum and will hasten the process of our social integration or reintegration
· To economic and social security and to a decent level of living
· To employment or productive occupation and to membership of a trade union
· To have our needs considered at every stage of economic and social planning
· To live with our families and to participate in all social, creative, and recreational activities
· To protection against all exploitation and all discriminatory, abusive or degrading treatment
The World Programme of Action is the UN's policy document on disability. The aims of the WPA are :
· Prevention of avoidable impairment
· Rehabilitation to enable disabled people to do as much as possible Equalisation of opportunities
You can find out more about human rights the United Nations Office in your country or from the Centre for Human Rights in Geneva. Ask for copies of the Two Declarations and the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons. They are available in all twelve United Nations languages.
Extracts from some human and civil rights documents of particular relevance to disabled people are contained in the Disability Awareness in Action Resource Kit No. 2, Consultation and Influence.
Raising Awareness
The main aim of the International Day is to raise awareness about disability issues. One of the simplest ways to do this is to talk to people. When you tell someone about yourself - about your daily life, your thoughts and feelings - you make it a lot easier for them to understand you. If each of us talks to the people we meet about the ways society disabled us, we can go a long way towards raising awareness and changing attitudes about disability.
Changing Attitudes Coming together with other disabled people is also important in heloping to change attitudes. Holding public events to which the local community is invited will show us as active participants in society - with ideas, skills, needs and rights.
Rights not Charity It's very important to make sure that our Day isn't used as an occasion to reinforce the traditional stereotypes of disabled people as little more than passive recipients of charity and care. Many of us are used to having much of our lives controlled by someone else. We must not let this continue. We need to take charge of our Day. Disabled people alone should decide how to celebrate the International Day. International non-governmental organisations have agreed that the emphasis of the day must be on human rights, not charity, and this has been back up the Centre for Human Rights resolution.
What to Do
ACTION PLAN
Get together with other disabled people. Involve policy-makers, professionals and the media. Publicise disability issues and solutions. Point out how changes will benefit everybody.
SOME ACTION IDEAS
Arrange for phone-in talk shows to be broadcast on local radio programmes to encourage community debate on disability issues, change stereotyped views of disabled people and promote solutions of benefits to all.
TV programmes, such as the news or a chat show, could be presented by a disabled person for the day. Small changes in routine can have tremendous impact.
Could your local authority commission an artwork from a disabled person to commemorate the first Day?
What about short talks by disabled people at local places of workshop in the week of 3 December?
Publicise a 24-hour vigil (quiet or silent meeting for contemplation) in a public building. Invite people to come along for as long as they can, perhaps a few hours, at different times and to sign a copy of the Affirmation of Commitment to the World Programme of Action (A copy is available from DAA)
Perhaps you can arrange for newspaper advertisements about the Day to be printed at a reduced rate or for free.
Think about what kind of Day it might be where you live
WHAT ABOUT THE WEATHER
In some parts of the world, 3 December will probably be a good day for being outside. Elsewhere, however, it might be too hot or too grey, cold, rainy or snowy.
It's important to think about this when planning events. If taking to the streets is going to be very uncomfortable, it is probably best to plan in door events. Other people are more likely to come along to a public meeting that is inside, perhaps with hot drinks or other refreshments.
Local Leaders, Local Stars
There are many different events which could publicise and celebrate the International Day - community meetings, discussions, marches, stalls in public places, concerts, integrated sports and arts events, vigils. If you are organising a local event, invite a local community leader of celebrity to open it as guest of honour. This will get other people interested in the event. You are also more likely to get coverage in the media.
Public Hearings
You could organise a public reading (with sign language interpretation) of statements by disabled people about their lives, plus exhibitions of pictures and cartoons. Make sure you include women and men of different ages and ethnic backgrounds and people with different impairments, as these groups are often under-represented.
Political Commitment and Community Support
You could ask your head of state or government to sign the Reaffirmation of Commitment to the United Nations World Programme of Action. (A presentation copy is available from Disabled Peoples' International or DAA). This could be combined with a vigil during which members of your community come and sigh a copy of the Affirmation of Commitment, which is similar to the Reaffirmation.
Before officially inviting your head of state or government to sigh the Reaffirmation, talk to ministers and to senior civil servants to get their support. Any letter to the head of state will go to the civil servants first.
Inform them that other heads of state have signed and that there will be international recognition of their signing - at the United Nations General Assembly.
Public Demonstrations
You can make a public demonstration of your views on disability to mark the Day. This might be a march through the main street of your village or town, with home-made banners letting passers-by see what the issues are. This kind of actions needs very careful planning to be well-run and safe. You need to :
· Consider whether action is appropriate
· Inform the authorities
· Plan the event carefully
· Arrange for some members to act as stewards
Ideas
SUGGESTIONS FOR EVENTS
· Street theatre illustrating disability
· issues Meals with discussions of the issues
· Integrated arts events or exhibitions by disabled people
· Access competitions - awards for the best and worst
· Conferences and workshops for the media or public
· Solidarity days with other groups - your local place of worship, community or political group
· Competition for local children to make housing accessible - who can build the simplest ramp
· Integration days - children from a local mainstream school can visit a school for disabled children
· Integrated sports events or dances
Whatever the event, publicity is vital to let disabled people and others know what is going on.
Distribute leaflets with the place, date and time of the event in places where disabled people will see them - in libraries, community centres, etc.
Write to the letters Page of the local paper asking disabled people to join in.
Make announcements on local radio.
The Power of the Media
One of the quickest and more effective ways of making people aware of disability issues is through the media. We can use newspapers, magazines, radio and television to let people know about the issues, the International Day and our events.
Get to know who's who in the media, by reading papers, listening to your local radio station, asking other people.
Try to identify which journalists and producers of programmes to approach.
Send press releases to local papers, radio and televisions stations, to arrive at least three days and preferably a week before your planned event. Make sure the media understand the importance of the International Day, that it is a UN initiative that is being celebrated all over the world. The Day won't yet be on the media's regular calendar of events, which helps them to plan features through the year, so we need a big effort in the first few years to start it off.
Local Stories for Local Media
If you are concentrating on your local media, give television, radio and newspaper reporters examples of local discrimination - inaccessible shops, people barred from restaurants, cinemas, jobs and schools. An individual's story is always appealing to the media.
One thing to remember, however, is that the traditional stereotyped images of disabled people have been a major barrier to the understanding of disability issues by the general public and policy-makers.
The Structures and Attitudes of Society are the Problem
REMEMBER
Whenever you work with journalists, encourage them to focus on social rather than individual problems and solutions - not on impairments but on the social barriers which prevent disabled people from taking part. Make the themes the obstacles and discrimination which disabled people face in their daily lives : architectural and communication barriers and society's attitudes to impairment. Rights, not charity, Respect, not pity.
Words and Pictures :
Images of Disability Sugges
These guidelines to media professionals : Use words that stress equality and active participation. Avoid language that portrays us as tragic, pitiable victims, in need of charity and desperate for cures. Disabled people should speak for themselves and be used as programme presenters. Television should be subtitled to reach deaf people. Make the main messages available audibly for people with visual impairments. Show disabled people with a wide range of interests, skills and lifestyles. Show men and women, of all ages and ethnic backgrounds, with various impairments. Don't employ non-disabled actors to portray disabled people in films or on television. Make sure disabled people are photographed in the same way a non-disabled people.
Alternate Media
Try to make sure that al publications and presentations related to the International Day are available to everyone - including people with visual and hearing impairments and people with intellectual impairments.
Written Word
Written material should be available in :
· Large Print. At least 16 point or 18 point
· On tape.
· When recording, speak clearly.
· Try to make what you are saying sound interesting.
· Include titles and headings, describe pictures and make sure any numbers, such as statistics, are quite clear.
· In Braille.
· Your national organisation of or for blind people will know who can do this for you.
Write things in simple language without unnecessary long words. Picturse can help to explain things as well.
Don't present written material at meetings or events without reading it aloud.
Spoken Word
When speaking to someone with a hearing impairment
· Face them all the time you are speaking
· Don't cover your mount with your hands.
· Speak Clearly, not too slowly or too quickly
If anyone present uses sign language, make sure there is an interpreter available.
Make sure there is enough light, so that speakers and interpreters can be seen.
Physical Access
Think about physical access. Do you need ramps? Are there accessible toilet facilities? Does anyone have any other needs - such as electricity points for respirators?
Try to make sure that rooms or other meeting places are non-smoking areas, at least for the day. Many people are badly affected by smoke, which can make some impairment much worse.
If you smoke, remember that by doing so you may be excluding somebody else from participating. We all know what that is like.
Perhaps one room could be available just for smoking, if this is likely to be a problem.
Defining Human Rights
Violations It's important for your organisation to define abuses. If a wheelchair user to attend a public, social, cultural or political meeting and he or she cannot get into the meeting room because the building isn't accessible, their rights as a citizen have been violated.
A blind person interested in a public debate who has no access to the newspaper in which it is discussed is in a similar position.
Imprisoned for Committing no Crime
Institutionalisation is one of the most severe and common forms of exclusion and abuse. Freedom to associate is limited. Privacy is non-existent. People are often prevented from marrying, having children and voting. In many cases, institutionalisation, in the words of many international human rights documents, is "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
"Disability Audit"
Areas to look at include :
Housing. Are there enough accessible houses? Transport. Can disabled people get out and about freely? Education. Are all local schools accessible? Employment. Are major workplaces accessible? What are the attitudes of employers? Are wages the same as for non-disabled people? Public Hearings. Are town halls, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, libraries, hotels and sports facilities accessible? Attitudes. What do local shop-keepers, religious leaders, children, teachers, politicians and the media think about disabled people? How do they define disability?
Knowledge is Power
It's important to know the situation before trying to change things. The more you can find out - facts and figures - the better your campaigns.
Global Picture
There are 500 million disabled people in the world - one tenth of the human race. Eighty per cent of disabled people live in developing countries. On third of them are children. In developing countries, eighty per cent of disabled people live in rural areas.
Everywhere, disabled people are the poorest of the poor. Access to buildings, information, independence, opportunity, choice and control over our lives I denied.
As estimated, 85 to 114 million women and girls have suffered genial mutilation, which can lead to major impairments, infertility and eve death. At least 6 000 girls are at risk each day.
Prevention
At least half of all impairments could be prevented or cured. 300, 000 children are still impaired by polio every year. 1 million a year are disabled because of malnutrition. 20 million blind people could have sight restored by cataract operations.
Rehabilitation
There are some countries in the world where 90 per cent of disabled children won't survive beyond the age of 20 and 90 per cent of those with intellectual impairments won't survive beyond the age of five.
The World Health Organisation estimates that 98 per cent of disabled people in developing countries are totally neglected. The majority of countries have no free medical care or social security system.
Segregation and Discrimination
Sixty per cent of American, Canadian and British disabled people have incomes below the poverty line.
In developing countries, disabled children are extremely unlikely to receive an education or find a job.
In developed countries, the majority of disabled children receive a segregated, under-achieving education and are twice as likely to be unemployed when they grow up.
According to the International Labour Organisation, the level of unemployment among disabled people is two or three times as high as for non-disabled people.
No country has fully accessible transport systems and only a few countries have enacted legislation for accessible public facilities.
In many countries, disabled people are unable to vote, marry or inherit property. Sometimes, people who are unable to express themselves in speech or in writing are considered legally incapacitated, although other ways of communicating, such as sigh language, exist.
In some Latin American countries, blind people are not permitted to vote or stand for election, on the grounds that it is difficult for them to vote responsibly or to preserve the secrecy of their vote.
Disability is particularly damaging for women, children, black people, elderly people, refugees and other groups experiencing discrimination. These people experience double, often multiple, discrimination.
Below are some specific details of abuses. However, it should be stressed that no country in the world fully supports human rights for disabled people.
Afghanistan
An estimated 2 million Afghans are now affected by some sort of impairment. An additional 1200 persons are estimated to become disabled each day by mines and crippling diseases.
By the end of 1990, at lease 50 000 Afghans had had one or more of their limbs amputated. Some 40 000 Afghans have been fitted with artificial limbs and another 7 500 are on the waiting list. Tens of thousands of other Afghans have suffered other injuries, such as loss of vision or hearing and brain damage. Afghanistan also suffers a high number of other impairments due to the war - diseases, accidents and lack of basic health care services. The trauma of a protracted war inevitably affects the mental health of the inhabitants.
Belgium
Over 3 000 people with intellectual impairments are still being wrongly kept in institutions for people who have mental health problems.
Bosnia
From the total number of those wounded in the war, over 60 per cent are civilians. Of those, 40 per cent were seriously injured and have permanent impairments. In total, about 160 000 people have been wounded. Most have permanent neurological and orthopaedic impairments. These victims are refugees and so not entitled to surgical and rehabilitation services. Some have been victims of torture and violence while prisoners of war. Thousands of women have been raped and traumatised through forced exile, destruction of their homes and witnessing the killing of their husbands and children.
Cambodia
Each month, another 200 people become victims of the mines planted throughout the countryside during the war. Tens of thousands of people have been disabled as a result of serious war injuries since 1970.
El Salvador
On 20 May 1993, security police in San Salvador, El Salvador, opened fire with automatic rifles on a group of 5 000 disabled people who were demonstrating for medical care and other benefits.
Three disabled people were killed and another 10 to 15 disabled people were injured. About 30 people were arrested, including two wheelchair users who were dragged along the ground by police.
Europe
More than 500 people were injured, many permanently, in attacks on asylum-seekers in Europe in 1992.
Germany (1)
Since 1989, a vicious campaign of violence and intimidation against disabled people in Germany has gathered force, in parallel with attacks on other minority groups.
Residential institutions for disabled people have been fire-bombed. Disabled people have been chased off North Sea-beaches. Disabled children have been banned from school trips. An elderly visually impaired man was recently brutally beaten and died on the way to hospital. Hearing impaired school children were severely beaten when skinheads saw them using sign language.
Wheelchair users have been spat at, beaten up and told : "Under Hitler you would have been gassed." They are right. The 'Final Solution' of the Holocaust meant the death of thousands of disabled people.
Germany (2)
Last autumn, a judge in the city of Flensburg granted a tourist couple a ten per cent refund on their travel costs, on the grounds that their holiday enjoyment was compromised since they had to eat their meals in a hotel restaurant where a group of disabled people also ate.
Greece
Since 1990, the situation on the Island of Leros in Greece has been widely known :
· people with intellectual impairments and people with mental health problems were herded together, given no privacy, adequate clothing, hygiene or diet.
It may be that another case, that of the Daphne Institute, may be even worse. However access has been forbidden.
Holland
In Holland, a judge recently stated that a s disabled man wasn't equal to the rest of the general public he could not expect equal treatment. The disabled man was bringing a court case of discrimination against Dutch Railways.
Japan
350 000 people with mental health problems are hospitalised, most of them for 10 years or more. Over 50 per cent are in locked wards. The overwhelming majority are compulsory detained, on the recommendation of their families or the local mayor's office.
The Hogogimista (guardianship) law ensures that people who leave hospital are controlled for the rest of their lives. The ex-patient remains the legal responsibility of their family or the local mayor.
Employment discrimination is almost total and national law prevents ex-patients from entering occupations such as medicine and hairdressing. Some local states have regulations preventing ex-patients using public baths and other public buildings.
Malaysia
At the Hope of Glory Hospital in Selangor, 100 disabled people aged between 15 and 25 are tied to beds which have no mattress, wallow in their own filth and are hosed down with water.
The Philippines
In the Cordillera Region of the Philippines, it has been estimated that some 70 per cent of women have severe clinical manifestation of iodine deficiency. Children born to these women are likely to have physical and intellectual impairments, slow learning and reduced physical coordination, reduced growth and nerve deafness
South Africa
Every day, 52 people die from violence. For every death, three people acquire permanent impairments. One in three women can expect to be raped. One in four children has been abused. Disabled women and children are particularly vulnerable. Fify per cent of disabled children have never been to school. Seventy per cent of disabled people have neva had a job.
United Kingdom
A man with intellectual impairments was convicted, after a "confession, of rape and murder. He served 16 years of a life sentence before being acquitted on appeal. Scientific evidence (available but not used a his trial) has proved that it is impossible for him to have committed the crime.
One person in ten in the United Kingdom is a disabled person, yet disabled students make up a 0.3 percent of the entire student population in universities.
United Kingdom & United States
In the UK and the USA, 65 percent of disabled people live below the poverty line and are twice as likely to be unemployed as any other group.
Disability Awareness in Action (DAA),
11 Belgravia Road, London SW1V 1RB, United Kingdom.
Tel : +44 71 834 0477.
Fax : +44 71 821 9539
Disabled Peoples International (DPI),
1010-7 Evergreen, Winnipeg, R3L2T3, Canada.
Tel : +204 287 8010
Fax : +204 287 8175
Economic Commission for Africa (ECA),
P O Box 3001, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Tel : +251 1 517 200
Economic Commission for Europe (ECE),
Palais des Nations, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland.
Tel : +41 22 73460 11.
Fax : +41 22 739825.
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC),
Casilla 179D, Santiago, Chile.
Tel : +562 208 5051.
Fax : +562 208 0252.
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP),
United Nations Building. Rajdamnern Avenue, Bangkok 10200, Thailand.
Tel : +66 2 282 9161.
Fax : +61 2 282 9602.
Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA),
P O Box 927115, Amman, Jordan.
Tel : +962 6 694 351.
Fax : +962 6 694 980 82.
IMPACT,
c/o WHO, Room L225, 20 Avenue Appia, CH-1211, Geneva 27, Switzerland,
Tel : +41 22 791 3733.
Fax : +41 22 791 0746.
International League of Societies of Persons with Mental Handicap (ILSMH),
248 Avenue Louise, bte. 17 Brussels, Belgium B-1050.
Tel : +32 2 647 6180.
Fax : +32 2 647 2969.
Rehabilitation International,
25 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010, USA.
Tel : +212 420 1500.
Fax : +212 505 0871.
United Nations Centre for Human Rights,
8 - 14 Avenue de la paix, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland.
Tel : +41 22 907 1234.
Fax : +41 22 917 0123.
World Blind Union,
224 Great Portland Street, Londo WIN 6AA, United Kingdom.
Tel : +44 71 388 1266.
Fax : +44 71 383 0508.
World Federation of the Deaf,
P O Box 65, SF-00401 Helsinki, Finland.
Tel : +358 0 58031.
Fax : +358 0 580 3770
A fuller list of international and regional addresses is available from DAA.
Some International disability organisations
Disabled Peoples' International advocates the rights of disabled persons. Its philosophy is that disabled people should achieve full participation and equality in all societies. The DPI network has over 100 national assembly members, over half of which are in developing countries. DPS has consultative status with the United Nations.
IMPACT is an international initiative against avoidable disability, launched by the United Nations Development Programme, WHO and UNICEF. The international office in Geneva coordinates national IMPACT foundations in a number of developing and developed countries. Joining forces with governments, institutions and the mass media, the foundations help members initiate low-cost measures to combat disability.
International League of Societies of Persons with Mental Handicap is the only organisation which speaks for the world's 40 million people with intellectual impairments, their families and those who work for them. The League includes 100 societies from 67 countries and exists to help members fulfil their own objectives in response to local need. ILSMH has consultative status with the United Nations.
Rehabilitation International is a federation of 145 organisations in 82 countries conducting programmes to assist people with disabilities all who work for prevention, rehabilitation and integration.
World Blind Union is made up of representatives from 120 national associations of visually impaired people and of agencies that serve them. Disabled people have a controlling share of the organisation. The goal of the WBU is equalisation of opportunities and full participation in society for disabled people. The WBU has consultative status with the United Nations.
World Federation of the Deaf is an international organisation of national associations of the Deaf. The WFD was established in 1951 and is working towards full participation and equal rights for Deaf people. The WFD had consultative status with the United Nations.