Why should disability inclusion be at the top of the SRHR agenda?

• If people and particularly women with disabilities are not meaningfully included in mainstream SRHR programmes, Universal Health Coverage and Sustainable Development Goals targets will not be met.
• SRHR information needs to be inclusive and accessible to ensure all people with disabilities are informed of their rights.

Practical steps for including people with disabilities in SRHR programmes

• Commitments and programmes should raise awareness of the sexual and reproductive health and rights of all people with disabilities, emphasising their sexual autonomy and decision-making capacity and the multiple and intersectional discrimination faced in claiming their rights. Donors and NGOs working on SRHR should aim to set a target percentage of programmes to be marked as disability inclusive using the DAC marker.
• Donors, civil society and other development stakeholders should collect and support national governments to collect disability disaggregated data around the provision of sexual and reproductive health information and services to inform improvements in policy and services.
• Donors should set targets that focus on access rather than use as these are less likely to lead to women and girls with disabilities being pressured into ‘accepting’ contraceptives in order for targets to be met. Women and girls’ right to bodily autonomy must be put at the centre.
• Programmes should focus on ensuring health workers are given adequate training, including through the curricula of health training institutions and continuous professional development, to improve disability awareness and ensure that sexual and reproductive information, goods and services are provided to people with disabilities without discrimination or stigma.
• Global health stakeholders should focus on meaningfully engaging people with disabilities and their representative organisations when designing, implementing and monitoring SRHR projects.
• SRHR services, facilities and information need to be inclusive and fully accessible to people with disabilities in all their diversity.
• Social and behaviour change campaigns must be designed to be inclusive and accessible, and tackle disability stigma and discrimination at all levels of society.