SECTORS

Health and wellbeing

People with disabilities experience unique challenges in maintaining their health and wellbeing, often facing additional barriers to accessing healthcare, assistive devices, and accessible services. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) emphasises the right to the highest attainable standard of health (Article 25) and recognises the importance of accessible healthcare, rehabilitation, and assistive devices (Article 26). However, systemic inequities and discriminatory attitudes can hinder access to these essential health services, which can result in people with disabilities having unequal access to health services, and experiencing poorer levels of health than the general population. In addition, socio-economic factors such as poverty, lower employment and education rates, lack of social protection, stigma and social exclusion, further influence health inequality among people with disabilities.

It is important to involve people with disabilities in decision-making processes to achieve accessible health infrastructure and to develop healthcare workforces that understand the needs of people with disabilities, to enable inclusive and accessible mainstream and targeted health services.

Resources in this section provide evidence and guidelines to achieve inclusive health and wellbeing services for people with disabilities.