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Disability Inclusion

Together with families and communities, World Vision is breaking down barriers so that all children — including those with disabilities — can thrive in safe, nurturing, and inclusive environments.

Changing mindsets. Breaking barriers. Unlocking potential.

An estimated 1.3 billion people worldwide, or 16% of the global population, experience a significant disability. An estimated 80% live in low- and middle-income countries.

This is why World Vision seeks to include persons with disabilities in all we do — not only to meet their needs but also to ensure that they are a part of the solution to poverty that we’re working to build. Disability inclusion is a vital part of the social inclusion programming in our overall Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) approach.

Key Commitments

In 2022, World Vision made three key commitments at the Global Disability Summit — and we’ve made strong progress toward fulfilling them:

  1. Reach more children with disabilities.
    We committed to help more than five times the number of children with disabilities in our long-term programs by the end of 2026. As of September 2024, World Vision was serving 3.12 times the number of children reached in February 2022, and the momentum continues to build.
  2. Train all staff on disability inclusion.
    World Vision is committed to ensuring persons with disabilities are fully supported in the communities where we work. Through the Travelling Together disability inclusion training, staff and community volunteers are equipped to champion inclusion and create meaningful change at the local level.
  3. Strengthen collaboration to improve inclusion.
    We committed to improving the situation for persons with disabilities by partnering with them directly, as well as with organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs), governments, and other NGOs to co-create solutions. In Malawi alone, we are working with 21 partners, and in another 37 World Vision offices, we have partnered with 110 groups and organizations. We also share learning through studies, webinars, and presentations to amplify good practices globally.

For more information, see our Global Disability Summit 2025 Commitments and Progress Report.

Disability Inclusion FAQs

Disability inclusion is one aspect of social inclusion, the process of transforming social relations and structures so that people and groups who are traditionally marginalized have increased opportunities, power, rights, access to resources, and agency. This enables them to shape cultural, economic, and political systems, and participate in all aspects of social life. People can be marginalized due to many aspects of their identity, for example, women with disabilities often experience dual discrimination based on their gender and disability.

Persons with disabilities experience exclusion not only because of physical, cognitive, or sensory impairments, but also because of societal barriers that limit meaningful participation. Though persons with disabilities often need services such as rehabilitation or assistive technology, these services alone won’t address the root causes of exclusion. Only breaking down barriers in a community can do that.

Disability inclusion is central to World Vision’s GEDSI approach, which aims to ensure that all people — regardless of ability, gender, or social status — can fully participate in and benefit from community development.

World Vision embeds disability inclusion across all programs through system-level practices guided by our GEDSI framework. Our work aligns with five domains of our GEDSI theory of change:

      1. Access to services and assets – by making sure persons with disabilities can access health, education, livelihoods, WASH, and other services, as well as the specialized rehabilitation and assistive technology services they need.
      2. Decision-making at household, community, and societal levels – by empowering persons with disabilities and facilitating their ability to engage in decisions.
      3. Participation within social, economic, and political processes in their community and nationally – by supporting and encouraging persons with disabilities to participate in these processes and community leaders to make processes more accessible and inclusive.
      4. Equal systems – by addressing stigma toward persons with disabilities in their communities and supporting community- and national-level advocacy by individuals and organizations of persons with disabilities to align laws and processes with national legislation linked to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
      5. Enhanced well-being – by ensuring that protection and gender-based violence prevention systems mitigate the increased risk of violence toward children and adults with disabilities.

To put these principles into practice, World Vision trains staff on disability inclusion using the Travelling Together module, helping them understand disability issues and overcome biases. We also support the integration of disability considerations across project cycles and use tools like Citizen Voice and Action (CVA) to help ensure persons with disabilities are included in decision-making processes.

Persons with disabilities face many barriers in society, such as inaccessible environments (lack of wheelchair ramps or accessible latrines), harmful stereotypes or stigma around disability, and institutional structures that are not accessible (laws and policies that do not consider the unique needs and contributions of persons with disabilities). Women and girls with disabilities are further marginalized by rigid social norms and lack of decision-making power in their households and communities.

To address these barriers, World Vision implements Every Child Belongs (formerly Able to Thrive) in Rwanda and Malawi, which helps ensure children with disabilities are identified, supported, and empowered.

This model provides

  • Case management to identify needs and monitor progress over time
  • Referrals to specialist services to improve functionality and access essential care
  • Parent support groups that equip caregivers with confidence and skills

How it works

  1. Identification – Community workers, faith leaders, and organizations of persons with disabilities act as case managers, partnering with local health and education services to identify children with disabilities.
  2. Registration – Children are registered in the CommCare system, which tracks their needs and connects them to services.
  3. Screening – Medical professionals conduct biannual screenings to assess needs for glasses, rehabilitation, medication, or assistive devices such as wheelchairs.
  4. Referral – Families are linked to parent support groups and specialist services, with transportation and costs covered when needed. Monthly clinics are organized at the community level.
  5. Follow-up – Case managers visit at least twice a year to help ensure needs are met, devices remain functional, and the child’s overall well-being continues to improve.

Support includes

  • Ongoing support from a trained case worker
  • Regular medical screenings and follow-up care
  • Access to needed rehabilitation services or assistive devices
  • Strengthened parental support networks
  • A personalized learning plan to help them thrive in school and life

See Every Child Belongs in action

Advocacy

In Colombia, the U.S. government-funded Training, Economic Empowerment, Assistive Technology, and Medical/Physical Rehabilitation Services (TEAM) project engaged 2,749 persons with disabilities in CVA processes. Across 18 groups, participants identified the rights most often denied to persons with disabilities, including timely health care, accessible public spaces, and employment opportunities, and worked with local authorities to address them. CVA groups then monitored progress, resulting in 175 concrete actions attributed to the process.

Education

Primary and pre-primary education: World Vision has integrated inclusive education into our two main program models, Learning Roots (ages 3 to 5) and Unlock Literacy (grades 1 to 3). Program delivery is universal in design, allowing children to receive information in different ways and to express their learning in different ways. Community-based reading camps supplement learning for children who need additional assistance to enhance their literacy. We also focus on increasing acceptance and creating a school environment that includes children with disabilities.

In Malawi, our inclusive education program nearly doubled the number of children with disabilities attending school within a three-year period. We worked with 80 community leaders, including five chiefs, to shift negative norms around disability. As a result, 21% of adults interviewed said they had a child with a disability in their family, whereas previously, the disabilities were hidden.

Development of inclusive, accessible learning materials: All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD) —  a partnership of the U.S. government, World Vision, and the Australian government — advanced EdTech innovation and research to improve reading outcomes for marginalized children in low-resource contexts. Through global grant and prize competitions, ACR GCD identified and brought to scale the most promising EdTech solutions to increase literacy for children in low resource contexts, including addressing barriers to learning and developing solutions for children with disabilities. ACR GCD funded extensive research, including on the adaptation of the Early Grade Reading Assessment, to help ensure children with disabilities are included in measurements of literacy acquisition and skills.

Data and insights: Through Every Child Belongs (see previous question for more information), we’ve gathered data on the education of children with disabilities in Rwanda, Malawi, and Mozambique. The findings highlight the importance of engaging families, communities, and schools together to support each child’s learning needs.

Youth

In Guatemala, the U.S. government-funded Puentes project worked with marginalized youth ages 15 to 24 in the Western Highlands, including youth with disabilities, to improve access to education, health and social services, and employment. The project partnered with a local federation of organizations of persons with disabilities to recruit participants and make training materials and radio broadcasts accessible and inclusive.

In Ethiopia, the U.S. Department of Labor-funded Engaged, Educated, Empowered Ethiopian Youth (E4Y) project addressed exploitative child labor by expanding education, vocational training, and livelihood opportunities for youth from 7,500 households. The project emphasized the inclusion of youth with disabilities, worked with teachers to better meet their needs, and provided adaptive devices such as eyeglasses, crutches, and wheelchairs.

Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH)

World Vision collaborates with organizations of persons with disabilities and other nongovernmental organizations to ensure that our WASH programs are inclusive. Together, we’ve developed activities that promote accessible infrastructure and the use of adaptive devices, supported by a practical guide to help implement these approaches.

Our commitment to inclusive WASH has been recognized by the Zero Project, which honored two of our practices: GIS-based mapping of accessible WASH facilities in Zambia and accessible WASH facilities for persons with disabilities in Iraq.

Health

World Vision supports the inclusion of children and adults with disabilities in the provision of health services, including in accessible forms and locations. World Vision has implemented programs that provide wheelchairs and other specialized rehabilitation support. We use our extensive health partnerships in communities to identify persons with disabilities, refer them to specialized disability service providers, and then follow up at the community level to make sure the services have improved their health and function. 

With funding from the U.S. government, World Vision led the Accelerating Core Competencies for Effective Wheelchair Service and Support (ACCESS) project in India, Nicaragua, Romania, El Salvador, and Kenya. ACCESS strengthened the wheelchair sector and helped ensure that people with mobility limitations could access appropriate wheelchairs through qualified service providers and enjoy full participation in their communities. The project provided wheelchair service to 7,319 clients and trained over 900 rehabilitation professionals using World Health Organization courses for wheelchair service. At the end of the project, 93% of wheelchair clients surveyed indicated that they experienced increased community participation, and 43 wheelchair service centers showed increased capacity for service. This link between service provision and community development was the innovation of the ACCESS program, which is now being scaled up across World Vision’s wheelchair programs through our holistic approach. 

The TEAM project also helped 3,670 persons with disabilities in Colombia access assistive technology, using mobile clinics and telemedicine to reach rural communities and connect local health providers with specialists.

Economic empowerment

Persons with disabilities and their families are more likely to be living in poverty because of lower levels of education, the cost of accessing health and rehabilitation services, and productivity lost when care is required for the person with a disability. When World Vision identifies a person with a disability, we ensure that they can access any financial assistance provided by the government and nongovernmental organization support programs.

We have developed a resource to support disability inclusion in agriculture, and our work to support refugees with livelihoods programming was recognized by the Zero Project.  

The TEAM project worked with persons with disabilities and their families in Colombia to increase their economic well-being. The project organized them into productive groups and equipped them with the necessary skills and resources, like tools, to increase their income by an average of 28%. Participation in these groups also provided individuals living with disabilities with a critical source of emotional and informational support. 

Want more examples? The Children with Disability: Promising Practices report shares approaches from World Vision programs around the world.

World Vision works to include children with disabilities in designing and evaluating the programs that affect their lives.

Hear from children directly. During the 2025 Global Disability Summit, children with disabilities shared their experiences and priorities in a World Vision webinar. Watch the recording (Password: 8Li4N&nF)

Read their stories. See how children and young people with disabilities and their families are finding new opportunities:

Disability Inclusion Research & Resources

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Disability Inclusion News & Insights

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