This article outlines how we can empower women with broadened and strengthened strategies, with a particular focus on women with disabilities.
International Women’s Day, held annually on March 8th, celebrates women’s social, economic, cultural, and political achievements globally. It also brings together governments, women’s networks, charitable organizations, and corporate houses to highlight challenges impeding gender equality while creating awareness of women’s empowerment across multiple spheres.
However, able-bodied women continue to dominate the gender equality dialogue, and disability inclusiveness often gets sidelined. Over one billion people live with disabilities worldwide currently, and women with disabilities encounter even greater marginalization through the intersection of gender and disability biases. They struggle against deeply entrenched attitudinal, physical, societal, and systematic challenges and barriers limiting access to fundamental rights and life opportunities.
Obstacles Faced by Women with Disabilities
Women with disabilities unfortunately bear the brunt of both gender and disability discrimination globally. They are deprived of education, healthcare, accessible infrastructure, income opportunities, and legal rights in disproportionate numbers. Even their experience of womanhood itself, like pregnancy, motherhood, and menstruation, remains fraught with taboos.
Discrimination
Societal mindsets and outdated cultural stereotypes against both women and persons having disabilities often intersect, leading to exclusion, negative perceptions, and discrimination against them. Disabled women are frequently treated as invisible, worthless, outliers or burdens.
Lack of Accessibility
Inaccessible physical spaces, transportation systems, technologies, utilities, and public services pose another huge barrier and challenges. Missing ramps, lifts, braille signals, and usable bathrooms prevent mobility, while incomprehensible communication formats exclude effective participation. Such barriers force social isolation and endanger daily living.
Limited Access to Education
Article 24 of CRPD guarantees inclusive education opportunities. Yet just 1-2% of women having disabilities get through secondary education due to structural barriers across policy, budgets, physical spaces, teaching formats, and societal attitudes. Illiteracy and exclusion from classroom learning obliterate future prospects and life choices.
Gender-Based Violence
Disabled women face disturbingly higher risks of sexual, physical, and psychological violence due to entrenched unsafe cultural practices and viewpoints. Helplessness, isolation, and communication barriers also allow abusers to perpetrate crimes without accountability. Justice mechanisms also typically fail survivors with disabilities lacking accommodations.
Besides highlighting these challenges, International Women’s Day events by organizations like CBM Australia also showcase technology’s immense potential for change. Solutions like assistive devices, accessible information systems, and modern communication tools are dismantling barriers. Online education, telehealth, digital payments, and remote work avenues unlock new freedoms and choices too for marginalized women with disabilities. Accessible technologies coupled with disability-inclusive development allow women with disabilities to participate politically, socially, and economically on an equal footing.
Technology as a Catalyst for Change
Rapid technology innovation across interfaces, formats, and interactive modalities holds revolutionary potential for disability inclusion and mainstreaming. Be it education, livelihoods, healthcare, or legal rights – digital solutions are positively disrupting access and participation while challenging historical marginalization.
Assistive Technologies
Innovations like screen readers, magnifiers, alternative input devices, standing wheelchairs, and customized splints help disabled women overcome communication, mobility, and manipulation challenges. These promote independence in daily tasks, travel navigation, home needs, and workplace productivity. Advanced prosthetics also aid rehabilitation.
Communication Tools
Apps with speech interfaces, captioning, font resizing, and color contrast adjustment empower users with vision, hearing, motor, or cognitive difficulties to operate devices seamlessly. Video calls bridge geographic divides for sign language users, while automated transcription does the same for audio information.
E-Learning Opportunities
Online education platforms make learning inclusive, affordable, and accessible for women with disabilities despite societal prejudices or infrastructural barriers. Built-in accessibility tools enable personalized learning assistance, while remote access helps circumvent transportation barriers. Academic and vocational learning opens career avenues.
Economic Empowerment
Digital marketplaces, online work options, accessible payment interfaces, and financial literacy tools promote entrepreneurship and empower the disabled community, especially women, to achieve financial security and combat poverty through skilled jobs or micro-business ownership.
Social Advocacy
The internet also aids widespread advocacy on disability rights and campaigns against discrimination or gender-based violence by amplifying the voices of survivors and activists. Hashtag activism garners global support, while crowdfunding mobilizes resources enabling legal interventions or rehabilitation assistance.
While policy reforms, behavioral change communication, and systemic progress remain vital, embracing digital accessibility by default across programs, services, and public infrastructure will hugely advance disability inclusion. With existing solutions, transformative change is achievable when organizations show commitment. This International Women’s Day offers the perfect avenue to reinforce that commitment to gender equality and disability inclusion in development work globally.
Some Initiatives for Women with Disabilities
International agendas like the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals rightly focus on “leaving no one behind.” Translating this into action requires targeted interventions addressing the multilayered discrimination and exclusion faced by women with disabilities. Here are some constructive approaches.
Inclusive Education
Proactive efforts by organizations that tackle barriers in school infrastructure, teaching methods, learning materials, transportation, or societal attitudes can ensure education access for girls with disabilities. Vocational skill-training programs are also impactful. Academic learning and digital literacy build self-reliance.
Healthcare Access
NGOs facilitate medical camps by volunteer doctors while decreasing communication barriers between patients and hospital staff. Free assistive devices or treatment assistance enable rehabilitation. Health programs also raise awareness of sexual health issues or prevent gender-based violence.
Economic Empowerment
Livelihood training programs, along with seed funding in digital tools, backyard poultry, and small retail stores, uplift families from poverty. Self-help groups encourage entrepreneurship and financial literacy. Linkages with government welfare schemes related to disability pensions, housing, land rights, or banking ease access.
Disability Rights Advocacy
Awareness drives, policy reforms, grievance redressal cells, and emergency helplines assist in reporting abuse cases. Legal empowerment workshops aid in fighting injustice, while communication campaigns transform regressive societal attitudes, especially in rural communities.
Community Engagement
Mainstream schools accepting disabled girls signal shifting mindsets, as do public infrastructure upgrades embracing accessibility principles. Theatre, sports events, and cultural meets bring together community members, tearing down biases.
Conclusion
This year’s International Women’s Day necessitates an introspection — while tangible progress is being made towards female empowerment, most interventions still overlook women with disabilities or underestimate the value of digital accessibility. Available technologies offer solutions to bridge historical inequities. Real change is possible with ground action disabling barriers and harmful norms.
The world needs more such efforts rooted in the potent intersection of disability rights, gender equality, and innovation. Collective action fueling this intersection can make the slogan “We will shatter ceilings” resonate equally for every woman, irrespective of disability or background. That is the change International Women’s Day should rightfully celebrate.
Photo by Marcus Aurelius
