Mainstream Grantmaking and People with Disabilities

Do people with disabilities need or deserve special attention from mainstream human rights organizations or grantmakers who don’t plan to specialize in their concerns? Is there a role for people with disabilities in mainstream human rights projects? How and why should people with disabilities be included in human rights campaigns that focus on other population groups such as women, ethnic minorities, or the poor? How can including people with disabilities help everyone in achieving human rights goals for all population groups? What role can grassroots organizations, and the funders that support them, play in this process?

Organizations and grantmakers can both consult a pair of brochures that explain how and why non-governmental organizations and funders can and should take disability into account when planning or funding mainstream international human rights programs. They are entitled “Human Rights and Disability: Embracing a paradigm shift: A Funder Opportunity” and “Human Rights and Disability: Embracing a paradigm shift: An NGO Opportunity.” Each brochure is two pages long, and is available in both PDF format and Word format. They can be downloaded for free at:

http://www.disabilityfunders.org/human_rights

These brochures are targeted at mainstream funders and organizations. Grassroots disability advocates could also use them in their outreach efforts to persuade organizations and funders of the need to be more inclusive of their concerns in mainstream human rights programs.

Mainstream organizations and grantmakers who are serious about including disabled people in their programs will want to note that this pair of brochures only gives a broad overview of the issues involved. If you are seeking more detailed, concrete guidance in how to incorporate people with disabilities in your projects, then you will want to explore other resources on inclusive development that have been featured at the We Can Do blog.

Also explore some of the publications available at the Disability Funder’s website.



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I first learned of the Disability Funder’s Network when I was working on a project recently to pull together a collection of links for the Disability Rights Fund website (watch their space for an extensive collection of resources due to go up in late August or early September 2008).

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