Quote of the Day
“Nothing about us without us.”
This is not the quotation of one famous leader. It is the long-standing rallying call of the disability-rights movement. The United Nations used it as the theme of the 2004 International Day of Disabled Persons, explaining that the phrase is rooted in a simple principle: people with disabilities should participate in decisions and policies that affect their lives.
There are only five words.
But think about how often we do the opposite.
We decide what another person needs. We design a building and later discover that someone using a wheelchair cannot enter it. We organize a meeting and forget that somebody may need sign-language interpretation. We create a programme for a group of people and invite them only after the important decisions have already been made.
Then we call it inclusion.
Perhaps inclusion begins somewhere much simpler.
Ask.
Listen.
And when the decision concerns somebody’s life, make room for that person at the table before the decisions are made.
There is a lesson here that reaches beyond disability.
People living with a problem usually know something about that problem that the people discussing it from a distance do not.
Quote source: United Nations — “Nothing About Us Without Us”
Did You Know?
Nearly 29 million children with disabilities live in Eastern and Southern Africa.
That number from UNICEF is easy to read and move past.
So imagine one child instead.
A classroom is upstairs, but she cannot climb the stairs.
The lesson is written on a board she cannot see clearly.
A school has no material she can read or hear.
Or perhaps the barrier is not the building at all. It is the belief that because she has a disability, sending her to school would be a waste of money.
UNICEF estimates that nearly 29 million children with disabilities live in Eastern and Southern Africa. Its regional analysis says these children can face barriers including stigma, inaccessible services and physical obstacles.
The problem becomes particularly visible in education. UNICEF currently estimates that 47 million children aged 6–17 were out of school in Eastern and Southern Africa in 2024, and says children and young people with disabilities account for three out of every seven children who are out of school.
Disability itself does not always create exclusion.
Sometimes the staircase does.
Sometimes it is transport that cannot accommodate a wheelchair. Sometimes information is provided in only one format. Sometimes it is an assumption made before anyone has asked what a child can do.
That distinction matters.
Because if the barrier is something society has built, society can also remove it.
A ramp will not solve every problem. Neither will a new law or a classroom policy.
But perhaps a useful question whenever we build a school, service, website, workplace or community programme is remarkably ordinary:
Who will not be able to use this—and why?
Sources
- UNICEF Data — Children with Disabilities in Eastern and Southern Africa
- UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa — Education
For discussion: What everyday places in our communities would become difficult to use if we suddenly had to move through them with a wheelchair, without sight, or without hearing?
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