Disabled Women and Independent Life in Brazil, Germany, Great Britain, India, Japan, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Russia, South Africa and Uganda

Disabled women are discriminated against because they are women and also because they are disabled. Disabled women have played a very important part in the disabled people's movement since its inception. And yet, their contribution is often invisibilised or not properly acknowledged, in some occasions it is even not welcome. This paper describes the struggles of disabled women to have their rights recognised and promoted both within the disabled people's movement and within the disabled women groups worldwide both at regional and country level. Case studies from every continent are presented including South Africa and Uganda in Africa; India, Japan and New Zealand in Asia; United Kingdom, Germany and Russia in Europe; and Brazil and Nicaragua in Latin America. In South Africa, for instance, disabled women have identified barriers to their integration which include lack of formal education, difficult access to employment, credit and training programmes; and exposure to violence, particularly within the household. Their recommendations include: public education for disabled girls and awareness programmes to change attitudes towards disability; vocational training for disabled women, rights over their own fertility; and access to social security benefits for disabled women, particularly young disabled mothers.