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A series of videos providing short reports from HI personnel on the potential impact of COVID-19 on people with disabilities living in already difficult situations.

[English subtitles]  

The guidelines set out essential actions that humanitarian actors must take in order to effectively identify and respond to the needs and rights of persons with disabilities who are most at risk of being left behind in humanitarian settings.

The recommended actions in each chapter place persons with disabilities at the centre of humanitarian action, both as actors and as members of affected populations. They are specific to persons with disabilities and to the context of humanitarian action and build on existing and more general standards and guidelines.

These are the first humanitarian guidelines to be developed with and by persons with disabilities and their representative organizations in association with traditional humanitarian stakeholders. Based on the outcomes of a comprehensive global and regional multi-stakeholder consultation process, they are designed to promote the implementation of quality humanitarian programmes in all contexts and across all regions, and to establish and increase both the inclusion of persons with disabilities and their meaningful participation in all decisions that concern them.

The Global Shelter Cluster (GSC) Working Group on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Shelter Programming was set up to build on existing guidelines and work addressing vulnerability factors to integrate a wider and more systematic disability inclusive approach to shelter and settlements programming, as well as support more general inclusion mainstreaming as prioritized by the GSC Strategy 2018 – 2022. To begin this process, the Working Group undertook a Baseline Mapping of how disability mainstreaming and inclusion is currently addressed within the sector. The Baseline Mapping included review of published literature and project documents, key informant interviews and an online questionnaire.

The Sphere Handbook is the oldest initiative in the field of humanitarian standards. It has been field-tested over twenty years and  regularly updated to ensure it remains fit for purpose in a changing world. What does not change is its rights-based foundations: people have the right to assistance, the right to life with dignity, the right to protection and security, and the right to fully participate in decisions related to their own recovery.

The Sphere Handbook 2018 is the fourth edition.

The Sphere Handbook comprises the Humanitarian Charter, the Protection Principles, the Core Humanitarian Standard, and minimum humanitarian standards in four vital areas of response:

Water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion (WASH)
Food security and nutrition
Shelter and settlement
Health

There are numerous references to people with disabilities through the handbook.

In the context of its Urban Eye Health Programme in Bhopal (India), Sightsavers launched a pilot approach aimed at developing an Inclusive Eye Health (IEH) model and IEH Minimum Standards.

Accessibility audits were conducted in a tertiary eye hospital and four primary vision centres located within urban slums, addressing the accessibility of physical infrastructures, communication and service provision. The collection and analysis of disaggregated data inform the inclusion strategy and provide a baseline to measure the impact of service provision. Trainings of eye health staff and sensitisation of decision makers on accessibility, universal design, disability and gender inclusion are organised on a regular basis.

A referral network is being built to ensure participation of women, people with disabilities and other marginalised groups, explore barriers at demand level, and guarantee wider access to eye care in the community. Finally, advocacy interventions will be developed to raise awareness in the community and mainstream disability and gender inclusion within the public health sector.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to examine whether there are any significant differences in demographic characteristics and health-related Quality of Life (QoL) among people living with HIV (PLWH) at shelter homes and drop-in centres in Malaysia.

Method: 117 PLWH were recruited by using the purposive sampling method. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey.

Results: Significant differences were found between PLWH at shelter homes and drop-in centres, in their demographic characteristics and in the 3 factors in the HIV/AIDS-Targeted Quality of Life Instruments (HAT-QoL) – namely, overall function, health worries, and provider trust.

Conclusion: Due to the differences in characteristics and QoL among PLWH in these two settings, different approaches are suggested to assist PLWH from shelter homes and drop-in centres.