Young People and disability
8 November 2019
Young People and disability
Estimates suggest that there are between 180 and 220 million young people with disabilities worldwide and nearly 80% of them live in developing countries.21
Mainstreaming disability is the process of assessing the implications for disabled people of any planned action, including legislation, policies and programmes, in all areas and at all levels.22 It is important to work towards the mainstreaming of disability in all youth issues, and towards the mainstreaming of youth in all disability issues. Both disability and youth need to be key concerns in formulating any policy. In order to design effective policies, a greater knowledge of disability issues by decision makers is needed and youth with disabilities themselves should take part in decision making. This will only be achieved through closer partnerships of state institutions with organisations of disabled people.
The challenge here is that there are few organisations representing the interests of disabled young people or being run by young people with disabilities. On the international and regional level, most active representatives of disability and youth issues include the International Federation of Hard of Hearing Young People, the Leonard Cheshire Disability Young Voices, the African Youth with Disabilities Network, the Pineda Foundation for Youth, the World Federation of the Deaf Youth Section, and the European Disability Forum Youth Committee.