UNICEF is committed to ensuring that all children with disabilities have safe and inclusive access to emergency services during crises.
Making humanitarian action inclusive means including people with disabilities in decision-making and addressing their rights and needs in all emergency preparedness, response and recovery actions.
That means making risk communication and community engagement available to children with hearing, visual, intellectual and physical disabilities, applying accessibility standards to emergency services, and mobilizing crisis-affected communities to fight stigma and discrimination.
UNICEF works across multiple sectors to make humanitarian action inclusive. We partner with disability organizations, sister UN agencies and other humanitarian actors to identify and address the barriers faced by children with disabilities when disasters strike. Our efforts support making humanitarian action more accessible through targeted interventions, such as providing assistive technology.
We are also working to improve disaggregation of disability data to understand how children with disabilities are affected by crises, which is essential for planning and monitoring comprehensive humanitarian action.
When children and young people with disabilities have the opportunity to make their communities safer and more inclusive, everyone benefits. We provide platforms for their participation and facilitate opportunities for them to play an active role in emergency responses by partnering with youth organizations. This work allows children with disabilities and their caregivers to inform program design and implementation, while also providing safe and confidential access to reporting mechanisms to air complaints and other feedback about humanitarian activities in their communities.
Finally, we will support countries to consolidate and strengthen established services for people with disabilities in emergencies, so that communities can emerge stronger and more resilient from crises.