Embed disability inclusion in programmes…
Innovation is not always the exciting, new thing – it can also be making straightforward adaptations to well-known processes and attitudes. This isn’t just about being open for people with disabilities to participate but making sure that concrete actions are taken to include them systematically.
For example, we have adapted an already successful mainstream youth training programme in Bangladesh to ensure that young people with disabilities are equally benefitting from the opportunities the programme offers. For example, training staff on disability inclusion and working with organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) to make tools more accessible.
We have also found that in many sectors there is a will to be more inclusive, but people need support to know how to do it and where to start. We’re working with training suppliers, supporting them to adapt their soft skills training and IT academies to be inclusive of people with disabilities. And in business, we’re working to make companies inclusive of people with disabilities, both in their offices and their supply chains.
…but also aim for systematic change
Systems are often rigid with individuals forced to adapt to them. Our work focuses on how we change the systems to make them inclusive of people with disabilities from the start.
Our education projects have shown us who we need to work with to change school systems to make them inclusive. In Tanzania, we are working with government, disability and education actors to create a model of quality inclusive, pre-primary and primary education that is tested, costed and collectively
supported. In Nigeria, we’re making primary education inclusive by developing innovative and scalable strategies for schools and teacher training.
This may not immediately have huge impacts, but instead lay the groundwork for systemic change that can benefit many more people in the future.
Engage people with disabilities from the start
This sounds obvious but I would consider it an innovation as it is so regularly not being done in development work. We often see OPDs consulted on projects in superficial ways that can be ticked off for reports.