New world report shows more than 1 billion people with disabilities face substantial barriers in their daily lives

The first-ever World report on disability reveals that of the more than one billion people in the world who are disabled, 110-190 million encounter significant difficulties in their daily lives. A lack of attention to their needs means that they are confronted with barriers at every turn. These include stigma and discrimination; lack of adequate health care and rehabilitation services; and inaccessible transport, buildings and information. The report recommends that governments and their partners provide people with disabilities access to all mainstream services, invest in specific programmes for those people with disabilities who are in need, and adopt a national disability strategy and plan of action. Importantly, people with disabilities should be consulted and involved in the design and implementation of these initiatives.

• World report on disability

A billion people in the world experience disability and 19% of those have significant difficulties in mobility. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) highlights the responsibility of states to ensure personal mobility and to promote the availability and access to mobility devices such as wheelchairs, tricycles, walkers, orthoses and prostheses. WHO, the United States Agency for International Development and other stakeholders have developed a Joint position paper on the provision of mobility devices in less-resourced settings. The paper outlines what needs to be done in the areas of policy, service provision, human resource capacity development and technology to improve access to mobility devices for people with disabilities and older people.

• Link to the Joint Position Paper
• Meet Faustina from Tanzania who talks about the importance of wheelchairs

Hearing directly from people with disabilities about their lives is vital to good research and effective policy. In this series of short films we learn from Rachel, a nurse with disability from the United Kingdom about the obstacles she has overcome in her career; we hear why Faustina, from Tanzania, feels that wheelchairs are so important to people with disabilities; Mia, from Lebanon, shares her experience of discrimination in education; and Feliza, from Bolivia, talks about her campaign to remove access barriers in her home town. Each film relates to a different chapter of the World report on disability, launched on 9 June 2011 in New York. Blind aboriginal musician Geoffrey Yunupingu Gurrumul has supplied the soundtrack to the films.

• "What's disability to me" videos

Many people with disabilities have limited or no access to health care and rehabilitation, education, skills training, and employment opportunities. This contributes to a vicious cycle of poverty and disability. Community-based rehabilitation (CBR) guidelines provide practical suggestions to programme managers on how to develop or strengthen community-based programmes that are inclusive of people with disabilities and their families.

• CBR guidelines