Disability Rights Fund

10/21/2026

Disability-led movements are at the heart of what we do at Disability Rights Fund, and now they're being recognized on a national stage.

We're finalists in The Anthem Awards, nominated in the Belonging & Inclusion category for our grantmaking impact, and you have one week left to help us win the Anthem Community Voice in Partnership Award.

Every vote is a way to say that people with disabilities leading their own change matter. Deadline is October 29th: https://wbby.co/bifrnp

10/19/2026

Since 2008 DRF has:
🌍 Granted $60.8M to 636 organizations in 62 countries

🗣📢 Trained 7500+ activists through peer and collective learning

⚖️ Helped to advance 379 inclusive laws, policies, and programs

🏛️ Submitted to 100+ UN reports and multilateral bodies

Find out more about the work of DRF at: https://www.disabilityrightsfund.org/

10/16/2026

Over the weekend in Bangkok, women with disabilities from across Asia came together for the DRF 'Our Knowledge, Our Movement' convening on preventing gender-based violence (GBV) 🌍

For 2.5 days, DRF grantees, partners, and allied movements shared what works and what doesn't in GBV advocacy. The space was peer-led, with storytelling, small-group conversations, and collective reflection at its heart.

Women with disabilities face heightened risks of gender-based violence, yet they are too often left out of the systems designed to prevent and respond to it. This convening put their knowledge and leadership at the centre.

The result was a set of priorities for disability-inclusive GBV prevention and response such as ending institutionalization and protecting bodily autonomy, as well as the need for community-led research and evidence.

Find out more about our Peer and Collective Learning work: https://www.disabilityrightsfund.org/peer-collective-learning/

10/14/2026

We're thrilled to share that Disability Rights Fund is a finalist in The Anthem Awards - vote for us now! 🗳️

We're a nominee for the Belonging & Inclusion category for our grantmaking impact.

But we could also win the Anthem Community Voice in Partnership Award if you vote for us now. Winning the award would do more than put a trophy on our shelf. It would signal to funders, governments, and partners that DRF's model of supporting disability-led movements drives lasting change.

Help us take it further by voting here by 29 October: https://wbby.co/bifrnp

10/01/2026

Heading to the SVRI Forum in Bangkok next week? Join us and Women Enabled International at Booth B19!

DRF Associate Director of Peer and Collective Learning, Dwi Ariyani, will also be chairing a session on 'Disability, violence, and the right to be heard'

🗓️ Tuesday 6 October 2026
⏱️ 17:00-18:30 - Parallel Session 3.5
📍 Lotus 1-4

Four presentations will share research and lived experience on violence against women and young people with disabilities, from human rights violations against women with intellectual disabilities and psychosocial disabilities, to peer-led research, to findings from Malawi and Uganda.

Come to listen, learn and join the conversation.

09/25/2026

This week, Deaf women leaders from across Africa came together in Nairobi for the Pan-African Deaf Women's Network Convening - 'Strengthening Leadership, Building Alliances and Shaping Collective Action' supported by the German Government through GIZ and hosted in collaboration with FEDWEN-Kenya.

Over four days we:
🤝 Connected with partners and donors, and shared the challenges and priorities Deaf women face across the continent.

⚖️ Explored the CRPD, the Maputo Protocol and the African Disability Protocol, then turned those commitments into concrete advocacy asks.

📝 Learned from the wider women's rights movement, with FIDA-Kenya, Femnet Secretariat and Kenya Network of Women and Girls with Disabilities, about building alliances and making sure Deaf women's voices are included.

🚀 Shaped the future of the Network, including priorities, governance, the role of the Steering Committee and the Deaf Feminism Africa initiative.

Participants left with four shared strategic priorities – access to justice; advocacy and policy influence; leadership and movement building; and organisational strengthening and capacity building – as well as a stronger sense of knowledge, confidence, motivation and solidarity.

The convening also laid the foundations for the Network’s next steps, including strengthening its governance, developing its strategic plan, maintaining regular communication and continuing to build collective advocacy across the continent.

Together, we are building a Pan-African platform where Deaf women can connect, lead, advocate and advance their rights. 🤟🏾

09/23/2026

Today is International Day of Sign Languages 🎉

Over 70 million Deaf people worldwide belong to signing Deaf communities, yet only 84 countries have officially recognized a national sign language.

We're celebrating the Rwanda National Union of the Deaf (RNUD), a Deaf-led organization DRF fist funded in 2013, and its decade-plus push to get Rwandan Sign Language recognized:

✔️The 2018 'Sign Your name' campaign, in which 36 public figures learned to sign their names
✔️30 sign language videos made with the Ministry of Health during COVID-19
✔️The first Rwandan Sign Language Dictionary, launched in 2022

Advocacy for official recognition is still gaining momentum in 2026 but every step toward that goal brings us closer to a Rwanda where the Deaf community is fully included.

Read the full story here: https://www.disabilityrightsfund.org/2026/09/23/advocating-sign-language-rwandan-deaf-movement/

09/21/2026

📣 Nothing about us without us, and that includes how we talk about deinstitutionalization.

TCI, a global organization of persons with psychosocial disabilities, and DRF grantee, has released its 2026 Call to Action. The Call demands an end to legal incapacity based on disability and to forced hospitalization, medication, and sterilization, and asks that awareness campaigns be led by persons with psychosocial disabilities.

Read the full Call to Action: https://bit.ly/4h2XhUl

Across the world, persons with psychosocial disabilities continue to face institutionalization, coercion, legal incapacity, violence, and exclusion from community life. For youth, women, and gender diverse persons with psychosocial disabilities, these barriers are often intensified by intersecting forms of discrimination and control.

TCI Global is proud to launch its:
Call to Action on Deinstitutionalization and Community Inclusion of Youth, Women, and Gender Diverse Persons with Psychosocial Disabilities.

Developed through consultations with more than 45 peers from TCI member OPDs and their networks across 15 countries, in six languages, this Call to Action sets out demands for States, donors, development partners, UN agencies, cross-movement actors, and our own movement.

It calls for comprehensive and time-bound deinstitutionalization, an end to legal incapacity and coercive systems, and recognition and leadership of youth, women, and gender diverse persons with psychosocial disabilities.

As we have been reiterating, deinstitutionalization is not simply about closing institutions. It requires transforming the systems, laws, policies, practices, and attitudes that reproduce control and exclusion, while building communities where everyone can exercise choice, autonomy, and belonging. This Call to Action furthers TCI's strong advocacy towards rights-based deinstitutionalization and community inclusion.

📄 Read the full Call to Action:https://tci-global.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Call-of-Action-2026.pdf

09/15/2026

📢 New from the UN CRPD Committee: 'Guidelines on Intersectional Discrimination Against Women and Girls with Disabilities' were adopted at the end of August.

Women and girls with disabilities don't experience discrimination on the basis of disability alone — gender, age, race, poverty, migration status, sexual orientation and more all intersect to create unique and compounded barriers.

📚Check out International Disability Alliance new analysis of and toolkit for the guidelines. It's a useful tool helping OPDs implement the guidelines, holding governments accountable, and pushing for the meaningful participation of women and girls with disabilities in their organizations.

📎 Find the toolkit at:

Explore IDA’s article-by-article guide to CRPD implementation, with practical questions and references to help advocates turn disability rights into action.

09/03/2026

Fantastic news that the United Nations General Assembly resolution on access to assistive technologies was adopted today.

Assistive technologies includes things such as hearing aids, screen-reading software, and other digital systems. They can play an important part in helping people with disabilities participate more fully in society.

The International Disability Alliance welcomes the adoption of the first-ever United Nations General Assembly resolution on access to assistive technology. This is a historic political milestone, and we thank Pakistan for its leadership in facilitating this groundbreaking initiative.

Access to appropriate, affordable and quality assistive technology is essential for the autonomy, equality and participation of persons with disabilities and others who use it.

While technology can support people in exercising their rights, society must remove the barriers that deny them. IDA will continue working to ensure that assistive technology policies are shaped by persons with disabilities and connected to the wider transformation of laws, systems, services, and communities, as required by the .

ATscale, the Global Partnership for Assistive Technology UNICEF World Health Organization (WHO)