People with disabilities experience stigma associated with disability across the world.
Stigma elicits negative attitudes and responses such as pity, anxiety, avoidance, hostility, bullying, withholding help, and even hatred and disgust. It can lead to discrimination and abuse against people with disabilities. At the individual level, public stigmatisation and discrimination can result in internalised oppression, loss of self-esteem, and feelings of shame as people with disabilities may have to face great challenges in overcoming the negative views of their community or societies to achieve self-acceptance and a sense of pride in their lives. False perceptions and beliefs about disability are often difficult to overcome, but they can change and evolve over time, especially when interventions aimed at addressing disability stigma are implemented. Interventions to address disability stigma in developing countries have been aimed at the intrapersonal and familial level; the interpersonal level; and the structural level. Approaches to stigma reduction can involve contact, education, and protest.
Stigma is a major barrier to inclusive employment of people with disabilities, resulting in discrimination and negative attitudes from employers, communities, and families, and in the lack of self-esteem of disabled people when it comes to applying for jobs. This paper was prepared for the Inclusion Works programme, which brings together an experienced and diverse range of partners who, through strong collaboration, will create and test innovative approaches to improve the long-term economic empowerment and inclusion of people with disabilities in Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda. The paper draws on and expands previous work by Brigitte Rohwerder looking at disability stigma in developing countries (written for K4D) and information on stigma in the situational analyses and labour market assessments of the four Inclusion Works programme countries.
A similar paper was prepared for the Disability Inclusive Development (DID) Programme, a six year (2018 –2024) programme implemented in Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Jordan and Nepal by 11 consortium partners with the aim to impact on the long-term improved well-being and inclusion of people with disabilities in low-and-middle-income countries. The DID programme implements a series of innovative and scale projects in four thematic areas: education, health, livelihoods and negative stereotyping & discrimination.
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