People with disabilities and lack of access to HIV information, programmes and services

[Guest guest]

Dear FORUM,

I have recently completed a report " Too few to worry about, or too many to

ignore? The exclusion of people with disabilities from HIV programmes in

India. " This report is the culmination of an eight month research and action

project undertaken with support from the Programme Management Office on behalf

of the Department for International Development (PMO-DFID) between August 2006

and March 2007. The report findings and analysis are based upon meetings with

60 organisations working on disability, 40 with HIV programmes and individual

interviews with 350 people with disabilities across 14 states.

The report seeks to make the case for why the HIV sector needs to make its

programmes and services accessible to, and inclusive of, people with

disabilities. It also aims to highlight the need for the disability sector to

engage with HIV as an issue that can, does and will affect its constituent.

The report highlights the inaccessibility of current HIV programmes, services

and information campaigns in India to people with disabilities and, as a result

of that, low levels of awareness of HIV. The report finds that this lack of

awareness means that people with disabilities are vulnerable to HIV, it

indicates that there are already significant numbers of people with disabilities

infected and affected by HIV, and that the modes of transmission are exactly the

same as the non-disabled population. It is estimated that there are

approximately 320,000 people with disabilities living with HIV in India today,

but very few of these are accessing care or support services. The report

concludes that although people with disabilities are not a high risk group, some

people with disabilities engage in high risk behaviour. There is a need for

more detailed and focused research on the subject of HIV and people with

disabilities in India.

As well as making the case for why people with disabilities need to be included

in mainstream HIV programmes, the report also looks at how this might be

achieved through a series of suggested strategies and practical recommendations

for both the disability and HIV sector.

Guidelines developed by Yale University for the gradual inclusion of people with

disabilities into HIV programmes have also been included to support this

process.

Above all, the report makes the case for engagement and collaboration between

the HIV and disability sectors at all levels, and within both government and

civil society structures. It is unrealistic to expect the HIV sector to become

experts on communication with people with disabilities, and it is similarly

unreasonable to expect the disability sector to become experts on HIV.

Dialogue, representation, practical action and support across and from both the

disability and HIV sectors towards this is the only way this issue can be

effectively addressed.

The link is http://v1.dpi.org/lang-en/resources/topics_detail?page=884

If you need any further information or have any questions, please don't hesitate

to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Kevan Moll

e-mail: <kevan.moll@...>