Access to clean drinking Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) is a human right, further reinforced by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

WASH services also play a key role to ensure the ability to exercise other human rights and fundamental freedoms for all persons with disabilities including women and girls, children, and older persons with disabilities. WASH investments must include persons with disabilities to meet the Sustainable Development Goals and leave no one behind.

Persons with disabilities face additional barriers to access WASH in situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies such as conflict, displacement and disasters. While it is crucial to ensure climate-resilient WASH as a part of global climate action, it is important to ensure that disability-inclusion and accessibility is not undermined.

This web page has been set up as a joint collaboration by the International Disability Alliance (IDA), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Bank, WaterAid, HelpAge International, the Special Olympics, and the International Centre for Evidence in Disability (ICED) at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine to signpost and share resources on WASH and disability from different organisations working in development and humanitarian contexts.

The resources include practical guidelines and policy briefs and are for a range of policy and practitioner audiences. The selection of resources will be reviewed and updated on a regular basis.

While the organizers make every effort to ensure that the shared resources follow rights-based approaches to disability and are provided in accessible formats, we wish to acknowledge that due to high volume of material we cannot fully guarantee best quality of all the resources. However, any suggestions to improve current resources will be highly appreciated.

For further information or to share more resources please contact:

Martina Nee, Equality and Inclusion Advisor, WaterAid, +46-(0)8-677 30 19, +46-(0)73-312 22 76, martina.nee [at] wateraid.semartina.nee [at] wateraid.se ( )

Elham Youssefian, Inclusive Humanitarian Action and Disaster Risk Reduction Adviser, The International Disability Alliance, +1 347 3208729, eyoussefian [at] ida-secretariat.org

Disability-inclusive WASH resources (in Word with more information)

General WASH

Disability Inclusive WASH Practices: Including people with disabilities in UNICEF WASH programming, UNICEF

The Case for Investment in Accessible and Inclusive WASH, UNICEF

Advocating for Investment in Accessible and Inclusive WASH, UNICEF

Local Experiences for Global Learnings on Disability Inclusive WASH, UNICEF

An accessible future: three key changes for disability-inclusive water, sanitation and hygiene (from WWW workshop 2019), WaterAid, HURIWD, ECDD, Amplify Change, UNICEF, SIDA, WB

Compendium of accessible WASH technologies, WaterAid, WEDC, SHARE

Equality, non-discrimination and inclusion in WASH: a toolkit, WaterAid

Equality, inclusion and rights framework, WaterAid

Accessibility and safety audits for water points and for latrines in households, schools and markets, WaterAid and WEDC

3 short animations on inclusive WASH, tackling barriers, and a human rights based approach, WaterAid

  1. What is inclusive and empowering WASH?
  2. Understanding and tackling barriers
  3. How do we take a rights-based approach to WASH?

Four short animations introducing the concept of how to do an accessibility and safety audit, how to do a barrier analysis how to partner with a DPO, and how to identify people with disabilities using the Washington group questions, WaterAid Cambodia and Epic Arts

  1. How to do an accessibility and safety audit
  2. How to identify people with disabilities
  3. How to do a barrier analysis
  4. How to partner with a DPO

Water Currents: Inclusive WASH, Globalwaters.org

Guidance and tips for learning from people who may be most disadvantaged during the programme process, WSSCC

Towards a disability inclusive WASH: A spotlight on people with intellectual disability, Special Olympics

Repository for solutions, evidence and tools for strengthening decision-making within disability inclusive development (DID), LSHTM

Definition of inclusive WASH, LSHTM

Including Persons with Disabilities in Water Operations, World Bank

Scaling Up Disability Inclusion in Water Projects: Case Study of PAMSIMAS, World Bank

WASH in Humanitarian Action

Guidance: Including children with disabilities in humanitarian action - WASH, UNICEF

Disability-Inclusive Humanitarian WASH Response – Jordan, UNICEF

Rapid Review of Disability and Older Age Inclusion in Humanitarian WASH Interventions, Elrha

Humanitarian Inclusion Standards WASH section, HelpAge, CBM et al

COVID-19 Response

COVID-19 response: Considerations for Children and Adults with Disabilities, UNICEF

Summary report on considering disability and ageing in COVID-19 hygiene promotion programmes, COVID-19 Hygiene Hub Resources, LSHTM

Inclusive WASH COVID Guidance, HelpAge

Evidence brief: what are the key considerations for including people with disabilities in COVID-19 hygiene promotion programmes?, LSHTM

Summary report on considering disability and ageing in COVID-19 hygiene promotion programmes (similar content to the disability evidence brief), LSHTM

COVID-19 Inclusive WASH Checklist, LSHTM

Learning brief: including people with disabilities, older adults and their caregivers in COVID-19 prevention programmes, LSHTM

Menstrual Health and Hygiene

Guidance on Menstrual Health & Hygiene, UNICEF

The Bishesta Campaign: menstrual health and hygiene for people with intellectual impairments, WaterAid, LSHTM

Guidance Note: Menstrual Health and Hygiene for Girls and Women with Disabilities, UNICEF

Topic guide on disability and menstrual health and hygiene to be used to gather qualitative evidence, LSHTM

Topic guide to interview a proxy about MHH for people with disabilities, LSHTM

Topic guide for using PhotoVoice to explore menstrual health and hygiene and incontinence for people with disabilities, LSHTM

Quantitative Survey Tools

Case control questionnaire, LSHTM

Household screening questionnaire, LSHTM

 

Sanitation

Female-friendly public and community toilets: a guide for planners and decision makers, WaterAid, WSUP, UNICEF

Frontiers of CLTS: Disability: Making CLTS Fully Inclusive, IDS Sanitation Learning Hub

How to talk about Incontinence – Checklist, IDS Sanitation Learning Hub

Frontiers of Sanitation: Incontinence: We Need to Talk About Leaks, IDS Sanitation Learning Hub

Topic guide on incontinence experienced by people with and without disabilities, LSHTM

Topic guide to interview a proxy about incontinence experienced by people with disabilities, LSHTM

WASH in Healthcare Facilities

A participatory management tool for user-friendly water sanitation and hygiene in health care facilities, Cambodia, WaterAid Cambodia