Disability Rights

ICI’s work with universities, NGOs, people with disabilities, families, and policymakers builds awareness, capacity and a support structure for the rights of people with disabilities within the UNCRPD framework and beyond. Drawing upon our staff’s long-standing experience in supporting self-determination and advocacy of people with disabilities, this work reflects an understanding of different cultural and other specific national and regional circumstances.

Cross-cultural collaboration

 ICI has done extensive work with international schools and communities to adapt proven dynamic teaching methods such as small-group instruction and peer-assisted learning to a non-US audience. Despite this breadth of experience, our teams don’t expect to simply replicate programs that have worked in the past.  We don’t have all the answers, but we do spend time building trust with parents, students, teachers, and other international colleagues. 

Gap analysis

Many countries lack sufficient data to know how many of their citizens are living with various types of disabilities, among other questions. This makes it difficult to develop appropriate policies for schools, communities, and workplaces. Through surveillance studies, ICI researchers collect data that quantifies a region’s disability population and its number of workers with disabilities, among other projects. In countries that have adopted international standards for inclusion of people with disabilities by 2025, for example, our teams evaluate the gap between current inclusion rates and the goal.