The Feminist Accessibility Protocol: Towards the effective inclusion of feminists with disabilities in the feminist movement
By Cristina Dueñas Díaz-Tendero
**Esta publicación está disponible en español aquí**
In the feminist movement and at many defining moments for gender equality, the lack of representation, participation, and leadership for one particular community has been clear — namely, feminists with disabilities.
In my activism, I have felt many times that we, women with disabilities, have been ignored or marginalized from the feminist movement. I remember joining the feminist movement in my region a few years ago, and the specific needs of feminists with disabilities were not addressed; nobody cared about my accessibility requirements (whether at in-person meetings, activities, or protests) or my agenda as a feminist with a disability. The intersection of gender and disability or the importance of accessibility was not even mentioned. Ultimately, I felt disappointed and left the network because it hurt me to see that my allies in the feminist movement failed to embrace inclusion and diversity.
As a feminist with a disability, I see this as a clear example of discrimination, as we are denied access to information, discussions, events, and decision-making processes concerning major issues on gender equality. Issues that impact our daily lives, such as education, health, employment, and gender-based violence, among others. Our voices are not listened to either, even though gender equality will never be achieved if we are excluded from and ignored in the progress towards gender equality.
So, what is behind this discrimination? A lack of disability-related accessibility. With no accessibility, feminists with disabilities cannot join the feminist movement on an equal basis as others, although almost 1 in every 5 women in the world is a woman with a disability.
I’m sure you are wondering why the feminist movement has not ensured accessibility, given that it is essential to so many people. At events or meetings around gender equality, we are sometimes told: “We cannot afford sign language interpretation for just one person;” “We will not change location; it is not such a big deal if there is no elevator;” “Information panels in the building are not that important; I’m sure you will find your way around it without any trouble” or “What is the point of providing an image description of what is projected? There is no need.” The bottom line is that it is very sad and disappointing to see that accessibility is not a priority.
For example, a major international event on gender equality was the Generation Equality Forum in 2021, where we faced countless accessibility barriers, and many feminists with disabilities could not participate. After this frustrating situation, the Inclusive Generation Equality Collective (IGEC), of which I’m a member, decided to take action by developing the Feminist Accessibility Protocol to prevent situations like this from happening again.
Developing the Protocol was challenging, but we knew it was greatly needed. Accessibility is a human right, not an optional add-on, and it was important to ensure that the motto “Nothing About Us Without Us” guided work on gender equality. A year later, we feel proud of our work on the Protocol, as it outlines 13 accessibility commitments to ensure the meaningful inclusion of women and gender-diverse people with disabilities in decision-making spaces on gender equality. There are versions available in English, Spanish, International Sign, Easy Read and — soon — Filipino.
Being part of this project and getting work done has been a journey of personal growth, learning, and connection. Surrounding myself with powerful and resilient women who have so much to contribute through their lived experiences has been highly rewarding.
The Protocol is the result of intense work with focus groups, surveys, and interviews with 109 women, girls, trans, intersex, and nonbinary persons with many types of disabilities from 37 countries. They shared their lived experiences joining feminist spaces, meetings and events on gender equality. Their voices were heard and considered. It was a wonderful experience. After several months, we launched the Protocol, a groundbreaking set of 13 commitments to guide the implementation of accessibility. It also includes good practices, focus group findings, and international human rights standards on accessibility. The Collective achieved a milestone.
The Protocol is a tool to advocate for justice, equality, rights, and inclusion of feminists with disabilities in the progress towards gender equality. It also invites States, feminist organizations and organizations of persons with disabilities, civil society, and other stakeholders working on gender equality to commit to and implement inclusion and accessibility and to understand gender and disability intersectionality through the lens of feminists with disabilities.
What does this mean? It means that we, feminists with disabilities, can finally participate, be heard, be taken into account, and lead events and meetings on gender equality. It marks a huge step towards achieving gender equality, given that we, feminists with disabilities, have frequently been left out, not invited to events, excluded from participation, and, ultimately, silenced and made invisible.
With the Protocol, we provide a tool to change this situation, and the Collective is already seeing progress in this regard. One year after its launch, over 200 signatories from at least 33 countries committed themselves to the Protocol. We are really excited, and we hope that more feminist organizations and States join us. We believe accessibility must be tackled with empathy, awareness raising, and action plans.
If you represent a State or organization, we invite you to sign on to our Protocol. It’s very easy, just fill out this form.
This has been such an incredible experience! For me, it’s one of the best in my life as an activist for the rights of people with disabilities, especially girls, women, and gender non-conforming people.
What do we expect now that we are celebrating the first year of the Protocol? We must continue working on awareness-raising, increasing the number of signatories, and supporting the implementation of the commitments. We will keep advocating and underscoring that ACCESSIBILITY IS A RIGHT.
About the author
Cristina Dueñas Díaz-Tendero (she/her) is a Mechanical Engineer specialized in universal accessibility. She is a feminist, disability rights activist, and gender advocate.
