This-Ability is a social enterprise focused on advancing Disability Rights and Inclusion in Kenya.
+254748 263 763
Email: info@this-ability.org
This Ability
Mbo-Mboini Rd, Off Dagoretti Rd, Thogoto. City Kikuyu, Central Province, Kenya. Postal Code: 00509
According to reports by the World Health Organization, persons with disabilities represent approximately 15% of the world’s population with 80% living in low and middle income countries, and that 20% of the global female population consists of women with disabilities. Women and girls with disabilities in Kenya continue to face double discrimination, as a result of gender and disability, caused by a myriad of challenges such as myths and cultural practices that are discriminatory and harmful.
Studies show that women and girls with disabilities face compounded discrimination based on both their gender and their disabilities, leading to a phenomenon often referred to as "double discrimination." Regrettably, their perspectives are regularly overlooked in key local, regional, and global dialogues, legislations, and policies, resulting in their concerns being poorly understood and inadequately addressed. In response, Kenya has undertaken various legal and policy measures to enhance the sexual and reproductive health rights of women and girls with disabilities. Such measures include the introduction of legislation that ensures the rights of women with disabilities to manage their sexuality and reproductive health, safeguards against sexual and gender-based violence, and offers habilitation, rehabilitation, and psychosocial support in the face of such violence. Additionally, the legislation guarantees access to sexual and reproductive health services, the right to maintain and control their fertility, and protection against all forms of sexual abuse in every environment and place.
The aim is to amplify the voices of women with disabilities, advocate for their rights, and give women with disabilities a platform to self advocate.
While sexual and reproductive health and rights may now be more visible on main political agendas globally, regionally and nationally, there has been less meaningful implementation regarding inclusion of women with disabilities. The reality is that women with disabilities face a myriad of challenges in relation to their sexual and reproductive health and rights. Society has disregarded their sexuality and reproductive concerns, aspirations and human rights. Women with disabilities are infantilised and perceived to be asexual. Lack of consent to sexual and reproductive health decision making; disrespect, negative attitudes and biases of medical personnel; violence and abuse towards women and girls with disabilities; accessing services, with facilities that are physically inaccessible and lack measures to make them accessible to various forms of disability. Various forms of control over sexual behavior and reproduction, including coercive and involuntary sterilization, are used.
Furthermore, sexual and reproductive health information and education, including on menstrual health, contraception, pregnancy, safe abortion and other related sexual reproductive health issues, are poorly provided in formats that are inaccessible to women and girls with various disabilities. As a result, women with disabilities have not had equal access to quality sexual and reproductive healthcare. The invisibility of their sexualities puts them in vulnerable conditions, they are at a higher risk of forced sterilization, sexual violence, unplanned pregnancy, among others. Most of the barriers that prevent women with disabilities from enjoying healthy sexuality are based on cultural stigma and patriarchal social norms.
The exclusion from decision-making processes further exacerbates their vulnerability, perpetuating a cycle of marginalization. The prevalence of stigma and violence directed towards women with disabilities adds another layer of complexity, creating an environment where their autonomy is consistently undermined, and their basic human rights are violated.
Across all our programs, we have realized the need to strengthen evidence to advocate for women and girls with disabilities access to sexual and reproductive health services based on their life experiences and through our work. Our existing data allows us to conclude, there is a need to improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights policies for women with disabilities.
Bodies are where we put our theories of social justice into practice. It therefore follows that the categories in which bodies are placed, willingly or unwillingly, need to be subject to careful critique. In a society driven by narrow, visual representations of standards of beauty (for example in media, advertising and popular culture), women with disabilities have been largely invisible. Value is placed on bodies that most satisfy the socially constructed aesthetic, and because disabled bodies are culturally considered an aberration, they fall short and are therefore dismissed.
