Executive Summary: Position Paper of the Stakeholder Group of Persons with Disabilities for the 2026 High-Level Political Forum for Sustainable Development
SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
Persons with disabilities continue to experience barriers in accessing adequate water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in their residences and in outdoor settings. The accessibility of WASH facilities is required to ensure privacy, dignity, safety, independent living, and inclusion in the community for persons with disabilities. Financial resources are needed to promote disability-inclusive WASH services, informed by existing gaps and accounting for additional disability-related costs.
SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
Persons with disabilities are less likely to have access to electricity than persons without disabilities, are at a heightened risk of fuel poverty, and frequently lack access to renewable and alternative green sources of energy. Policy measures are needed to address barriers and additional disability-related energy costs, including direct support and broad eligibility criteria for social protection schemes.
SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Inaccessible digital technology continues to be a barrier to the realization of rights. Disability inclusion must be a core feature of digital investments from the start. Equitable access to ICTs and affordability must be prioritized. Persons with disabilities remain behind in ICT skills training, requiring the removal of barriers and ensuring digital literacy for all.
SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
Persons with disabilities continue to have a higher risk of living in inadequate housing, frequently encounter inaccessible transport, are often not consulted on inclusive and safe urbanization, and face significant barriers in public spaces. Key courses of action needed to ensure disability-inclusive cities and human settlements include the adoption of commitments to universal design and accessibility for all and the meaningful engagement of persons with disabilities through their representative organizations in all stages of urban policy.
SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
Multi-stakeholder partnerships, particularly with organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs), are prerequisites for implementing the 2030 Agenda. Meaningful participation requires institutionalized power for persons with disabilities, rather than tokenistic consultations on an ad-hoc basis. Achieving the SDGs also requires the means of implementation and financing for disability-inclusive development. Monitoring mechanisms, like the OECD DAC disability marker, are critical to ensure that financing is disability-inclusive. Additionally, the private sector and philanthropic actors must also align with rights-based frameworks. More reliable, timely and accurate data, including OPD-led citizen data, are needed to measure disability inclusion across the SDGs.
