Celebrating International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2024

The United Nations officially calls this day the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPWD). While this is a globally recognised term, we’ve always felt that a different name would better reflect our perspective: International Day of Disabled People (Check out our post on it from 2021).

Why? Because we follow the social model of disability, which shifts the focus from what’s “wrong” with an individual to what’s wrong with society. Here’s why language matters:

Why We Say ‘Disabled People’

The phrase person with a disability suggests:

• Disability is something we “have,” not part of who we are.
• It’s about a medical issue or diagnosis.
• It’s a weakness or problem needing fixing or curing.

We disagree with all of this. Instead, we proudly identify as Disabled people because:

• Disability is an integral part of our identity for many of us.
• The real issue isn’t our impairments but the barriers society creates—physical, attitudinal, and systemic.
• Focusing on medical diagnoses excludes countless Disabled people who face barriers even before accessing a diagnosis.

Even when we do have a diagnosis, it rarely captures the richness of our lived experiences or the specific challenges we face. Our experiences as Disabled people bring unique perspectives, resilience, and diversity of thought—qualities that enrich society and workplaces alike.

A Day in the Life: Working as a Disabled Employee

To celebrate this year’s IDPWD, we highlighted what a typical day looks like for three of our incredible team members:

Ellie, our Head of Communications, gave us a look at her day when she headed into the office.

Scarlett, our Communications Coordinator, shared her calm approach to remote working. 

• Rox, one of our amazing facilitators, showed us the meaningful work they do supporting organisations in becoming more inclusive.

Rox and our other expert inclusion facilitators are always ready to help you create a more accessible and equitable workplace. Why not get in touch to learn more?

This Year’s Theme: Inclusive Leadership

This year’s IDPWD theme, Inclusive Leadership, resonates deeply with our team. Inclusive leaders actively remove barriers, amplify diverse voices, and create environments where everyone can thrive.

Our team is full of incredible examples of this in action. Check out Ellie and Leigh’s reflections on what it means to lead inclusively:

Ellie’s post: 

Happy International Day of Disabled People! (Aka International Day of Persons with Disabilities)

This year’s IDPWD theme is about ‘amplifying leadership’. A while ago, I wrote a blog for Diversity and Ability about how leadership comes in many forms– it’s not just about managing a team.

Although disabled people are far from a homogenous group, we often have a shared experience of needing to demonstrate leadership skills throughout our lives; pushing for healthcare, advocating for adjustments for ourselves and our peers, fighting for social change, navigating a world that wasn’t built to include us.

Today offers a chance to reflect on the leadership that disabled people bring to workplaces and communities every single day. What can you do to better recognise, support and enable our contributions?

Leigh’s Post:

This year’s International Day of Disabled People theme is amplifying the leadership of disabled people.

I thought I would share a few approaches I have learned to amplify the leadership of my team at Diversity and Ability:

1. Collaborative decision-making. Start with the ‘what’ and the ‘why’, and the team will tell you how.
2. Encourage team members to share feedback and support each other’s development.
3. Talk about long-term goals and create actions for building towards them.
4. Anticipate and remove barriers so that the team can focus on doing what they do best, including streamlining processes and advocating for reasonable adjustments.

I’m continually learning from my team ,who role model inclusive leadership every Jesse, Roxanne, Piers, Alex 💜 

Before the next IDPWD, what is one action you can take to be an inclusive leader? Get some tips from our blog on intersectional leadership.