Africa: Can You Be Served When You're Not Counted? Disability Advocates Demand a Seat at the SRHR Table

What the report says

At a MenEngage Africa SRHR Progress 2026 Symposium session in Mombasa, Kenya, disability advocates and health practitioners discussed how people with disabilities are often present in health and policy spaces without being meaningfully included. The conversation focused on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), with speakers asking whether services and decision-making processes are truly accessible to everyone who needs them.

According to AllAfrica, Dr Susan Musau of Gifted Community Center and Kenya’s Network of Youth with Disabilities and College Students urged organisations to move beyond token representation and involve persons with disabilities in workplaces, programmes and planning. Dr Michael Munene of Kenya’s National Council for Persons with Disabilities said an inclusive health system should be judged by whether people can actually use it, including wheelchair users seeking maternal care, deaf adolescents needing information in a language they understand, and young people with intellectual disabilities making informed choices. He also pointed to barriers such as inaccessible facilities, poor communication, discrimination and the lack of disability-disaggregated data.

Joseph Etyang, a deaf disability rights advocate and co-director at the council, said inclusion must mean more than ramps and physical access. He noted that Kenya has made some progress through disability legislation and county-level policies, but said gaps remain in infrastructure, accessible toilets, language access and reporting. Barbara Ndolo of Cheshire Disability Services Kenya added that disability intersects with other forms of exclusion and that people with disabilities should not be treated as one uniform group.

The discussion matters because it linked SRHR access to broader questions of equity, accountability and representation. The speakers argued that policies are not enough unless health services are designed and measured by whether they can be used by people with different disabilities.