“Leaving No One Behind: Disability and the Test of Global Resilience”
Cornelius Corniado Ginting, Founder Center of Economic and Law Studies Indonesia Society (CELSIS)
The world is navigating a prolonged period of uncertainty marked by geopolitical conflicts, climate crises, economic pressures, and rapid technological disruption.
These shocks do not remain abstract macroeconomic variables; they directly shape the daily realities of citizens.
In such conditions, the most vulnerable groups including persons with disabilities are often the first to be affected and the last to be considered in policy responses.
Global turbulence is frequently discussed in macroeconomic language: growth projections, fiscal stability, supply chains, and energy resilience.
Yet a more fundamental question is rarely asked: how do these crises affect those who already live with limited access to education, employment, healthcare, and public services? This question is not peripheral it is central to understanding whether development is truly just.
In policy practice, persons with disabilities are too often reduced to statistical categories, mentioned in passing without meaningful policy implications.
However, disability is not a marginal phenomenon. It represents a significant demographic and social reality that must be placed at the core of development planning.
Global Scale and the Indonesian Portrait
Globally, disability is far from a minor issue. The World Health Organization (WHO), in its Global Report on Health Equity for Persons with Disabilities (2023), estimates that approximately 1.3 billion people, nearly 16 percent of the world’s population, live with some form of disability.
This figure underscores that disability is not an exception but a structural component of global society.
In Indonesia, the Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS), through the 2020 Population Census Long Form and its 2022 follow-up publications, reports that around 22–23 million Indonesians live with disabilities, with a significant proportion within productive age groups.
Yet this substantial population is not proportionally reflected in educational attainment, labor force participation, or representation in public decision-making spaces.
Various socio-economic indicators reveal persistent structural inequality.
Persons with disabilities face not only limited access but also systemic barriers embedded in economic and social systems that were never fully designed to accommodate human diversity.
Layered Crises and Structural Vulnerability
International data indicate that global turbulence exacerbates the vulnerability of persons with disabilities in multiple dimensions. The World Bank (2023) reports that persons with disabilities are twice as likely to live in extreme poverty.
Meanwhile, the International Labour Organization (2022) finds that labor force participation rates among persons with disabilities are 20–30 percent lower than those of non-disabled populations across many countries, including Indonesia.
Climate crises and disasters further intensify risks. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) (2022) notes that persons with disabilities face mortality risks two to four times higher during disasters due to non-inclusive evacuation systems and limited accessible infrastructure.
Simultaneously, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2021) highlights that more than 60 percent of digital public services in developing countries fail to meet accessibility standards, meaning digital transformation may inadvertently generate new forms of exclusion.
These facts demonstrate that disability is not a matter of charity; it is a measure of development justice.
The marginalization of persons with disabilities reflects systemic design failures. A just society must expand participation opportunities for all its citizens.
In line with Amartya Sen’s capability approach (1999), development should be assessed by the real freedoms people have to lead lives they value.
Strategic Pillars for Inclusive and Just Disability Policy
In times of global crisis, the resilience of a society is reflected in how it protects and empowers its most vulnerable members. Disability inclusion must therefore shift from symbolic recognition to systemic transformation.
First, disability perspectives must be integrated at the earliest stages of policy design. Development agendas that ignore accessibility risk create new exclusions.
Second, inclusive employment must become a cornerstone of future economic resilience. Skills development, accessible workplaces, and inclusive entrepreneurship are not social programs; they are economic imperatives.
Third, social protection systems must be adaptive and sustainable, tailored to the real needs of persons with disabilities as instruments of empowerment rather than dependency.
Fourth, universal design principles should become binding standards in both physical infrastructure and digital services. Accessibility is not an add-on; it is a prerequisite for equitable participation.
Fifth, meaningful participation of persons with disabilities in policymaking must be guaranteed. Their lived experiences constitute irreplaceable sources of insight for effective governance.
Toward a Sustainable Disability Future
A sustainable future for persons with disabilities requires a shift in perspective from compassion to justice, from symbolic inclusion to structural reform.
Disability inclusion is not an auxiliary agenda; it is a foundation of social resilience amid global uncertainty.
True sustainability is not measured solely by economic growth or infrastructure strength, but by a nation’s ability to uphold the dignity of every human being.
A society that includes all its citizens is better equipped to withstand shocks and recover with dignity.
In this sense, building an inclusive disability framework is inseparable from Indonesia’s long-term aspiration toward its centennial vision in 2045.
Development that leaves no one behind is not merely a slogan; it is the ethical core of sustainable nation-building.
(JUN/QOB)