Progress must continue for children with disabilities, one year after Global Disability Summit

11.05.2026

It’s just over one year since the Global Disability Summit 2025 took place. This tri-annual event marked an important global moment to advance the rights of persons with disabilities. Lumos played a key role in ensuring that children with disabilities, particularly those living in institutions, were part of that conversation.

As we approach Global Accessibility Awareness Day (21 May), we’re reflecting on the commitments we made at the Summit and the progress since.

Expanding our commitment to children with disabilities

At the Summit, Lumos committed to placing greater focus on children with disabilities across all areas of our work. This included:

• Expanding early childhood intervention and inclusive education through country programmes, particularly in Moldova.
• Ensuring children with disabilities are prioritised in national care reform processes.
• Making disability one of Lumos’ three global advocacy priorities.
• Strengthening partnerships with Organisations of Persons with Disabilities and organisations such as UNICEF.
• Increasing meaningful participation of children and young people with disabilities.

Since then, we’ve made steady progress embedding disability more consistently across both our programmes and advocacy.

Pictured: A child receiving support from a practitioner at an Early Intervention Centre in Moldova.

Strengthening services and support for families

A core focus has been improving services that help children remain in safe, loving families.

In Moldova, our partnership with UNICEF has expanded significantly. Over the past year, more Early Intervention Centres, supporting young children with disabilities and their families, have opened or are on track to open soon. These services are critical in preventing unnecessary separation and ensuring children receive the support they need early in life.

We’ve also strengthened inclusive education and early intervention more broadly, helping ensure children with disabilities are consistently included in national care reform efforts.

Pictured: Lumos Ukrainian Youth Advisory Board Member. Yevhenii, visits the office of UNICEF as a part of a delegation to the UN Human Rights Council’s 2026 Annual Day on the Rights of the Child (ADRC) in Geneva.

Raising global awareness and driving advocacy

Since the Summit, Lumos has continued to push this issue onto the global stage.

We’ve supported the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities in developing a key report on family care for children with disabilities. We’ve also highlighted the importance of inclusive education in conflict settings at the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Importantly, disability is now one of Lumos’ three core thematic advocacy priorities. This marks a clear shift, from treating disability as a cross-cutting issue to recognising it as a central focus of our work, with greater accountability and consistency.

Championing participation and inclusion

We have also strengthened the meaningful participation of children and young people with disabilities.

All four of Lumos’ national Youth Advisory Boards, alongside our Global Youth Advisory Board, now include strong representation from children and young people with disabilities. To support this, Lumos Participation Focal Points have received practical inclusion training, helping ensure all members can participate fully and equally.

This is about more than representation, it’s about modelling inclusion in practice.

Building stronger partnerships for lasting change

The Summit created momentum, but more importantly, it led to stronger collaboration and clearer accountability.

Since then, Lumos has deepened partnerships across the disability rights sector. We’ve entered into a strategic partnership with Disability Rights International and joined Inclusion International as affiliate members.

These steps move us beyond standalone commitments towards more coordinated and sustained action.

Why this work matters

Children with disabilities are still far more likely to be separated from their families and placed in institutions. This is often the result of a lack of accessible, community-based support for families.

If care reform is to succeed, these barriers must be addressed. Children with disabilities are often the last to leave institutions, meaning reform efforts cannot truly work unless they are included from the start.

When systems are designed to support them, they become more inclusive, more effective, and better for all children.

Looking ahead

This month, we’ll continue to highlight these issues through our attendance at the Europe in Action 2026 Conference (25–27 May), organised by Inclusion Europe. The event will bring together families, self-advocates and professionals to share knowledge and advance inclusion.

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