Education cannot be treated as an option when crisis strikes, and for children with disabilities, being excluded in emergencies risks being left behind for life. That was the urgent message sounded at the session “Putting people with disabilities at the center of inclusive education during emergencies”, held as part of the World Congress 2025 ‘We Are Inclusion’ global gathering in Sharjah from 15 - 17 September.

Moderated by Jose María Viera, Executive Director of the International Disability Alliance (IDA), the discussion brought together leaders and advocates from countries experiencing the realities of conflict, displacement, and fragile systems.

From Niger, Siddo Nouhou Oumarou, representing the Niger Federation of Disabled Persons, recalled how in 1987 blind students were told that a diploma was a “luxury” - a mindset he argued still lingers in humanitarian responses. He detailed his organisation’s work in evaluating institutions, building capacity and pushing humanitarian actors to stop overlooking children with disabilities, pointing to recent progress with a $7 million allocation for disability-inclusive education. “In terms of education,” he stressed, “I think we do not have any other choice in cases of emergencies except inclusive education. We need to be stronger than the challenges.”

Halimatou Dabougui, also from Niger and president of ANPPDI - Association Nigérienne pour la Promotion des Personnes Déficientes Intellectuelles - an association assisting the intellectually disabled, spoke of the invisibility of people with intellectual disabilities during crises. “In emergencies, they are forgotten again and again,” she said, noting how stigma, discrimination and even families’ fears mean their basic needs go unmet. For her, the message was clear: access and security are the foundation, schools must be protected, and planning must begin before disaster strikes to ensure resilience after.

From Colombia, Monica Cortés, Executive Director of Asdown Colombia and a board member of Inclusion International, laid out the principles guiding inclusive education in emergencies: no child excluded, learning together in common spaces, and diversity recognised as a value. She stressed how inclusive education not only provides learning but also protection from violence, exploitation and invisibility. Her fellow Colombian advocate Sandra Benitez added that working with families and teachers in fragile contexts is key to changing mindsets that still assume children with disabilities cannot learn. “We need to change this,” she said. “Teachers must be supported to understand inclusive education in emergencies in a new way.”

The call to action was unambiguous: inclusive education must be woven into planning before, during and after emergencies. Practical tools and community-based solutions from countries like Niger and Colombia show that it can be done, and must be replicated.

That same urgency carried into the session on “Connecting Policy and Practice for Inclusive Education”, which examined the gap between written commitments and the lived experiences of families, learners and educators in ordinary times. Hosted by Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services and Inclusion International’s Catalyst for Inclusive Education, the conversation showed that promises on paper remain meaningless without daily implementation in classrooms.

Opening the session, Duaa Dridi, Supervisor of Inclusive Education at Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services, highlighted persistent barriers, unimplemented policies, lack of teacher training, limited funding for assistive tools, and poor school-family communication stressing that inclusive education must shift from principles to daily practice.

Speakers included Sheri Brynard, an international advocate with Down syndrome from South Africa whose perseverance through a mainstream school without support eventually led her to qualify as a teacher, and Dominique Kantor from Argentina, a self-advocate regional representative from Argentina for Inclusion International, who argued that inclusive education is not a favour but a right that opens the doors to adult life.

Amal Hamza, an Emirati mother with an intellectually disabled child called on decision-makers to make school accountability for inclusion part of how schools are assessed, and urged that technologies like AI be harnessed to make learning more accessible. Policy makers like Fatima Mohammed Alabdouli from the UAE Ministry of Education said that monitoring systems, training programmes and vocational pathways must be designed to deliver on countries’ federal laws for persons with disabilities, while Paola Jelonche from Argentina, the mother of an autistic son and also the a disability policymaker for the Buenos Aires government, stressed that advocacy from families was what drove her government to make inclusive regulations at every stage of schooling.

Jody Carr, former Minister of Education in New Brunswick in Canada and an advocate for true inclusive education, pointed out that inclusive education is not a charitable thing to do, but a human right and essential; it is also financially efficient and adds to social cohesion and for disabled children to feel like they belong.


The 2025 “We Are Inclusion” World Congress in Sharjah gathers 500 participants from 74 countries in 59 sessions, making its MENA debut as a leading platform to advance the rights of persons with intellectual disabilities. It is co-organised by Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services and Inclusion International, with the Sharjah Government Media Bureau as strategic partner.