29
c h apter 2
Organizing for
disability-friendly
health care
We can make our voices
heard by advocating for
our rights and ensuring
that disability issues
become a priority.
Women with disabilities have a right to be healthy and to
have access to good care. But few health centers, clinics, and
hospitals are designed to be used by women with disabilities.
Also, they may be too expensive, or too far away, and you
may not have a way to get there, pay for the medicines or for
treatment, or be able to communicate with the health workers.
In this chapter we tell the story of one woman, Delphine,
and how she worked with other women in her community
to solve a health problem she had. Delphine and her friends
discovered that a lasting solution to her problem involved
looking beyond Delphine’s situation. The health problems
of a woman with a disability, like most health problems of
all women, are almost never her problems alone—her health
problems are a community issue.
Like Delphine and her friends, you and other disabled
women you know can work together to have access to good
health care, to identify the root causes of the problems in your
community, and work to change them.