2.6 Collecting data about persons with disabilities

There are a number of reasons why data collection about people who have a disability and their access to WASH services has not been a priority in the past. You have already read about some of these reasons:

• Disability issues are not mainstreamed in most government policies and programmes so they are overlooked and funds are not allocated to them.
• Lack of awareness and understanding of disability, impairment, barriers and the adjustments that need to be made to be inclusive.
• Not enough people with appropriate training on methods of data collection.

Undertaking research to collect data about the situation of people with disabilities and their inclusion, or exclusion, in WASH is an important task because the absence of data adds to the invisibility of the problem and the general lack of awareness.