#WeThe15 aims to end global disability discrimination, but it has its critics

BY AMELIA PHILLIPS

Human rights initiative #WeThe15 is encountering mounting concerns about its ambitious approach to disability rights reform.

#WeThe15 is a worldwide movement which aims to end discrimination towards the 1.2 billion people globally with a disability, break down societal barriers, and create a more disability-inclusive world. 

The movement launched at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games and is spearheaded by the International Paralympic Committee and International Disability Alliance.

According to the World Health Organisation, people with a disability account for roughly 15 per cent of the global population.

A 2020 report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found that an estimated one in six Australians have a disability.

Manager of Programs and Events at Disability Sport and Recreation Ayden Shaw supports the #WeThe15 movement.

“[#WeThe15] is a movement of change that is wonderful in what it’s trying to achieve,” he said.

“Every organisation should be looking at what [#WeThe15’s] objectives are and seeing how they can embed that into what they’re doing.”

However, he suggests a grassroots approach is necessary for the movement to enact real change.

“What I think [#WeThe15] needs is a lens of how [it can] be applied at a local level,” Mr Shaw said.

The movement’s ambitious approach has been met with a series of concerns about its likelihood to create meaningful change. 

Campaigner specialising in deafness and disability Liam O’Dell said in a statement that #WeThe15 needs to turn its sights away from promotion and towards a detailed action plan.

“Far too many [campaigns] get caught up in the issue of awareness, that they forget that that is only the first step towards acceptance, inclusion and allyship,” the statement read.

“There is, for want of a better word, a distinct lack of a roadmap.”

Over the next decade, #WeThe15 will feature at major sporting events for people with a disability.