Today is International Day of People with Disability. Why does it matter?

December 3rd marks the United Nations internationally observed ‘International Day of People with Disability’ (IDPwD), which has been recognised since 1992. Despite a 33 year history, many people don’t know about it. We wanted to take the opportunity to share some things you should know about this IDPwD, and how every day provides choice to improve disability inclusion - not just today.

Disability is common, but misunderstood.

1 in 5 Australians live with a disability. It isn’t always disclosed, but it is everywhere.

Disability is a natural part of human diversity. We may not all understand disability, but in ways we all ‘know’ disability. People with disability are our friends, family, colleagues, partners and community members. 

Not caring about disability is a rare privilege few experience. Like death and taxes, disability is one of life’s certainties. Something many try to avoid, but for most it’s inevitable whether temporary or permanent.

Despite how it is perceived, being disabled doesn’t ‘make you’ anything. It doesn’t make you weak, nor does it make you strong. It makes you human.

It changes the way you approach the world, and the lens that you experience it through. You don’t “get it”, until you get it - but we rely on our allies to create spaces, places and conversations that enable us to grow understanding and inclusion. We cannot do it alone.

2025 UN IDPwD Theme

This year’s theme for IDPwD is ‘Fostering disability inclusive societies for advancing social progress.’ 

The UN’s 3 core themes for social development are: poverty eradication, full and productive employment, and social integration. All are inherently linked.

Disability and poverty are interconnected. You’re more likely to live in poverty if you have a disability, and you‘re more likely to have a disability if you’re living in poverty.

Disability employment rates have hardly improved in 30 years despite billions of investment, and it’s still legal to pay people with disability $3.12/hr under the Supported Employment Award.

The Disability Royal Commission found identified segregation in education, housing, and employment as a significant issue that enables violence, abuse, and neglect. It’s still happening.

But: “I’m just one person and the problems are so huge, what can I do about it?!”

Everyday we can make choices to improve the trajectory of people with disability.

There is so much we can all do to make positive progress, and it shouldn’t just be once a year. A few small things you can do to make disability inclusion part of how you operate:

1.  Follow disabled people on social media. Engage with and share their content. This strengthens our voices and value, and supports us to grow our own platform to make genuine change from our lived experience.
2.  Advocate for disability in your work place. Not sure where to start? Ask about and encourage events centred around IDPwD (Dec 3) and/or Disability Pride Month in July, find a disability consultant from the Disability Leadership Institute to support your workplace becoming more disability friendly, suggest supporting disability-led brands.
3.  Create opportunities for us to make an income. Switch to products from a disability-owned business, pay us to share our lived experiences for change, recommend us for roles and projects, open doors for us into rooms we haven’t been able to access before.

These things improve our ability to leverage ourselves out of poverty, access productive and meaningful work, and become more valued members of society.

An opportunity to thank YOU. 

We also see IDPwD as an opportunity to say thank you.

To our disabled friends and community, thank you for all you do. Thank you for the courage to keep showing up, on the good days and the bad. Thank you for maintaining the belief that things can and will get better. Thank you for being authentic in your experiences of disability, regardless of if they’re different to others.

To our allies, thank you for raising us up. Thank you for holding space for us, creating space for us, and sitting with us in the uncomfortable, hard moments. Thank you for the opportunities you make for us to be seen and heard. Thank you for seeing us as people.

To our customers, thank you for trusting our brand to be in your home. Thank you for making a choice to invest in disability inclusion. Thank you for enabling us to donate essential products to people with disability doing it tough. Thank you for supporting us to turn (small) dreams to reality and create lifelong memories for Lynda and Craig this year.

To our business supporters, thank you for being the leaders in system wide change that includes people with disability. Thank you for supporting disability-owned businesses to be part of supply chains and procurement. Thank you for supporting us to get our products in front of people who may not have thought or cared about disability before. The pathways and opportunities it creates for the community is huge.

Happy World Disability Day from the small but mighty SHH!T Happens team xx