Over 85% of children with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries do not attend school.
Nearly 240 million children – or one in 10 worldwide – have a disability. In conflict zones, the numbers are much higher: the result of physical and psychological traumas. For many of those young people, education still remains unreachable. According to research commissioned by UNICEF, over 85% of children with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries have never attended school at all.
The Disability Under Siege project is working to change that. Since winning £2 million in funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in 2019, it has been dedicated to commissioning research and building skills and partnerships in conflict zones of the Middle East – with the ultimate aim of transforming education provision for children with disabilities.
“There is so much work done now on disability, but much of it is done in the global north, and often in contexts that don’t have conflicts. This has been a tremendous opportunity to enable others to take ownership of that agenda,” says Professor Dina Kiwan, Professor of Comparative Education at the University of Birmingham and Principal Investigator for Disability Under Siege.
To maximise impact, the project has focused on three states: Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine (West Bank and Gaza). “This is a region with a massive youth population. And most children with disabilities in that region don’t go to school, not only because of the lack of resources, but because of stigma,” Professor Kiwan explains. All three countries have a high rate of conflict-related disability, and an influx of refugees from Syria and Iraq have added to that burden.
There is so much work done now on disability, but much of it is done in the global north, and often in contexts that don’t have conflicts. This has been a tremendous opportunity to enable others to take ownership of that agenda.
When it comes to improving educational outcomes for people with disabilities, the gap in knowledge and resources across the Middle East is huge. “There just isn't work on disability within the humanities and social sciences. Where it does exist, it is in medical faculties or focused on rehabilitation. It’s not about human rights or inclusion”, Professor Kiwan says.
To tackle that problem, Disability Under Siege has brought together a team of researchers, educators and NGOs from across the region, empowering local practitioners to drive future changes in education. “We’ve become a community of researchers and activists working in the cultural domain,” she says.
It has funded 14 projects across the region, including providing finance for academic research and postdoctoral fellowships. The results in capacity- and knowledge-building are already evident, Professor Kiwan argues. “Producing knowledge on disability in social science and humanities is really new in this region, and we're now seeing a body of work emerging,” she says.
“There are also connections forming between the researchers across the region. People in Jordan are now working with people in Lebanon and Palestine, where that didn't happen before. We've managed to break down those barriers, and that has been a massive achievement,” she notes. Trans-disciplinary working relationships are also blossoming between academics, health professionals, artists and disability organisations, she adds.
Other projects funded by Disability Under Siege have focused on reducing stigma around disability – a problem that Professor Kiwan has personal experience of, as the parent of a child with learning difficulties. She worked for American University of Beirut between 2012 and 2016, during which time her son was starting school. “I was experiencing first-hand the incredible stigma around disability,” she recalls.
To improve educational outcomes for children with disabilities, those preconceptions have to be tackled, she argues. “This challenge is not just about resources and building ramps in schools. That’s not the issue. The issue is that people don’t think it even makes sense to educate disabled children,” she says. “The downstream impacts will come from fundamentally shifting the narrative in that space.”
One recipient of funding, the West Bank’s Al-Harah Theatre Company, has promoted the inclusion of people with disabilities in performing arts. In Lebanon, Disability Under Siege has also sponsored media workshops, to educate journalists on how to communicate about disability. Through the “Disabled Voices in Gaza” project, it has trained disabled students at the Islamic University of Gaza to tell their own stories through traditional and social media.
As a result, some of those students have produced a short film on their experiences since Israel’s invasion of Gaza. The film attracted a quarter of a million views on social media in a month, according to Professor Kiwan. “This is one of the things I’m most proud of. It’s just unprecedented in the region for disabled people to be able to tell their own stories to the wider world, and shift understanding of what a disabled person is capable of,” she says. “Changing policy in this region is very difficult while there is all sorts of firefighting going on. But people are starting to rethink how they understand disability, and that is at the heart of the problem.”
The challenge of working in conflict zones has been immense, says Professor Kiwan. A planned Disability Under Siege project in Lebanon was cancelled after its leads were displaced from their homes by the conflict with Israel in October/November 2024. For six months after the outbreak of war in Gaza in 2023, partners there were unable to work. “There have been long periods where [colleagues there] haven’t received their salaries,” she says.
Against that backdrop, Disability Under Siege has worked to empower partners in the Middle East. “We try to ensure the partnerships are as equitable as we possibly can, and make decisions together,” Professor Kiwan explains. This means that colleagues in the global south are “agenda-setters as well as implementers”, she says.
“I think for my partners in the region, working in areas that they are passionate about is a form for resilience, and helps them get through really unimaginable life circumstances,” she adds. “There is a level of resilience and humanity and compassion that I’ve learnt so much from.”
Disability Under Siege's six-year funding from AHRC ends in March 2025. Professor Kiwan is looking to secure finance to continue the project. “If we were able to fund and trace downstream impacts, that could have tremendous impact,” she says. “This needs a sustained effort going forward.”
There remain huge obstacles to transforming education for people with disabilities in the Middle East. “But I think there’s an opportunity now,” Professor Kiwan concludes. “If you look at Gaza, where over 95% of schools and educational institutions have been damaged or destroyed, we’re really starting from zero. It would be wonderful to see an organised coalition where we could start building up to create a fundamentally inclusive model.”
Professor in Comparative Education
Professor Dina Kiwan's research interests centre around sociological and politico-philosophical examinations of inclusive citizenship through the lens of education policy, naturalisation policy and migration policy
