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Dear friends,

This month, we are excited to share new opportunities and research that reflect a common focus across our work: strengthening evidence to improve how systems include and support people with disabilities.

We begin with our upcoming conference, Accessing the mainstream: Conference on Evidence to Inform Disability Action 2026, taking place in London in late November 2026. Over the past seven years, PENDA has worked with partners across 10 countries to strengthen the evidence base on disability inclusion through evaluations, data analysis and support for doctoral researchers. As the UK home of PENDA, we look forward to bringing this learning together at the conference, with researchers, implementers, policymakers and people with lived experience of disability. Further details, including key dates and how to submit an abstract, will be shared soon.

We are also pleased to update you on our new National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)-funded research at ICED that applies this focus in practice. Ahead of Menstrual Hygiene Day on 28 May, we are launching: 'By Us, For Us: Co-Developing Menstrual Health Support with Disabled Adolescents in Wales', led by Jane Wilbur, Katie Greenland and Sarah Polack. This project will explore how Wales’s national approach to menstrual health can better meet the needs of disabled girls. Working closely with disabled adolescents and their caregivers, the study will identify what is working well and where gaps remain, and use these insights to co-design practical strategies to strengthen inclusive menstrual health support.

And that is not all – we are kicking off a second NIHR-funded project this month, led by Mark Carew, Sarah Polack, Tom Shakespeare and colleagues at The Disability Policy Centre. This research will examine how the Personal Independence Payment and Adult Social Care systems can better support disabled people in England. These systems do not always work well together, which can lead to gaps in support and unmet needs. The project is co-led by disabled researchers, helping to ensure the research reflects the realities of those navigating these systems.

Finally, we are looking forward to our May webinar on the SUCCEED project. Join us to learn more about the journey, intervention and impact from the programme, which aims to understand what works for people with mental health conditions and psychosocial disabilities.

Read on for more news from PENDA, publications, seminars, and more!

With best wishes,

Hannah Kuper and Tom Shakespeare 
International Centre for Evidence in Disability, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Read the full May 2026 newsletter

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ICED webinar

Save the dates for our 2026 monthly webinars

  • 24 January 2026 - Disability, Conflict and Education
  • 24 February 2026 - PENDA InBusiness: Evidence from a livelihood support programme for persons with disabilities in Kenya
  • 24 March 2026 -Strengthening Menstrual Health for Women and Girls with Disabilities: Evidence and Innovation
  • 28 April 2026 - "Tusobola: We Can" A film on the Missing Billion Participatory Learning and Action for Disability project in Uganda
  • 26 May 2026 - Co-producing community-based mental health support in Africa
  • 7 July 2026 - Evidence from inclusive social protection programmes in Laos and Sierra Leone
  • 28 July 2026 - Disability Inclusive Graduation: A livelihood support intervention in Bangladesh
  • 25 August 2026 - Preventing school violence among children with disabilities in Tanzania
  • 29 September 2026 - Findings from the FAIR framework project for inclusive humanitarian action
  • 6 October 2026 - IFPLAN: Insights from a disability inclusive family planning project in Nigeria
  • 27 October 2026 - PDC/Baby Ubuntu: early care and support for children at risk of developmental disabilities and their caregivers in Rwanda
  • 19 November 2026 - PLA-D: A community-led approach for disability inclusion in health in Uganda

More information on individual webinars, including details on how to join, will be shared closer to their respective dates.

NIHR Community engagement and involvement (CET) Podcast

The fourth episode of the NIHR community engagement and involvement podcast series 'Leaving no one behind' featured Dr Andrew Sentoogo Ssemata, Research Fellow at MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Unit.

Film

Disability Inclusive Education and Employment

This film presents findings from a research project on Disability-Inclusion in Education and Employment in seven countries in Africa (Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Uganda). The film was created with young people with disabilities from Uganda and Ghana who participated in the study.  

The research was conducted in partnership with ICED, Mastercard Foundation, the University of Abuja, the University of Ghana, Lifetime Consulting Ltd, Addis Ababa University, University of Nairobi, Global Advocacy and Research Group and MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Group. It was funded by the Mastercard Foundation. 

Phase 1 study reports on the policy landscape are available here

Watch a film about the research findings, created with young people with disabilities who participated in the study here.

A man signs in Ugandan Sign Language. He is signing that "I have a hearing impairment and I am from Arua." He is sitting outside for a video interview.
Ubuntu

COVID-19 Support and Guidance

The  situation with COVID-19 is rapidly changing. We have gathered a list of resources about COVID-19 to share with caregivers, children & young people and education, health and social care practitioners to navigate the dynamic situation of the COVID-19 response, and the many impacts that it will have. We hope that they are helpful and we will continue to add new resources as they become available. 

Working with parent groups – a training resource for facilitators and caregivers

These manuals (Getting to Know Cerebral Palsy, Juntos and ABAANA EIP) aim to increase knowledge and skills in caring for a child with developmental disabilities. Research highlighted the significant needs of the caregivers, and how they can gain a huge amount of support from meeting with each other in an understanding environment.

It promotes a participatory learning approach with an emphasis on working with groups and the empowerment of parents and caregivers.

Download the manual (in various languages)

“Before, my family and people in my community used to say ‘this child’s suffering is a result of parent’s sin’. After taking the training I have explained what causes cerebral palsy to others. Now, no-one says anything like this.” 
Parent, Sirajganj, Bangladesh

Animated videos

Animated videos on child development and developmental disability

Download and use these animated videos from ICED on child developmental and developmental disability, with versions in English, Portuguese and Spanish. The first of these videos provides information on child development across different domains and considers how this process can be disrupted for some children. The second explores the challenges and barriers in the lives of people with a developmental disability, and how support strategies can help an individual better participate in their community. 

Please use these videos in your own teaching, support groups or in any other forum, appropriately acknowledging the International Centre for Evidence in Disability at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

The videos are available in English, Portuguese (Brazil) and Spanish.

View the English videos below:

lshas13
lshas13

View the English videos with subtitles here:

View the Portuguese (Brazil) videos with subtitles here:

View the Spanish videos with subtitles here:

Film

Supporting Families Affected by Zika virus

lshas13
Global Community

Children with developmental disabilities and their families

Join a global community to share ideas, access the latest research, find solutions, meet new people and collaborate on innovative and exciting projects.

Journal

Community Ear and Hearing Health Journal

This annual publication promotes good ear and hearing health in low and middle-income countries.

It's a forum for exchanging ideas, experience and information that facilitate continuing education for all levels of health worker. It is delivered to almost 4,000 healthcare providers worldwide. Some issues have been translated into French and Spanish.

Read previous issues
Press and Resources

Press articles

Read articles on ICED activity in the international press and on SciDev.net. Use disability resources from across the web.

Read press articles on our work

SciDev.net columns

COURSES

Global Health and Disability

All files and contents in this folder are © LSHTM unless otherwise stated. You are welcome to reuse, adapt and share these files for non-commercial teaching and learning purposes without asking for permission. You must acknowledge the International Centre for Evidence in Disability, LSHTM as the original creator and provide a link to our website. We would also very much appreciate hearing how you are using the content - please let us know at [email protected].

Download full course

Full course ZIP (2GB) |ZIP (no videos) (182MB)

Download content from each week
Download individual resources

Video: Welcome to the course

Week 1: Disability and its importance to the global development agenda

Video: Welcome to week 1

Video & teaching slides: Why does disability matter globally?

Video:  Why does disability matter – Personal perspectives

Article: Why does disability matter – individual case studies

Article: Why does disability matter to International Development? Part 1

Article: Nothing about us without us

Video: What does disability mean – personal perspectives

Video: Attitudes to disability

Video: What does disability mean – a framework

Article: Measuring disability: Why would you want to and how do you do it?

Video: What is the relationship between impairments and disability?

Video: what are the common impairments related to disability?

Article: Why does impairment matter?

Video: Summary of week 1


Video: Welcome to week 2

Public Health Planning for Hearing Impairment (PHPHI) short course

This 5-day international short course aimed to familiarise participants with the concepts and principles of public health approaches to ear and hearing care, with emphasis on planning and implementing programmes in low- and middle-income countries. From 2009 to end of 2021, 1701 health workers from 59 countries have been taught in 59 courses in 15 centres. 10 of these centres are in low- and middle-income countries.

Participants who attended the PHPHI course at the South Asia Centre for Disability Inclusive Development and Research (SACDIR), Indian Institute of Public Health, Hyderabad, India in 2016.

More about PHPHI

In 2020, all the current courses were converted to completely on-line or hybrid courses.

Short report on the Public Health Planning for Hearing Impairment (PHPHI) on-line courses in 2020.

Article – Public health planning for hearing impairment Andrew W Smith ENT & Audiology news Volume 26 Issue 5 2017

PHPHI Map July 2022
PHPHI participant numbers July 2022

Contact: For more information about PHPHI short courses please contact Joanna Jeremy