United Nations' International Day of Persons with Disabilities

In 1976, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 1981 as the International Year of Disabled Persons.[2] It called for a plan of action at the National, regional and International levels, with an emphasis on equalization of opportunities, rehabilitation and prevention of disabilities.

The theme of the International Year of Disabled Persons was "Full Participation and Equality", defined as the right of persons with disabilities to take part fully in the life and development of their societies, enjoy living conditions equal to those of other citizens, and have an equal share in improved conditions resulting from socio-economic development.

To provide a time frame during which Governments and Organizations could implement the activities recommended in the World Programme of Action, the General Assembly proclaimed 1983–1992 the United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons.[3]

• 1998: "Arts, Culture and Independent Living"
• 1999: "Accessibility for all for the new Millennium"
• 2000: "Making information technologies work for all"
• 2001: "Full participation and equality: The call for new approaches to assess progress and evaluate outcome"
• 2002: "Independent Living and Sustainable Livelihoods"
• 2003: "A Voice of our Own"
• 2004: "Nothing About Us Without Us"
• 2005: "Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Action in Development"
• 2006: "E-Accessibility"
• 2007: "Decent Work for Persons with Disabilities"
• 2008: "Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Dignity and justice for all of us"
• 2009: "Making the MDGs Inclusive: Empowerment of persons with disabilities and their communities around the world"
• 2010: "Keeping the promise: Mainstreaming disability in the Millennium Development Goals towards 2015 and beyond"[4]
• 2011: "Together for a better world for all: Including persons with disabilities in development"[5]
• 2012: "Removing barriers to create an inclusive and accessible society for all"[6][7]
• 2013: "Break Barriers, Open Doors: for an inclusive society and development for all"[8]
• 2014: "Sustainable development: The promise of technology"[9]
• 2015: "Inclusion matters: access and empowerment for people of all abilities"[10]
• 2016: "Achieving 17 Goals for the future we want"[11]
• 2017: "Transformation toward sustainable and resilient society for all"[12]
• 2018: "Empowering persons with disabilities and ensuring inclusiveness and equality"
• 2019: "Promoting the participation of persons with disabilities and their leadership: taking action on the 2030 Development Agenda"[13]
• 2020: "Building Back Better: toward a disability-inclusive, accessible and sustainable post COVID-19 world"
• 2021: "Leadership and participation of persons with disabilities toward an inclusive, accessible and sustainable post-COVID-19 world"[14]
• 2022: "Transformative solutions for inclusive development: the role of innovation in fuelling an accessible and equitable world" [15]

On the 2012 International Day of People with Disability, the United Kingdom government introduced mandatory work for disabled people who received welfare benefits in order to "Improve disabled peoples chances of getting work by mandatory employment". The founder of the Susan Archibald Centre stated that the mandatory employment of people with disabilities is a breach of article 27/2 of the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.[16] The Guardian noted that from this United Nations appointed day onwards people with disabilities and illnesses ranging from cancer to paralysis to mental health may be forced by the UK government to work for free or else they risk being stripped of up to 70% of their welfare benefits.[17] A program was also launched on 3 December in India to serve the "differently-able" community of the country as an initiative called Accessible India Campaign under Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).