Bala Nagendran Marimuthu, an Inclusive Climate Researcher at GDI Hub, brings extensive learning and best practices on the policy frameworks for disability inclusion programming, particularly focusing on energy access, urban climate action planning, and climate-resilient infrastructure. This blog summarizes key messages from Bala’s talk at Access & Opportunity Learning Lab, Session 4: Policy Frameworks to Foster Inclusion.

Think of Disability, Think of Diversity

Bala noted that public perceptions of disability often default to visible impairments—ramps and wheelchairs. The same narrowing happens with visual impairment, where the stereotype is “glasses and a cane,” not the broader range of needs and tools that support independence. These assumptions shape the accommodations policymakers prioritize, and the ones they overlook.

Bala emphasized the diversity of disability, including vision, hearing, mobility, and cognitive differences, as well as barriers related to self-care (for example, making payments or dressing independently), communication, and pain. Disability inclusion in policy and practice cannot stop at the impairments that are easiest to see.

Globally, disabled people are the world’s largest minority: about one in six people live with a disability (WHO, 2023), and roughly 80% live in low- and middle-income countries (WHO, 2023). The scale should help mobilize collective action—without treating disability as a single, uniform experience.

Three frameworks for delivering inclusive programs

Bala discussed three GDI Hub programs and the policy frameworks they use to shift practice.

1) Inclusive Cities (AT2030: Inclusive Infrastructure)

GDI Hub’s inclusive infrastructure sub-program co-designs cities that work better for disabled residents and, as a result, for everyone.

Drawing on those case studies, GDI Hub produced a Global Action Report outlining 10 principles and 16 action areas for city governments, with practical steps to accelerate accessibility across infrastructure, buildings, services, and operations.

A second tool, the People–Policy–Practice Framework, helps urban leaders apply three lenses: community experience (people), local governance (policy), and technical urban knowledge (practice) from data collection through solution design.

2) Disability inclusion in the clean energy value chain (TEA Disability Support Service)

Through the Transforming Energy Access (TEA) platform, GDI Hub’s Disability Support Service works with energy-sector actors to integrate disability inclusion at product, program, and system. The work is summarized in the white paper ‘Opportunities for Disability-Inclusive Energy Access’.

Bala highlighted the five-tier investment pyramid (IFC, 2024) as a practical starting point for recognizing disabled people as active participants in the energy value chain:

• Leaders: representation in senior management of clean energy programs
• Employees: inclusive policies, training, and reasonable accommodation across the workforce
• Consumers: equal access to clean energy products and services
• Entrepreneurs: disabled people as suppliers and distributors
• Community members: inclusion in decision-making and community support

3) Disability-inclusive local climate action (multi-city research)

GDI Hub’s multi-city research argues that cities can and should plan urban inclusion and urban resilience together by integrating a disability lens into local climate action. With cities facing intensifying climate risk, the research aims to co-develop an evidence-based framework for cities, communities, and corporations to lead more inclusive climate responses.

The framework has three pillars:

• Participation: direct, equal, meaningful engagement of disabled people and organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs)
• Planning: co-creating inclusive tools, methodologies, and standards for local climate action
• Practice: building capacity, resources, and inclusive mechanisms for implementation

GDI Hub’s approach connects rigorous research to practical tools that help decision-makers include disabled people’s lived experience in policy, planning, and implementation.