What Is Sightsavers Doing for Disability Inclusion?

Sightsavers is an international charity that works to prevent avoidable blindness, fight disease, and support equality for women, girls, and people with disabilities. Its disability inclusion work focuses on campaigning for disability rights and inclusion so that everyone can participate equally in society, and on running programmes that support people with disabilities to earn, learn, and thrive.

How disability inclusion fits into Sightsavers' mission

Sightsavers describes its mission as preventing avoidable blindness, fighting disease, and ensuring everyone can earn, learn and thrive. Disability inclusion is not a side project — it runs alongside the organisation's eye health and disease work.

The charity works in more than 30 countries in Africa and Asia. Its activities include training health workers, providing eye operations, supporting people with disabilities, and improving women's health.

Campaigning for disability rights

Sightsavers campaigns for disability rights and inclusion so that everyone can participate equally in society. This advocacy work sits alongside its programme delivery and is presented as a distinct area of the organisation's activity, with its own campaigning section covering why it campaigns and its work on disability.

The focus is on systemic change: not only delivering services to individuals, but pushing for the conditions — rights, policies, and inclusion — that allow people with disabilities to take part in society on equal terms.

Programmes that support people with disabilities

Beyond campaigning, Sightsavers supports people with disabilities through its projects. One example featured on its site is Ruth, who has a visual impairment and was struggling to earn a living. She now runs several small businesses.

The charity also highlights "disability inclusion champions" and invites supporters to see how its projects are changing the world. These stories illustrate the link between sight, disability, and economic participation — the "earn, learn and thrive" part of the mission.

Where donations go

Sightsavers states that 92% of donations, including donated supplies, go to its vital charity work, and 8% helps grow awareness and funding. The charity publishes information on how it spends its money, and its annual reports are available on the site.

Ways to get involved

If you want to support this work, Sightsavers lists several routes:

• Donate — a gift could help stop a child going blind from preventable causes.
• Support a TV appeal — the charity runs broadcast appeals.
• Read and share stories — keep up with news, expert blogs and case studies.
• Leave a legacy gift — a donation in your will can support the work for generations.
• Corporate partnerships — organisations can partner with Sightsavers.
• Campaign — get behind its disability rights and inclusion advocacy.

The takeaway

Sightsavers approaches disability inclusion from two directions: campaigning for disability rights and equal participation, and delivering programmes that support people with disabilities in work and daily life. Its eye health and disease work feeds into this, since avoidable blindness is itself a driver of disability. For anyone deciding whether to support the charity, its published breakdown of spending and its country-level programme work are the concrete places to look.