Who Decides What Inclusion Means?

A fall from a tree, a 42-day coma, and seven years of recovery could have ended a future. For Abdus Sattar Dulal, it sparked one. We sit down with the world president of Disabled Peoples’ International to trace a path from a village in Bangladesh to the halls shaping global disability policy, and we ask what it takes to turn rights on paper into access in real life. Dulal recounts building community from the ground up: opening a small shop, organizing youth, teaching adults to read, and then stepping into a factory job won after a chess tournament. There, he called out discrimination, faced threats, and chose a different fight—founding a cross-disability organization that he fueled after-hours for years. That drive grew into regional labor advocacy that placed disabled workers into industry roles, then into global leadership through DPI, an alliance spanning about 140 countries with consultative status at the UN and a decisive role in advancing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. We unpack how treaties become tangible change, from Bangladesh’s rights and protection act to the stubborn gaps that persist: inaccessible schools, untrained teachers, hospitals without sign language interpreters or accessible beds, and websites that lock out shoppers. We also confront the data problem—how countries define disability differently, why hidden disabilities slip the net, and what that means for planning, funding, and accountability. Dulal doesn’t mince words about the funding shortfall; for a population that touches half the world when families are counted, investment remains far too small. His answer is empowerment: disabled leadership setting priorities, controlling budgets, and measuring outcomes so inclusion stops being a promise and becomes a system. If you care about disability rights, digital accessibility, education, and the UNCRPD, this conversation offers history, strategy, and a blueprint: align laws with the convention, train frontline professionals, mandate access across physical and digital spaces, improve data, and fund disabled people’s organizations to lead. Subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a review with the one change you want to see funded first. Support the show Follow axschat on social media. Bluesky: Antonio https://bsky.app/profile/akwyz.com Debra https://bsky.app/profile/debraruh.bsky.social Neil https://bsky.app/profile/neilmilliken.bsky.social axschat https://bsky.app/profile/axschat.bsky.social LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoniovieirasantos/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/axschat/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilmilliken/ Vimeo https://vimeo.com/akwyz https://twitter.com/axschat https://twitter.com/AkwyZ https://twitter.com/neilmilliken https://twitter.com/debraruh