It is important to remember that children with disabilities, like all children, have the right to be active participants in decisions that affect them. Some key considerations for child-rights programming using a child-centred approach are:
- Consider the best interests of the child;
- Listen to children with disabilities;
- Challenge your own and others’ assumptions about the needs and perspectives of children with disabilities;
- Do not make assumptions about what children with disabilities can and cannot do;
- Do not make assumptions about the needs and perspectives of children with disabilities. Ask them;
- Seek to develop the child’s abilities and competencies;
- Consider the child as a whole and the whole range of his or her development and needs;
- Analyze the situation of the child as a whole in the broader context of family and community; and
- See children with disabilities as “social actors” who are involved in decision-making.