Persons with disabilities benefit from healthy choices and suffer from illnesses and accidents just like everyone else.

However, the incidence of infectious diseases and other preventable conditions among persons with disabilities is often higher than for the rest of the population because public health programs fail to provide information in accessible formats and do not make an effort to target persons with disabilities.

Participation by persons with disabilities and their representative organizations in the design and implementation of public health efforts is essential to ensuring that persons with disabilities are able to benefit from these crucial programs.

The CRPD specifically recognizes the importance of gender-sensitive health services and the need for equal access to sexual and reproductive health and population-based health programs.

Under international human rights law, the population is entitled to participate in health-related policy decision-making at all levels.

The right to participate extends to persons with disabilities who, like all persons, have the right to participate in decision-making processes that affect their health and development, as well as in every aspect of service delivery.

States must require health professionals to “provide care of the same quality to persons with disabilities as to others, including on the basis of free and informed consent” and to adopt measures that raise awareness about “human rights, dignity, autonomy and needs of persons with disabilities through training and the promotion of ethical standards for public and private health care.”