Document Type

Chapter

Publication Date

4-2026

Abstract

This paper reviews access to justice for people with disabilities, focusing on what we know—and still need to know—about how justice systems can better serve and include disabled populations. Based on existing research, we know that disabled people, constituting roughly 16% of the global population, face significant legal, informational, communication, physical, and economic barriers at all stages of the justice process, and are disproportionately represented in both civil and criminal legal systems. We also know that these barriers impede disabled people’s access to the law, access to legal processes, and access to just outcomes, undermining their ability to engage in democracy, emerge from poverty, and participate in inclusive development. Legal needs surveys in various countries have found that disabled people are more likely to report civil justice problems, while research on legal empowerment reveals that disabled individuals face obstacles in accessing legal information, exercising legal capacity, and obtaining representation due to inaccessible materials, social isolation, and negative attitudes among justice system actors. However, important questions remain around the long-term procedural and substantive outcomes of disabled people navigating legal problems, the efficacy of interventions such as supported decision-making, and the implementation of accessibility policies across justice institutions. Significant data gaps also persist: existing methodologies for identifying disability in surveys often exclude psychosocial and developmental disabilities; research is overwhelmingly concentrated on criminal rather than civil justice contexts; and few justice institutions have developed standardized approaches to collecting disability-disaggregated data.

Drawing on international frameworks including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, legal needs surveys, and qualitative research, this paper argues that centering the experiences of disabled people advances people-centered justice for all communities, and concludes with a proposed research agenda emphasizing participatory methodologies, data linkage strategies, and cross-jurisdictional evidence building.

In Global Perspectives on People-Centered Justice: Exploring the Evidence, Matthew Burnett & Rebecca L. Sandefur eds., American Bar Foundation (2026).

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