Disabled Women and Poverty

On 17 October 2025, advocates, activists, and community members gathered both in person at the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission in Dublin and online for “Disabled Women & Poverty: The Cost of Exclusion.” The event was organised by Disabled Women Ireland in collaboration with the Disability Participation News Hub and marked the United Nations’ International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

The event created a space for disabled women, non-binary people, and allies to come together and discuss the complex relationship between disability, gender and poverty. Through presentations, discussions and interactive activities, participants explored how structural barriers and social inequalities contribute to higher levels of poverty among disabled women and gender-diverse people.

Here you can read more about the outputs we produced after this event including our social media campaign, poetry written by Alice Doyle, and documents which we produced for the event that we hope will be helpful to other organisations in running similar events.

Social Media Campaign

After our Disabled Women & Poverty Event, we then ran a social media campaign where we shared some of the gathered insights. On the day, we asked participants 6 questions about the costs of disability and the challenges in accessing employment and social protection. Each of our social posts focused on one of these questions. Select a question to see each social post

Art produced at the disabled women and poverty event:

Poems by Alice Doyle (The Autistic Poetess)

"Breaking Silence"
Eradicating Poverty

Project report

You can find a link to our project report here once it is published!

Additional Materials/ INFO

  • Powerpoint slides used at the event

  • “Know Before You Go” Guide for the event

  • About the organisers

    • Disability Participation News Hub: An independent, disabled-led non-profit in Ireland that brings together disability advocacy news, resources, and opportunities for engagement so Disabled People, their organisations, families, and allies can access information, participate in decision-making, and drive change. Grounded in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the organisation focuses on sharing information, raising awareness of rights, and promoting the active involvement of disabled people and their representative organisations in policy and public life.

    • Disabled Women Ireland: The is the national representative organisation for self-identified women, girls and non-binary/genderqueer/gender non-conforming people with disabilities in Ireland. It is a disabled persons’ organisation (DPO), meaning we are run and led by disabled people themselves. DWI works across all types of impairments and intersecting identities to promote participation, advocate on policy and rights issues, and build a network of disabled women and gender-diverse people for social, political, economic and cultural inclusion. Our approach is intersectional and grounded in rights-based advocacy