Disability and Displacement in Myanmar
Conflict and insecurity have forced millions of people in Myanmar to leave their homes and seek safety elsewhere within the country.
People who flee their homes but remain inside Myanmar are known as internally displaced persons, or IDPs. They are different from refugees, who have crossed an international border in search of safety.
As of mid-2026, more than 3.7 million people were internally displaced across Myanmar. Children represented nearly 30 percent of that displaced population. Approximately 16.2 million people, including 4.9 million children, were expected to require humanitarian assistance during 2026.
Every displaced person faces serious difficulties. Families may lose their homes, income, belongings, access to healthcare, schools, clean water, food, transportation, and community support.
However, displacement can be especially dangerous for people with disabilities.
A person who cannot walk independently may be unable to flee quickly. Someone who is blind or has limited vision may find it difficult to navigate an unfamiliar environment. A person who is deaf may not hear warnings, emergency announcements, or approaching danger. Someone with an intellectual or developmental disability may struggle to understand why the family must suddenly leave home.
People with disabilities may also lose wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, hearing aids, medication, assistive devices, or the support of caregivers during displacement.
These barriers can prevent them from reaching safety and obtaining essential humanitarian assistance.
Myanmar Relief believes that people with disabilities must be included in humanitarian planning from the beginning. Disability support should not be treated as an optional service that is considered only after food, shelter, water, and healthcare have been distributed.
For many people, accessibility determines whether those essential services can be reached at all.
People With Disabilities Face Greater Risks During Emergencies
Disability does not automatically make a person helpless or dependent.
Many people with disabilities live independently, work, study, care for families, and contribute actively to their communities when their environment is accessible and appropriate support is available.
The problem often comes from barriers in the surrounding environment.
A person using a wheelchair may move independently on a smooth pathway but become completely dependent when displaced to a hillside camp with mud, rocks, steps, and narrow walkways.
A person with low vision may navigate a familiar neighborhood successfully but become disoriented after arriving in a crowded and unfamiliar shelter.
A child with a developmental disability may attend school and follow a stable routine at home but experience severe distress when conflict suddenly separates the child from familiar people and surroundings.
UNICEF identifies children with disabilities as among the most marginalized and at-risk members of communities affected by armed conflict, natural disasters, and other humanitarian emergencies.
The risks facing displaced people with disabilities can include:
- Difficulty escaping attacks or evacuating during emergencies
- Separation from caregivers and family members
- Loss of mobility aids and assistive devices
- Inability to reach food, water, toilets, healthcare, and shelters
- Increased exposure to violence, neglect, exploitation, or abuse
- Exclusion from education and community activities
- Interrupted medication and rehabilitation
- Social isolation and discrimination
- Greater dependence on relatives
- Difficulty receiving emergency information
- Increased risk of injury, illness, and preventable complications
These challenges are often connected. Losing a wheelchair, for example, may prevent someone from reaching a clinic, food distribution point, accessible toilet, or safe shelter.
Difficulty Escaping Conflict and Reaching Safety
When violence reaches a village or neighborhood, families may have very little time to leave.
Some people flee on foot. Others travel by motorcycle, boat, small vehicle, or improvised transportation. Families may carry only what they can hold.
For people with mobility limitations, evacuation can be extremely difficult.
A wheelchair may not travel safely across damaged roads, steep hills, forests, muddy ground, narrow paths, or small bridges. A person who normally uses a walker may be unable to move quickly enough. Someone who must be carried may depend entirely on relatives who are also carrying children, food, clothing, and emergency supplies.
In some situations, families may be forced to leave wheelchairs, medical equipment, or other assistive devices behind.
A device that is too large or heavy to transport may also be abandoned during repeated displacement.
People who are blind or have limited vision may have difficulty moving through unfamiliar terrain, especially at night. People who are deaf may not hear warnings, gunfire, approaching vehicles, or instructions from emergency responders.
People with intellectual, cognitive, or psychosocial disabilities may become frightened, confused, or separated from caregivers during a sudden evacuation.
The danger does not end after reaching a temporary location. Conflict may continue nearby, forcing families to move repeatedly.
Every new displacement can create additional risks, particularly when people with disabilities lose contact with healthcare workers, community support networks, and familiar surroundings.
Inaccessible Temporary Shelters
Displaced families may stay in camps, schools, monasteries, churches, community buildings, forests, farms, unfinished structures, or the homes of relatives.
These locations are rarely designed for accessibility.
A temporary shelter may have:
- Steps without ramps
- Narrow entrances
- Uneven or unstable flooring
- Crowded sleeping areas
- Steep paths
- Muddy ground
- Poor lighting
- No handrails
- Inaccessible toilets
- Limited space for wheelchairs
- No private area for personal care
- Long distances between shelter and essential services
A wheelchair may not fit through the entrance of a shelter. A person using crutches may fall on wet or unstable flooring. An older person with limited mobility may be unable to climb steps.
Overcrowding can also make movement difficult. Personal belongings, cooking equipment, bedding, and other materials may block pathways.
People who cannot move independently may remain in one location for long periods. This can increase discomfort, social isolation, muscle weakness, and the risk of pressure injuries.
Simple accessibility improvements can make a significant difference.
These may include ramps, wider pathways, handrails, stable flooring, accessible toilets, appropriate lighting, and placing people with mobility limitations near essential services.
Accessibility should be considered when selecting and organizing displacement sites—not added only after problems arise.
Barriers to Food and Humanitarian Distribution
Humanitarian assistance is often distributed at a central location.
Recipients may need to stand in line, travel a considerable distance, carry heavy supplies, or arrive at a specific time.
These arrangements may exclude people with disabilities.
A wheelchair user may be unable to cross rough ground to reach the distribution point. A person who cannot stand for long periods may be unable to wait in line. Someone with limited vision may struggle to identify the correct location or understand the distribution process.
A person who is deaf may miss spoken announcements. Someone with an intellectual disability may have difficulty understanding registration requirements.
Families caring for a person with a severe disability may also be unable to leave that person alone while traveling to collect assistance.
This can result in the household receiving less food, water, hygiene supplies, clothing, or other essential support.
Inclusive distribution practices could include:
- Accessible distribution locations
- Priority lines for people with disabilities and older adults
- Home or shelter delivery when necessary
- Clear signs and visual instructions
- Written and verbal announcements
- Assistance carrying supplies
- Allowing trusted caregivers to collect assistance
- Community outreach to identify people unable to attend
- Accessible complaint and feedback systems
Aid is not truly available if the intended recipient cannot physically or practically reach it.
Limited Access to Healthcare
Conflict and displacement have seriously disrupted healthcare services across Myanmar.
The country’s fragmented health system, insecurity, damaged infrastructure, transportation barriers, and limited supplies have left many communities without reliable access to essential care. WHO has reported that women, children, older people, people with disabilities, and people with mental-health needs face heightened risks and barriers to healthcare.
People with disabilities may require regular medication, rehabilitation, wound care, assistive devices, follow-up appointments, or treatment for chronic conditions.
Displacement can interrupt all of these services.
A person may lose medical records or prescriptions. Medication may become unavailable or unaffordable. A clinic may be damaged, closed, understaffed, or too far away.
Transportation is another major barrier.
A person who cannot walk may need to be carried to a clinic. A wheelchair may not fit on available transportation. Roads may be damaged or unsafe.
Healthcare facilities themselves may not be accessible. Steps, narrow doors, high examination tables, inaccessible toilets, and a lack of trained staff can discourage people from seeking care.
Communication barriers may also affect treatment. A deaf patient may not have access to sign-language interpretation. A person with an intellectual disability may need additional time and clear explanations.
Without treatment, manageable health problems can become serious.
A small wound may develop into an infection. An improperly fitted wheelchair can cause pain or skin injuries. A person who stops receiving rehabilitation may lose strength and mobility.
Disability-inclusive healthcare requires more than admitting someone into a clinic. It requires physical access, communication support, appropriate equipment, trained personnel, affordable services, and safe transportation.
Loss or Damage of Mobility Aids
Wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, canes, prosthetic devices, braces, hearing aids, and other assistive products are essential parts of daily life for many people.
During conflict or sudden displacement, these devices may be:
- Left behind
- Lost
- Damaged
- Stolen
- Destroyed
- Worn out
- Difficult to transport
- Impossible to repair
A wheelchair with a broken tire or brake may become unusable. A person may continue using unsafe crutches because no replacement is available.
Replacement parts can be difficult to obtain in remote or conflict-affected areas. Specialized devices may require technicians who are no longer accessible.
Even when donated equipment becomes available, it may not be suitable.
A wheelchair may be the wrong size, too heavy, difficult to use on local terrain, or impossible to repair locally. A walker may be incorrectly adjusted. A child may receive adult equipment that does not support safe growth and posture.
Responsible assistive-device support should include assessment, appropriate selection, fitting, user training, repairs, replacement parts, and follow-up.
Simply handing out equipment without these services may fail to provide meaningful or safe assistance.
Inaccessible Water and Sanitation Facilities
Water, sanitation, and hygiene services are essential for health and dignity.
However, water points and toilets in temporary settlements may be difficult or impossible for people with disabilities to use.
Water sources may be located far from shelters. The pathway may be steep, muddy, narrow, or uneven.
A wheelchair user may be unable to approach the water point. A person using crutches may not be able to carry a water container. Someone with limited strength may depend entirely on a caregiver.
Toilets may have steps, narrow doors, unstable floors, no handrails, or insufficient space for a wheelchair or caregiver.
A person who cannot use the available toilet may be forced to rely on relatives, use unsafe alternatives, reduce food and water intake, or avoid leaving the shelter.
These situations can cause humiliation, health problems, and increased dependence.
Women and girls with disabilities may face additional difficulties managing menstruation, bathing, dressing, and personal hygiene privately.
Accessible water and sanitation measures may include:
- Toilets with ramps and wide doors
- Handrails and stable seating
- Clear, well-lit pathways
- Water points at accessible heights
- Nearby water access for people with limited mobility
- Non-slip flooring
- Private washing areas
- Containers that are easier to carry or move
- Consultation with people with disabilities before construction
Myanmar Relief’s future clean-water and disability programs should consider accessibility together. Providing clean water is not enough when some community members cannot reach or use the system.
Exclusion From Education
Displacement interrupts education for many children, but children with disabilities may face even greater barriers.
A temporary classroom may be located far from the family’s shelter. The path may be inaccessible, and the building may have steps or narrow entrances.
Schools may lack ramps, accessible toilets, appropriate seating, mobility assistance, learning materials, or teachers trained in inclusive education.
Children who are deaf, blind, or have intellectual or developmental disabilities may require communication support or adapted materials that are unavailable.
Some families may keep children with disabilities at home because they believe the journey is unsafe or because a caregiver cannot accompany them.
Others may believe that limited educational resources should be directed only toward children without disabilities.
This exclusion can have long-term consequences.
Education provides more than academic learning. It gives children structure, friendships, protection, confidence, and participation in community life.
An appropriate wheelchair, walker, accessible classroom, trained teacher, or transportation arrangement may help a child return to education.
However, providing a mobility device alone may not remove every barrier.
An inclusive education plan may also require:
- Accessible school pathways
- Ramps
- Appropriate desks
- Accessible toilets
- Teacher training
- Learning materials in accessible formats
- Flexible schedules
- Peer support
- Transportation
- Family engagement
Children with disabilities have the same right to education as other children, including during emergencies.
Separation From Caregivers
Some people with disabilities depend on caregivers for personal assistance, communication, movement, medication, meals, or emotional support.
During conflict and displacement, families may become separated.
A caregiver may be injured, detained, killed, or unable to travel. A child with a disability may become separated from parents. An older person may be left behind because relatives cannot transport them.
Even temporary separation can create serious risks.
Humanitarian registration systems may not record the individual’s support requirements. Emergency workers may not know how the person communicates or what medication is needed.
Families caring for people with severe disabilities may also experience exhaustion.
A caregiver may need to lift and carry an adult, help with toileting and bathing, collect water and food, care for children, and earn income—all under difficult displacement conditions.
Supporting the caregiver is often essential to protecting the person with a disability.
Assistance may include respite support, mobility equipment, hygiene supplies, transportation, cash assistance, food delivery, and training in safe lifting and personal care.
Increased Risk of Violence, Abuse, and Exploitation
People with disabilities may face increased protection risks during displacement.
People who depend on others for food, transportation, communication, or personal care may be especially vulnerable to exploitation or abuse.
A person with a communication disability may have difficulty reporting mistreatment. Someone with an intellectual disability may not be believed or may not understand how to seek help.
Women and girls with disabilities can face increased risks of gender-based violence, particularly when toilets, bathing areas, and shelters are unsafe or lack privacy.
Children with disabilities may experience neglect, bullying, exploitation, or separation from family support.
Protection programs should therefore be accessible.
Reporting systems should not depend only on written forms, telephone calls, or physically visiting a distant office.
People should be able to report concerns through trusted community members, accessible communication methods, home visits, and confidential support.
Organizations should also train staff and volunteers in safeguarding, disability inclusion, confidentiality, and appropriate communication.
Landmines and Explosive Hazards
Landmines and explosive remnants of war create serious risks for civilians in conflict-affected areas.
These hazards can cause death, amputation, spinal injuries, vision loss, hearing loss, and other permanent disabilities.
They can also prevent people from safely returning home, farming, collecting water, attending school, or traveling to healthcare facilities.
Children are particularly vulnerable because they may not recognize dangerous objects.
UNICEF reported that landmines and explosive remnants of war continued to turn homes, playgrounds, and school routes into dangerous areas for children in Myanmar.
Survivors may require emergency surgery, rehabilitation, prosthetic devices, wheelchairs, psychological support, and long-term livelihood assistance.
However, these services may be limited or inaccessible.
Mine-risk education should include people with visual, hearing, intellectual, and communication disabilities.
Warnings that rely only on printed signs will not reach everyone. Information should be shared through multiple accessible methods and trusted community networks.
Poverty and Loss of Income
Displacement often destroys livelihoods.
Families may lose farmland, businesses, tools, employment, livestock, savings, and access to markets.
People with disabilities may already face employment discrimination or limited job opportunities. Displacement can make these barriers worse.
A person may lose an accessible workplace, transportation arrangement, supportive employer, or home-based business.
Family members may stop working because they must provide full-time care.
The cost of disability can also increase during displacement.
Families may need to pay for:
- Medication
- Transportation
- Mobility devices
- Repairs
- Personal-care supplies
- Medical treatment
- Special food
- Rehabilitation
- Caregiver assistance
- Accessible housing modifications
Cash-assistance and livelihood programs should include people with disabilities rather than assuming they cannot work.
Support may include accessible vocational training, small-business grants, adapted tools, flexible work, home-based income opportunities, and assistance for caregivers.
Stigma and Social Exclusion
Some people with disabilities experience stigma or discrimination.
They may be viewed as helpless, incapable, dependent, or less valuable. Families may hide a person with a disability because of shame or fear of discrimination.
During emergencies, community leaders or humanitarian workers may assume that people with disabilities cannot participate in decisions.
This can result in programs being designed without their input.
People with disabilities may not be invited to meetings, included in needs assessments, recruited as staff, or consulted about shelter, water, health, education, and distribution systems.
This exclusion weakens humanitarian programs.
People with disabilities understand the barriers they face and can identify practical solutions that others may overlook.
Disability-led organizations and individual community members should participate in:
- Needs assessments
- Program planning
- Site selection
- Accessibility reviews
- Staff training
- Distribution planning
- Monitoring
- Complaint systems
- Project evaluation
The principle should be: Nothing about people with disabilities without their meaningful participation.
Lack of Reliable Information
Accurate information about disability in displaced communities may be limited.
Registration systems may not ask appropriate questions. Families may not report disability because of stigma. Some conditions may not be visible.
Programs may count only people with obvious physical disabilities and overlook people who are deaf, blind, living with psychosocial disabilities, or experiencing intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Without reliable information, organizations may underestimate needs and fail to budget for accessibility.
Humanitarian assessments should use respectful questions about daily functioning rather than asking only whether someone identifies as disabled.
For example:
- Does the person have difficulty seeing, even when wearing glasses?
- Does the person have difficulty hearing, even when using a hearing aid?
- Does the person have difficulty walking or climbing steps?
- Does the person have difficulty remembering or concentrating?
- Does the person have difficulty communicating?
- Does the person have difficulty with self-care?
Information should be collected only when necessary and protected carefully.
Humanitarian Access and Funding Shortages
Humanitarian organizations continue to face significant difficulty reaching communities across Myanmar.
Insecurity, roadblocks, restrictions, damaged infrastructure, and challenges obtaining access approval can delay or prevent assistance. UNHCR reports that humanitarian access remains constrained in many parts of the country.
Funding shortages create another barrier.
When resources are limited, organizations may prioritize immediate life-saving services and postpone rehabilitation, assistive devices, accessibility improvements, and long-term disability support.
However, excluding disability-related services can make other assistance ineffective.
A food distribution is not useful to someone who cannot reach it. A clinic cannot serve a wheelchair user who cannot enter the building. A school is not inclusive when a child cannot access the classroom.
Disability inclusion does not always require a separate and expensive program.
Many improvements can be incorporated into existing projects through better planning, consultation, accessible communication, appropriate site design, staff training, and modest accessibility modifications.
How Humanitarian Organizations Can Respond
Organizations serving displaced communities can take practical steps to improve disability inclusion.
Identify people who may be excluded
Community outreach should locate people who cannot attend meetings, distributions, clinics, or registration points.
Consult people with disabilities
Programs should ask people directly about their priorities, barriers, and preferred solutions.
Make facilities accessible
Shelters, clinics, schools, water points, toilets, and distribution sites should be designed or modified for safer access.
Provide information in several formats
Important information may need to be communicated verbally, visually, in writing, through community volunteers, and through accessible digital methods.
Support caregivers
Caregiver needs should be included in assessments and assistance plans.
Provide appropriate assistive devices
Mobility aids should be selected, fitted, and followed up properly.
Include disability in every program
Disability inclusion should be part of shelter, healthcare, education, water, food, protection, livelihood, and emergency-preparedness programs.
Establish accessible feedback systems
People should be able to report concerns or request assistance through several safe and confidential channels.
Partner with disability organizations
Local organizations and people with lived experience can provide essential knowledge, trust, and technical guidance.
Myanmar Relief’s Future Role
Myanmar Relief is preparing a possible future program to assist internally displaced people and vulnerable families who need wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, mobility aids, repairs, and related support.
The initiative remains in the assessment and planning stage.
Before beginning fundraising or distribution, Myanmar Relief intends to:
- Identify trusted local implementation partners
- Verify individual needs
- Consult rehabilitation and disability professionals
- Establish fair recipient-selection procedures
- Assess local terrain and accessibility barriers
- Research suitable regional suppliers
- Create equipment-fitting and training procedures
- Plan repairs and replacement parts
- Protect beneficiary privacy and dignity
- Develop monitoring and follow-up systems
Myanmar Relief may begin with a small pilot project supporting approximately 10 to 20 verified recipients.
Starting with a limited project would allow us to understand actual costs, transportation challenges, equipment quality, technical needs, security risks, and follow-up requirements before expanding.
Beyond Wheelchairs and Walkers
Mobility equipment is important, but disability inclusion must go further.
A wheelchair cannot create independence when every building has steps. A walker cannot help someone reach a clinic when the road is unsafe. A hearing aid cannot ensure access when emergency announcements are not communicated clearly.
A complete approach may involve:
- Mobility devices
- Accessible water and sanitation
- Rehabilitation
- Healthcare
- Transportation
- Inclusive education
- Livelihood support
- Shelter modifications
- Caregiver assistance
- Protection services
- Accessible communication
- Community education
- Psychosocial support
- Repairs and technical follow-up
The objective should not simply be to distribute items.
The objective should be to remove barriers that prevent people from participating safely and meaningfully in daily life.
Protecting Dignity in Humanitarian Communication
Stories and photographs can help donors understand humanitarian needs. However, people with disabilities should never be portrayed only as helpless victims.
Myanmar Relief will seek informed consent before publishing a person’s name, image, medical information, or story.
Refusing publicity should never affect eligibility for assistance.
Humanitarian communication should:
- Respect privacy
- Avoid humiliating images
- Protect sensitive locations
- Emphasize strengths and goals
- Avoid unnecessary medical details
- Allow anonymity
- Represent people as active participants
- Explain clearly how content will be used
People with disabilities are not merely beneficiaries. They are parents, children, teachers, workers, community leaders, caregivers, artists, professionals, and neighbors.
Conclusion
Displaced people with disabilities in Myanmar face overlapping challenges.
They may struggle to escape conflict, enter temporary shelters, obtain food, use toilets, collect water, reach healthcare, continue education, earn income, protect themselves from violence, or replace lost mobility equipment.
These problems are not caused by disability alone. They are created and intensified by conflict, inaccessible environments, disrupted services, poverty, discrimination, and exclusion from humanitarian planning.
Myanmar’s humanitarian crisis continues to affect millions of people, while restricted access and limited funding make assistance difficult to deliver.
People with disabilities must not be forgotten.
Humanitarian organizations, local communities, donors, technical professionals, and disability-led groups can work together to identify barriers and create practical solutions.
For Myanmar Relief, this means developing programs carefully, verifying needs, listening to people with disabilities, selecting appropriate equipment, protecting dignity, and making accessibility part of every future project.
A wheelchair, walker, accessible toilet, safe pathway, trained caregiver, or inclusive classroom may appear to be a small intervention.
For the person receiving that support, it can mean safety, independence, education, healthcare, participation, and dignity.
No displaced person should be excluded from humanitarian assistance because they cannot walk, see, hear, communicate, or reach the place where help is being offered.