Special Issue on Knowledge and disability inclusive development (Part 1)

The most recent issue of the 'Knowledge Management for Development Journal' focuses on disability inclusive development. Published on 5 October 2016, the Special Issue explores the role of knowledge and knowledge processes in disability inclusive development in low and middle income countries. Disability inclusive development requires negotiated understanding and synthesis of ‘multiple knowledges’ to address the multiple forms of disadvantage experienced by people with disabilities in diverse settings. To this end, contributors to this special issue share a concern with various ways in which different types of knowledge are recognized, valued and shared by different stakeholders in the development process, to generate new insights and evidence to inform policy and program planning to address disability-related disadvantage in different contexts. The purpose is to enhance understanding of how to create fertile conditions for insightful learning and meaningful action among all stakeholders concerned with disability and development who have different ways of knowing and experiencing the world. Study sites range from grassroots communities to entire countries and regions in Africa, Asia, Central America and the Pacific Islands.

Persistence of differing approaches to and treatment of disability in many of these settings has resulted in considerable research and policy neglect of environmental barriers to inclusive development which many of our contributors seek to highlight by uncovering often neglected forms of knowledge. Appropriately, their papers cover a broad range of topics. These topics move beyond the usual concern with including the perspectives of persons with disabilities in the formulation and implementation of community-based development projects to encompass a much broader range of stakeholders, operating at both the micro and macro-levels. To accommodate a large number of contributions expected to be of interest to KM4Dev readers, the special issue has two editions. This first includes eight papers that highlight the variety of knowledge and knowledge processes that are required to advance disability inclusive development.