Article 20: The Right to Personal Mobility

This article is the most relevant to wheelchair service provision, and it requires member States to take effective measures to ensure personal mobility with the greatest possible independence for persons with disabilities by meeting the following:

  1. Facilitating the personal mobility of persons with disabilities in the manner and at the time of their choice, and at affordable cost;
  2. Facilitating access by persons with disabilities to quality mobility aids, devices, assistive technologies and forms of live assistance and intermediaries, including by making them available at affordable cost;
  3. Providing training in mobility skills to persons with disabilities and to specialist staff working with persons with disabilities;
  4. Encouraging entities that produce mobility aids, devices and assistive technologies to take into account all aspects of mobility for persons with disabilities.

As such, the foundational healthcare and rehabilitation services provided in tandem with appropriate wheelchair provision may be coordinated within one ministry, for example, through the Ministry of Health (as shown in the figure below), with sufficient financial resources provided under the healthcare umbrella as defined by the WHO.  In some contexts, provided ministries are well-coordinated, services may be organized across health, social, and defense ministries to maximize available resources.

An example of a wheelchair provision process led by the Ministry of Health policies that would promote and facilitate a sustainable access to appropriate wheelchair products and services.