About International Day of Persons with Disabilities
The International Day of Persons with Disabilities is marked every 3 December, in 2026 on Thursday, 3 December 2026. The United Nations proclaimed it in 1992, and it was called the International Day of Disabled Persons until 2007. In India it is the day the President gives the National Awards for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, and the day the Accessible India Campaign was launched in 2015.
Around one in six people alive has a significant disability. That is the World Health Organization estimate the United Nations uses, about 1.3 billion people. Most of them are not born disabled; ageing, illness, road injuries and untreated conditions do most of the work. This is a group anyone can join, which is a plainer reason to care about access than charity.
What is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities?
The UN General Assembly proclaimed 3 December in 1992, through resolution 47/3, at the end of the United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons. The older name, International Day of Disabled Persons, was changed in 2007 to the current one. The UN sets a theme each year, announced a few weeks ahead on its observance page.
The framing has shifted since 1992. The older idea was welfare: what can be done for disabled people. The current one, written into the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities that India ratified in 2007, is rights: what is owed to them, and who is responsible for removing the barrier.
How is 3 December marked in India?
Two things make the date matter here beyond the UN calendar.
The National Awards for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities are presented on 3 December, usually by the President, to individuals, institutions, employers and states across a set of categories. Nominations open months earlier through the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.
The Accessible India Campaign, Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan, was launched on 3 December 2015. It works on three fronts: buildings, transport, and information and communication. The information target is worth knowing because it is the one an ordinary office can act on, since it asks for public documents and websites to meet the international web accessibility guidelines, for more trained sign language interpreters, and for captioning and sign interpretation on public television news.
Schools and colleges hold sports and cultural events, and many offices run an awareness session. The honest test of any of it is whether the building the event is held in has a ramp, a working lift and a usable toilet.
What does the RPwD Act 2016 actually give you?
The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 replaced the 1995 law. It was notified on 28 December 2016 and came into force in 2017. In plain words:
- It recognises 21 disabilities, up from 7 under the old law. The list runs from blindness, low vision and hearing impairment to locomotor disability, dwarfism, intellectual disability, mental illness, autism, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, thalassemia, haemophilia, sickle cell disease, deafblindness, acid attack survivors and Parkinson's disease. The central government can add more, and thalassemia and others have been the subject of court cases.
- Benchmark disability means 40 per cent or more of a listed condition, certified by a medical authority. Most reservations and concessions are tied to this, not to the diagnosis alone.
- Jobs. Reservation in vacancies in government establishments went up from 3 per cent to 4 per cent for people with benchmark disabilities.
- Higher education. Section 32 gives 5 per cent reservation in government and government-aided higher educational institutions, along with a relaxed upper age limit.
- School. Children with benchmark disabilities between 6 and 18 have a right to free education, and government-funded and government-recognised schools must provide inclusive education.
- Reasonable accommodation. An employer or institution has to make workable adjustments rather than refuse, unless the burden is disproportionate.
- Accessibility and guardianship. Public buildings, government and private, must be made accessible in a prescribed timeframe. Guardianship is granted by a District Court and is meant to be joint decision-making, not a takeover.
| If you need | Go to | Bring |
|---|---|---|
| A disability certificate | The notified medical board at a government hospital in your district | Identity proof, address proof, medical records |
| A UDID card | The national UDID portal, or the same hospital | Certificate details, photograph, Aadhaar |
| Exam accommodations | Your school, college or exam board, well before the exam | Certificate, and the specific ask: scribe, extra time, separate room |
| A complaint about access or discrimination | The State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, or the Chief Commissioner centrally | Written complaint, dates, what you asked for and what was refused |
What words should you use in India?
There is a live disagreement and you should know which side you are on before you write.
The Union government uses Divyangjan, a term the Prime Minister proposed in December 2015 in place of *viklang*, on the reasoning that disabled people have abilities others lack. Many disability rights groups and disabled writers in India have publicly rejected it. Their argument is that swapping a word for deficiency with a word for divinity still avoids the subject, because a person who is called divine is not being given a ramp, a job or a school place.
Most disability rights activists in India, writing in English, say disabled people or persons with disabilities. Both are safe. "Differently abled", "specially abled" and "physically challenged" are widely disliked. So are "suffering from", "confined to a wheelchair" and "victim of". A wheelchair is not a confinement; it is how somebody gets around.
Do
- Ask before helping. Grabbing a wheelchair, a white cane or an arm without asking is startling and sometimes dangerous.
- Speak to the person, not to the companion or the interpreter.
- If you run an event, publish the access details in the invitation: lift, ramp, toilet, captions, interpreter. "Accessible venue" tells nobody anything.
Avoid
- Don't call an adult brave or inspiring for going to work, travelling or studying.
- Don't take photos of disabled people for posts without consent, especially children.
- Don't promise access you have not checked. One step at the entrance cancels the whole plan.
What to write on Disability Day
Not making today about your disability. Just saying I am glad you are in my life, and that I will keep checking places for steps before I suggest them.
Today is 3 December. Instead of a post, we have moved the Friday meeting to the ground floor room and started captioning recordings. Tell me what else is in the way.
Thank you for changing how you teach rather than asking one child to cope. That is the hard, unglamorous version of inclusion and it works.
You have spent years chasing certificates, schools and transport. On Disability Day, that work deserves naming. Ask me for the next round of paperwork and I will do it.
Marking the International Day of Persons with Disabilities by looking at our own hiring: accessible application form, interviews on the ground floor, and the accommodation question asked at offer stage, not after.
3 December is Disability Day. Our building has a ramp that ends in a step. Proposing we fix that this month instead of putting up a banner.
Thank you for filing the complaints, chasing the commissioners and reading the rules that nobody else reads. Today is yours.
See also World Braille Day on 4 January, the International Day of Sign Languages on 23 September, World Autism Awareness Day on 2 April, and Human Rights Day on 10 December.
How to wish someone on International Day of Persons with Disabilities
Disabled people are not a cause to be congratulated. The best messages on 3 December are either thanks aimed at a person for specific work, or a commitment to fix something you control: a ramp, a caption, a form, a hiring process. To a disabled friend or colleague, a warm ordinary message works better than a special one. Skip anything about courage, inspiration or divine gifts.
Write a few lines in your own words, pick a design and share it as one link on WhatsApp, Instagram or anywhere else. They open an animated card made just for them, with no app and no sign-up.
Language tip: English, Hindi + recipient language.
When is International Day of Persons with Disabilities in 2026 and 2027?
International Day of Persons with Disabilities is on 3 Dec every year. Only the weekday changes.
- 2026
- 2027
Frequently asked questions
When is International Day of Persons with Disabilities in 2026?
International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2026 falls on Thursday, 3 December 2026.
Should I say disabled person or person with disabilities?
Both are used and both are acceptable in India. Disability rights groups here use them interchangeably in English. Avoid "differently abled", "specially abled" and "physically challenged", which many disabled Indians say paper over the real issue, and avoid "suffering from" or "confined to a wheelchair".
Why do some people object to the word Divyang?
Because it calls disability divine instead of addressing it. Disability rights activists in India have argued since the term was proposed in December 2015 that praising disabled people as gifted does nothing about missing ramps, refused jobs and inaccessible schools, and that it makes it harder to demand those as rights.
What are the 21 disabilities under the RPwD Act 2016?
The Act lists 21 conditions, including blindness, low vision, hearing impairment, speech and language disability, locomotor disability, leprosy cured persons, dwarfism, muscular dystrophy, acid attack injury, intellectual disability, specific learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, mental illness, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, haemophilia, thalassemia, sickle cell disease, deafblindness and multiple disabilities. The central government can add more.
How do I get a disability certificate and UDID card in India?
Apply through the notified medical board at a government hospital in your district, or start on the national UDID portal. You will need identity and address proof and your medical records. The certificate is what most reservations, concessions and schemes are actually checked against, and it should be issued as permanent where the condition is permanent.
What percentage of jobs and college seats are reserved for disabled people in India?
Government establishments reserve at least 4 per cent of vacancies for people with benchmark disabilities under the RPwD Act 2016, raised from 3 per cent under the older law. Section 32 of the same Act reserves 5 per cent of seats in government and government-aided higher educational institutions.
What is a good way for an office to mark Disability Day?
Fix one thing rather than hold one event. Check the entrance, lift and toilet against a real wheelchair user's route, caption your recorded meetings, make the job application form work with a screen reader, or put the access details of your office into your interview invitations. Those outlast a banner.
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