The WHO CBR Matrix is a framework for inclusive development and all the six components (health, education, livelihood, social, empowerment and environment) are crucial in ensuring full participation and equality of persons with disabilities in a community where they reside. In the past, CBR tended to be limited in focus, with mainly individual focused “interventions”, such as medical, educational or vocational aspects. CBR today is moving away from an individual approach focusing on rehabilitation to restore one’s functions, to a more participatory and social approach in which persons with disabilities are seen not as “objects” of interventions, but as members of a community who have equal rights as well as potentials to contribute to the community. 

It is not possible for one ministry or agency to cover all the components of the CBR Matrix: it is essential that all the stakeholders develop alliances working in different fields to share responsibilities and utilize their comparative advantages. In line with APCD’s principle and focus, APCD considers that it has an important role to play in two of the CBR Matrix components: namely, “empowerment” and “environment”. Empowered persons with disabilities, by raising their voice through their own groups/organizations, can become powerful forces to bring about the removal of barriers in the physical environment, information and communication, regulations and systems, as well as prejudices and attitudes.