ABSTRACT
This chapter examines existing research, policy and practice documents of government and non-government organizations in Canada, India and the United States to understand the ways in which disability has been addressed or overlooked in crisis situations in the three countries. Systematic research on disability in humanitarian situations in India is almost non-existent. The recent United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) ratified by India in 2007 mandates that all policies and laws in the country must be revamped to be in consonance with the rights-based approach enshrined in the CRPD. Despite India's ratification of the CRPD in 2007, neither the National Disaster Management Act nor the state and district disaster management plans have been revised to include disability. Within this evolving arena of disaster management, the concerns of people with disabilities have historically been non-existent or, at best, relegated to the periphery.
