The International Day of Persons with Disabilities was proclaimed by the United Nations in 1992 and is intended to draw attention to the concerns of people with physical or mental disabilities and gaps in inclusion (bpb, 2024). Inclusion means "being included" (Duden) and "equal participation" (Duden) in all areas of life such as work, school or culture.

Since 1994, Article 3 of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany has stipulated that people with disabilities must not be disadvantaged: "All people are equal before the law. [...]  No person shall be disfavoured because of disability." (GG, Article 3)

This means, for example, that people with disabilities have equal access to education and must not be excluded from schools or universities. In addition, they must not be disadvantaged when applying for jobs, for example, but must be given the same chances of being hired as everyone else.

According to the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, over 13 million people with disabilities live in Germany (2022). That is more than one in ten people. Despite this large number of people affected, everyday life in Germany is far from being free of barriers.

The Federal Accessibility Initiative, which was launched by the government in 2022, provides information on its website about various "barrier construction sites" that exist, for example, in schools, road infrastructure, public transport, housing and the labor market. In the healthcare sector, too, medical practices or the right medical care are not always accessible. In the digital space, it is primarily the lack of image descriptions or complicated and incomprehensible texts that prevent inclusion and participation (BMAS, 2022). This primarily refers to texts with lots of foreign words or complicated sentence structures.

Discriminatory structures in working environments that reduce people to their mental or physical disabilities have increasingly come into focus in recent years. According to the latest inclusion barometer from Aktion Mensch and the Handelsblatt Research Institute, the unemployment rate for employable people with disabilities across Germany rose again in 2024. While it was 11% (approx. 165,000 people) in 2023, it is now 11.6% (approx. 177,000 people) (Aktion Mensch, 2025) and therefore significantly higher than the general unemployment rate of 5.7% (Aktion Mensch, 2024). Workshops in which people with disabilities work have long been calling for a minimum wage (tagesschau, 2024); employees currently receive a so-called "workshop wage", which averages 222 euros per month (Lebenshilfe, 2022).

One aspect that has rarely received attention in public debates to date is the sexual and gender self-determination of people with disabilities. In particular, people who are both queer and live with a disability experience multiple disadvantages in many areas of life.

The association Queer Cities from Bremen draws attention to specific challenges that queer people with disabilities face in everyday life (Queer Cities):

• Increased social isolation and lack of recognition
• Lack of visibility in society and in queer spaces
• Barriers to accessing support due to inadequate services
• Psychosocial stress due to experiences of discrimination
• Increased risk of violence and discrimination in everyday and professional life

In the Zeitschrift für Menschenrechte, the author Nina Eckstein describes queer*disabled people as doubly discriminated against. They are exposed to prejudice and discrimination due to their disability and their queerness. According to Eckstein, it is particularly problematic that this group does not have its own lobby that visibly represents its interests (Eckstein, 2020). As a result, their specific experiences are easily overlooked. This is because neither in the LGBTQIA* community nor in the disability movement does "the intersectional dimension of queer and disabled receive sufficient attention" (Eckstein, 2020).

In a post on the internet forum Queer Handicap, several affected voices can be read that illustrate this. One user posts his speech on the "Choose Love" day of action in February 2025: "Being queer and disabled is unimaginable for many people. People like me don't fit into the narrow pigeonholes that society has for us. In the queer community, there is often a lack of accessibility and awareness of the needs of people with disabilities. And in the world of people with disabilities, queerness is often ignored or taboo." (queerhandicap, 2025).

In the podcast "BBQ-Black, Brown, Queer", politician and activist Edwin Greve sees the reasons why the topic receives so little publicity in ableist structures and a lack of research ("BBQ-Black, Brown, Queer" 2023). There is often a lack of accessibility and awareness of the needs of people with disabilities in the queer community. It is only in recent years that branches of research have developed in Disability Studies that combine the intersection of queer and disability studies. Queer Disability Studies is not only about the double discrimination associated with disability and queer identity. Researchers here also examine how social ideas of "normal" bodies and gender roles have emerged - and show that many of these norms have emerged from a white, male-dominated culture (Ledder & Raab, 2022).

What this research makes clear are the very concrete consequences for the lives of those affected: queer people with disabilities are often not only denied the existence of sexual needs, but also denied self-determination over their sexuality or their gender. This denial and refusal happens even though all people have the same right to recognition of their sexual and gender diversity. For people with disabilities, however, access to this right is often made more difficult or denied (El Ismy, Jennessen & Prchal 2022).

According to the Deutsches Studierendenwerk, around 16% of all students in Germany have a "study-complicating impairment" (Deutsches Studierendenwerk). The barriers and challenges they face at universities often go unnoticed by others. TU Dortmund University has been working since the 1970s to identify and remove these obstacles in everyday student life. The central player on campus is the "Disability and Studies" (DoBuS) department . It combines individual advice and support with systematic analysis of barriers and the development of sustainable solutions. The aim is always not only to offer individual solutions, but also to create barrier-free structures in the long term. For example, DoBuS provides concrete support in the barrier-free design of teaching and examination materials or, in the "Doctorate inclusive" project, specifically supports students with disabilities on their path to a doctorate by providing them with suitable positions, advice and a supportive network.

TU Dortmund University has developed the "A University for All" action plan in order to fulfill the human rights obligation derived from the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) to enable equal participation in education and work. The action plan is coordinated by the Equal Opportunities, Family and Diversity Office. This strategic instrument aims to proactively identify university structures, cultures and practices at TU Dortmund University that potentially or actually disadvantage or discriminate against university members with disabilities. TU Dortmund University is one of Germany's leading universities in the field of inclusive higher education.

TU Dortmund University's Equal Opportunities Office is also committed to making the campus safer and more inclusive ("Safety on Campus"). Every two years, all university members are called upon to report places that are perceived as unsafe. The focus is also explicitly on areas that are not barrier-free. The aim is to make obstacles visible and remove them in the long term.

Status: 09.12.2025

• Aktion Mensch (2024): Inklusionsbarometer Arbeit 2024. Letzter Zugriff: 02.12.2024.
• Aktion Mensch (2025): Inklusionsbarometer Arbeit 2025. Letzter Zugriff: 01.12.2025.
• Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales (BMAS, 2022): Bundesinitiative Barrierefreiheit. Letzter Zugriff: 21.11.2024.
• Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb, 2019): Internationaler Tag der Menschen mit Behinderung. Bpb. Letzter Zugriff: 15.11.2024.
• Deutsches Studierendenwerk (ohne Jahr): Auf dem Weg zur inklusiven Hochschule. Letzter Zugriff: 21.11.2024.
• Duden. Inklusion, die. Letzter Zugriff: 01.12.2025.
• Eckstein, N. (2020): Queering Disabbility. Zeitschrift für Menschenrechte – zfmr, 1/2020.
• El Ismy, I., Jennessen, S. & Prchal, K. (2022): Behinderung, Queerness und Sexualität. Teilhabe (4)61.
• Grundgesetz GG. Artikel 3. Gleichheit vor dem Gesetz.
• Lebenshilfe (2022): Welches Geld bekomme ich, wenn ich in einer Werkstatt (WfbM) beschäftigt bin? Letzter Zugriff: 15.11.2024.
• Podcast BBQ_Black, Brown, Queer (2023): Queerness und Behinderung mit Edwin Greve. ARD.
• Queer Cities (o.J.): Inklusion von Doppelminderheiten – Besonderes Angebot für queere Menschen mit Behinderungen. Letzter Zugriff: 03.12.2025.
• Queerhandicap (2025): Rede zum Aktionstag „Wähl Liebe“ am 15.2.2025 in Wilhelmshaven. Letzter Zugriff: 03.12.2025.
• Raab, H., Ledder, S. (2022): Gender & Queer Studies in den Disability Studies. In: Waldschmidt, A. (eds) Handbuch Disability Studies. S. 357-374. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-18925-3_21
• Tagesschau (2024): Menschen mit Behinderung fordern bessere Bezahlung in Werkstätten. Tagesschau ARD.
• Wolbring, G., & Nasir, L. (2024). Intersectionality of Disabled People through a Disability Studies, Ability-Based Studies, and Intersectional Pedagogy Lens: A Survey and a Scoping Review. Societies, 14(9), 176. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc14090176