Disability Data Fellowship : Belongg and Mission Accessibility 

Application deadline 14th June 24

Belongg is a social innovation platform that seeks to make global development and technology products more intersectionally inclusive in terms of gender, sexuality, race, caste, religion, and disability. With our work in Inclusive Tech at Belongg, we hope to influence development researchers, practitioners, and funders in identifying and adopting more equitable and inclusive approaches that better serve the needs of people with marginalized identities. We are currently working on an AI-based platform called BelonggAI that facilitates inclusion by making inclusive research more accessible and applicable to key players driving change in the field of social development. 

About Mission Accessibility 

While the law guarantees a large set of entitlements to persons with disabilities in India, the gap between the black letter of the law and implementation is huge.  Founded by two lawyers who happen to be blind, Rahul Bajaj and Amar Jain, Mission Accessibility (‘MA’),  is on a mission to bridge this gap. MA does this by its work across three verticals:

1. Taking up grievances of affected disabled persons proactively and reactively
2. Public sensitization and awareness generation
3. Supporting institutions to align their practices with the law and human rights principles

MA also runs communities of practice to identify specific challenges faced by PwDs, strives to find policy and advocacy-based solutions to them, and takes them up through appropriate channels. While several of MA’s initial projects lay at the intersection of disability and technology, it is prioritizing the larger rights-based paradigm in its work across sectors, such as education, employment, access to assessments and certification, etc. MA also provides training to organizations, institutions, and individuals on accessibility standards and digital accessibility. So far, we have conducted accessibility audits, and capacity-building workshops, prepared accessibility checklists, and provided customized interventions based on the specific needs of the client. We currently provide such services to the following, amongst others: the Department of Empowerment for Persons with Disabilities, Government of India, office of Goa State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Rhodes Trust, Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, Election Commission of India, State Election Commissions, and Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.

MA has also successfully supported service providers to make their digital offerings accessible and has led several legal victories for the rights of persons with disabilities. While MA’s work to date has been largely focused on India, it has also done significant work with institutions located in other jurisdictions to make their offerings and infrastructure disabled-friendly. 

Illustratively, MA has worked with the Rhodes Trust and the University of Melbourne. Ultimately, MA hopes to make government and private bodies, across the globe, accessible and affirming for persons with disabilities while upholding a rights-based approach.

Overview

The Disability Data Fellowship is a collaboration between Belongg and Mission Accessibility. The following sections detail the objective of the Fellowship, the need for such a Fellowship, the responsibilities of the Fellow, the requirements for applying, and other details related to the role. 

The Role 

As a Disability Data Fellow,  you will curate disability-related datasets and disseminate them with relevant partners whom you will be responsible for identifying. In addition to culling out data that researchers and practitioners will apply to their work, you will also propel the development ecosystem’s awareness of the existence of such data, as well as highlight the need for data that focuses on the unique needs and challenges of people with disabilities as well as disability-aggregated data on development programs,  and means and opportunities to apply disability-related data to do inclusion. The Fellow must curate a set that is uniquely useful to the development sector (keeping in mind existing publicly available datasets disaggregated for PWDs) contributing to their ability to do inclusive work. The specific responsibilities of this role will be as follows. 

Responsibilities 

1. Building a data repository focused on better understanding the experiences of, challenges faced by, and opportunities available to people with disabilities and disability-disaggregated datasets on development topics: 
   1. Collection, analysis, and dissemination of disability-focused data*, across domains such as livelihoods, health, mental health, education, urban development, financial inclusion, etc. 
   2. Identifying disability-focused data from larger aggregated sets as well as disability-specific datasets from a range of sources including government survey data to data centers at research institutions and universities and data collected by civil society organizations, researchers, etc
2. Fostering collaborations and raising awareness across the development ecosystem

1. Organizing workshops, roundtables, brown bags, etc. based on the repository
2. Facilitating collaborations between stakeholders across subject areas and sectors yet committed to disability inclusion. 
3. Writing op-eds and publishing podcasts to increase awareness on the need for disability-disaggregated data as well as on existing data, and the need for disability-data-informed policy and practice.  

What will the Disability Data Fellowship achieve?

The Disability Data Fellowship (DDF) seeks to address the above-described gaps by harnessing the power of partnerships and cultivating a community of disability data experts committed to curating, exchanging, and disseminating disability-related data, leading to stronger development outcomes and building a collaborative movement towards disability justice. 

Specifically, the DDF seeks to achieve the following:

1. Building a data-driven knowledge repository – Facilitating the collection, analysis, and dissemination of disability data*, across domains such as health, mental health, agriculture, urban development, financial inclusion, etc. 

*We will seek to cover data using a comprehensive view of disability. 

Fostering collaborations and raising awareness across the development ecosystem – Through the Fellows as well as outreach engagements in the form of workshops, roundtables, brown bags, etc. based on the repository, facilitate collaborations between stakeholders across subject areas and sectors yet committed to disability justice. Additionally, to increase awareness on the need for disability-disaggregated data as well as on existing data, and the need for disability-data-informed policy and practice, Fellows will be involved in curating communication resources in the form of op-eds, podcasts, etc.  

Why do we need the Disability Data Fellowship?

Accurate and comprehensive disability data in the development sector is critical for making evidence-based decisions and designing targeted policy interventions – whether it is while planning a project proposal, detailing a programmatic initiative, or developing a funding agenda. At present, there are multiple gaps in disability disaggregated data in qualitative as well as quantitative datasets. These gaps range from issues such as:

1. The absence of disability-focused data, especially data covering all types of disabilities due to 
   1. inadequate data collection methods
   2. Biases and blindspots that reduce the focus on the collection of such data 
   3. weak statistical systems and limited statistical capacity at the country level 
2. Absence of indicators and metrics targeting development outcomes for people with disabilities 
3. Inaccessible and limited discovery of disability-related data

Such gaps contribute to inefficient policy measures as well as unintended impacts leading to the reproduction and widening of socio-economic inequalities in development outcomes for persons with disabilities.

How is the Disability Data Fellowship structured?

The DDF will be executed over 3 months / 12 weeks, with an intended intake of 1 Fellow in this pilot phase. The Fellow will be expected to work full-time during the Fellowship exclusively and will be paid a monthly stipend of Rs. 50,000. 

The DDF shall be open to applicants across domains, such as researchers, journalists, and program officers, with experience of about 2-4 years of working in the development sector. 

Data & Outputs

All data generated by the Fellowship will be made available publicly, and will also be used by Belongg in the BelonggAI platform for wider impact in the ecosystem. 

Skills & Qualifications 

We are Looking For a Fellow

With a Master’s Degree who is trained in data science and social science/public policy, or data science/statistics/mathematics with demonstrated interest and experience in working on issues of marginalization. 

1. Who can work with datasets, large and small, qualitative and quantitative, to extract disability-specific data, perform analyses to disaggregate when necessary, and document the same for easy processing by an LLM
2. Experience in setting up long-engagement partnerships with relevant experts and organizations in the field of disability-inclusive research and data science. 

Other Details

Belongg and Mission Accessibility are committed to inclusive hiring. We actively encourage candidates with diverse underrepresented identities (disability, gender, sexuality, religion, caste, etc) to apply. The Fellowship is based in Delhi or Bengaluru though we will be open to exceptional Fellows located in other cities. 

How to Apply 

If the goals of the Fellowship align with your skills and interests, we would love to interview you. 

The application deadline is 14th June 2024 and the Fellowship will run from 1st July – 30th September 2024. There is some flexibility on the dates based on Fellow preferences. 

Apply by filling out this application form. 

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