Gender and Disability in China: The Rise of Female-Led Disabled Persons’ Organisations

In recent years, thanks to the popularity of digital platforms, an increasing number of female-led disabled persons’ organisations (DPOs) focusing on disability inclusion has emerged in mainland China. This growth marks a welcome change from the traditional male dominance of such organisations.

While multiple definitions of DPOs exist, in this essay, we view DPOs as organisations or networks that are primarily led and staffed or supported by disabled persons. The role of DPOs includes ‘providing a voice of their own, identifying needs, expressing views on priorities, evaluating services and advocating change and public awareness’ (UN 1982). They also ‘provide the opportunity to develop skills in the negotiation process, organizational abilities, mutual support, information-sharing and often vocational skills and opportunities’ (UN 1982). While recent years have seen the popularisation of the international disability rights movement and the promotion of the mantra ‘nothing about us without us’, visible DPOs remain rare in China. DPOs led by disabled women are even rarer. Critics have noted that in some international DPOs, power is often concentrated among a few men, leading to some members, especially women, experiencing bullying, harassment, and unequal treatment (Fremlin 2024). This also applies in China, where self-help groups and associations led by disabled women often face additional challenges related to limited visibility and scarce resources.

To quote just a couple of examples, in 2002, a rural woman named Chen Yuying founded a self-help organisation supporting local marginalised populations, especially disabled people. Chen had acquired multiple disabilities in the late 1990s while a migrant worker in a Shenzhen-based factory. While still around after more than two decades, her organisation has been struggling with limited resources. Another instance of a pioneering organisation is the Guangzhou-based grassroots Association of Disabled Women (广州残疾妇女协会), which does not have much visibility at the national level. The Association of Women with Disabilities Hong Kong (AWDHK, 香港女障協進會) was founded in 2000 but unfortunately disbanded in June 2022 due to the inability to form a new executive committee (AWDHK 2022).

These early female-led DPOs were established before the widespread use of digital media and their reach and impact remained largely local. Enabled by digital platforms, broader networks among disabled people have become possible, operating at a national and even international level. For example, after the shocking and tragic death of a disabled child in Hubei Province in 2020 (Chen 2020), digital disability support networks were quickly formed to provide mutual support for disabled people in need during the Covid-19 pandemic (Dai and Hu 2022). Even before the pandemic, people with disabilities in China had begun to adopt remote learning and digital tools due to the lack of accessible infrastructure—a development that accelerated in the Covid years among both people with disabilities and their non-disabled counterparts. As Huang (2021: 87) observed: ‘[V]ibrant online community networks have started to grow among the new generation of people with disability, paving the way for a collective disability consciousness-building from the grassroots community.’

Amid the growing disability-consciousness movement enabled by digitalisation, a new generation of female-led DPOs has been active and influential in raising disability awareness and organising communities in China. These female-led DPOs are initiated by Chinese disabled women who are based in major cities in China or living overseas. Many founders are highly educated and have been educated overseas. Their organisations aim to build communities (many specifically hope to empower disabled girls and women through targeted programming), share resources, and challenge disability and gender stigma from traditional male-led DPOs. This essay documents the emergence of a few disabled women community leaders and their networks in China and globally, detailing their history and impact. It is followed by an in-depth discussion of the reflexive case of one female-led DPO in which one of the authors played a prominent role, presented as a lens through which to understand the broader movement.

Precursors

The early female-led DPOs that we discuss in this essay have connections with the most influential DPO in China, the One Plus One Disability Group (1+1, 一加一残障公益集团). Established in 2006 by Xie Yan, a Beijing-based man who acquired a physical disability in his late twenties, this group is the pioneering and most well-known DPO in mainland China. While most of its members and management team are disabled individuals, the organisation is male dominated and in 2016 transitioned to a partnership governance system under which all four managing partners are men. Nevertheless, this group’s impact on the disability movement is undeniable, and many disabled individuals started their organisations and networks after participating in and working with 1+1.

Two 1+1 female employees with visual impairments, Jin Ling and Xiao Jia, were among the earliest to start community-building efforts with disabled women in China in the early 2010s under the aegis of this organisation, establishing a network they called the Disability Associated Women Support Group (DAWS, 受残障影响女性支持小组). Xiao, who is blind, is married to Cai Cong, another blind activist and co-founder of 1+1. Jin Ling and Xiao Jia both left 1+1 due to pregnancy and childcare commitments. In 2016, Peng Yujiao, a woman with cerebral palsy, joined 1+1 and took over their work. Building on Jin and Xiao’s efforts, Peng expanded the DAWS network significantly. Peng focused on capacity-building with disabled women in different cities and organised online events featuring disabled women speakers. For example, she connected with the first author of this essay, Luanjiao Hu, inviting her to join the network and share her life experience as a disabled woman.

For various reasons including differences with the organisation’s leaders over funding allocation, Peng left 1+1 at the end of 2016 and began working independently. Influenced by Chinese feminist activists, Peng aimed to incorporate feminist principles into her community work with disabled women. Inspired by a documentary featuring acid attack victims in India, in 2017, Peng collaborated with another disabled woman, named Yaoyao, to produce Han Ya (寒鸦), an impactful documentary featuring disabled women in mainland China and Hong Kong. Peng and Yaoyao eventually co-founded their own DPO, the Beijing Enable Sister Centre (BEST, 北京残障姐妹, also known as 北京乐益融社会工作事务所), which was successfully registered as a social service organisation in 2019. Due to differing programming priorities and other factors, the two founders have recently parted ways and now lead separate organisations. Meanwhile, the DAWS network under 1+1 also intermittently resumed some programs and activities nationwide, led by different employees of the organisation (One Plus One 2020).

Along with DAWS and BEST, several other female-led DPOs emerged in recent years, including Minority Voice (少数派说), Rare N Roll (奇途无障碍), Disability Without Borders (DWB), Know Deaf Social Work Service Centre (重庆两江新区知珑社会工作服务中心), and Tong Guan Network (同关社群). Table 1 provides some additional details about these DPOs. Their founders share some commonalities. First, all were born in the late 1980s or early 1990s. Second, all have a high level of education—at least a bachelor’s degree, some have master’s degrees, and two are PhD holders. Third, most also have international education experiences and have benefited from this. Fourth, most have physical disabilities, and one has multiple disabilities (physical and hearing). These founders are generally well connected and often collaborate with one another, sharing resources and supporting each other to amplify their work. They also maintain strong networks, which foster ongoing collaboration to advance disability inclusion.

Table 1: Names and Information of Six Key Female-Led DPOs

Intersectionality

Women’s groups often blend familiar organisational models, such as clubs, community-building efforts, and decentralised networks, to create new and effective forms of mobilisation (Clemens 1993). These alternative models can foster identity formation and social solidarity, helping minority participants overcome challenges (Minkoff 2002). These organisations are coalitions in which diverse identities often clash and reconcile. Participants face ‘multiple jeopardy’ due to structural inequalities tied to their social position and intersectional identities (Ward 2004; Luna 2016). This tension can be addressed through ‘tacit or explicit creative acts’ of identity work for potential coalition-building (Carastathis 2013). Thus, women’s organisations often emphasise the importance of one’s voice in fostering a sense of ‘groupness’ (Dugan and Reger 2006).

These characteristics of women’s organisations can be observed in the female-led DPOs in China. Disabled women often face multiple challenges in negotiating their intersectional identities of being disabled and a woman, both in their life trajectory and in their activism (Hu 2023; Zhang et al. 2023). In the case of Xiao Jia and Jin Ling, the two blind women working at 1+1, motherhood impacted on their organising capacities and career pathways. Both paused their community work with disabled women due to pregnancy and childcare responsibilities. In contrast, Cai Cong, Xiao’s husband and colleague, experienced no career interruption from fatherhood. All the disabled women community leaders with whom we have connected have shared their experiences of intersectional struggles as one of the motivations they had to start their DPO. In her book on the experience of Chinese women with physical disabilities, the first author of this essay revealed how gendered expectations and challenges in romantic relationships pressured her into undergoing a voluntary below-knee amputation, to try to conform to gender norms and express femininity (Hu 2024).

Disabled women face intersectional struggles throughout various life stages, such as schooling, employment, and motherhood. These challenges can become sources of motivation and unique strengths in their community work and organising efforts. Inspired by their connections with the disability community and, in some cases, digital feminism, disabled women have begun creating their own platforms, organisations, or networks to address their needs. For example, after leaving 1+1, Xiao launched a WeChat public account called ‘Non-Visual Aesthetics’ (非视觉美学), through which she educates visually impaired women on topics such as beauty, health, cooking, and parenting. Although Xiao lacks higher education credentials, she has become an influencer in the blind women’s community through her work in DPOs and her background in disability advocacy. The distinct gendered experiences of disabled women influence the structure and focus of their organisations.

The Path to Disability Advocacy

At the time of writing, more female-led DPOs are emerging. Rising gender awareness and digital feminism among younger generations have empowered some disabled women to create their own communities or become influencers. To offer a glimpse into the process that leads some disabled women to engage in this type of activism, we share the case of Disability Without Borders (DWB) in a narrative first-person account of the lead author’s personal experiences as a community organiser. The case illustrates that disabled women are not born activists or advocates but evolve into this role through lived experiences.

Reflecting on my journey, I understand how I have slowly become the disabled scholar and advocate I am today. Born in rural China, I acquired a physical disability while I was an infant. I lost most of my left foot, and gradually my legs became different lengths due to uneven usage. There was no information or resources about physical therapy or prosthetic devices in the rural environment where I grew up. I walked unevenly without assistive devices until age 15. Growing up in a rural village and later migrating to a small city in southern China, I was surrounded by a predominantly non-disabled world. I played with non-disabled peers and attended mainstream schools where most of the school children did not have visible disabilities. Being one of the few students with a visible disability, I was often highlighted as an inspirational model for excelling academically despite my physical condition. However, some teachers explicitly excluded and neglected me due to my disability, gender, and rural background. To excel academically was the unquestioned responsibility of a disabled student. Perhaps because my parents understood the challenges of being a disabled girl in an ableist Chinese society, they decided to provide me with a better education than my two sisters. They sent me to a more expensive and better-resourced local school where I continued to thrive academically.

I accumulated mixed disability experiences, both positive and negative. I grew up in an environment in which disability was seen as pitiable and undesirable—a perception that deeply shaped my experiences. In my teenage years, I disliked the idea of acquiring an official disability certificate because owning such a certificate symbolises officially accepting a label commonly perceived as negative. I eventually obtained one after being admitted into a university because my then low-income family heard about some monetary reward from local disabled persons’ federations for disabled students entering higher education. It was a one-time fund of CNY500 (about US$69), which I had to share with a disabled uncle, who accompanied me to the local disability agency. To me, the benefits of acquiring an official disability certificate barely outweighed the negatives. I hid it as soon as I received it.

In China, the individual and medical models of disability have long dominated public perceptions, and this remains true today. These models view disability as an individual defect or fault, a medical problem requiring treatment and a cure for achieving normalcy and inclusion in society. In my 24 years living in a rural village and small city in southern China, I had never encountered alternative perspectives on disability.

At 24, I embarked on a journey of international education after I was accepted into a US graduate school. I had chosen the path of international education largely because of my experience as a disabled girl and woman. My gender status, combined with my disability experience, affected my decision to move away from my birth country. As a young girl living away from migrant worker parents, I, along with other girls in the village, unfortunately experienced sexual abuse and harassment from local adult men. Eager for a more equal environment, I pursued further education in the United States and was fortunate to gain admission to a graduate program after two years of applying.

My graduate school studies gave me space to reflect on my experiences in a different language (English). It exposed me to different disability narratives and literature. In graduate school, I was shocked to learn about how different lives with disabilities could be in another country and setting. I got deeply involved in an introductory course on disability at my university. It was eye-opening to discover the many possibilities available for disabled people. My exposure to different disabled lives in books and real life, along with the space to reflect on my previous disability and gendered experiences, became the start of a transformative journey. In 2015, I was invited to give a TEDx talk in which I shared my research on disability and education with critical reflections on my own experiences.

Around 2017, I came in contact with a Chinese disability advocate named Cai Cong, after his remarks on disability went viral following his appearance on a popular TV show (The Weirdos Speak, 奇葩说). I connected with Cai via his social media account, and our shared commitment to disability inclusion sparked a long-lasting camaraderie. Cai generously opened a door for me to understand and appreciate the work of disability advocates in China and his organisation, 1+1, the most influential DPO in China. Being connected to Cai and 1+1 was one of the key events in my involvement in the Chinese disability field. I continued researching and educating myself on issues related to Chinese disabled people. In 2018, I was awarded a selective fellowship that enhanced my leadership skills and deepened my connections with other disabled organisers. In the same year, I founded the Disability Without Borders (DWB) network.

A conversation with a fellow disabled woman activist named Ji Xun directly inspired me to create the DWB network. Started in July 2018, DWB has grown into an international network with close to 700 diverse members worldwide, all sharing an interest in disability inclusion in China and internationally. DWB members come from diverse backgrounds, including varying disability status and severity, disciplines and fields of work, geographic origin, age, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation and gender identity, and nationality. The network comprises advocates, activists, academics, students, professionals, government workers, disabled community members, and family members of disabled individuals. It remains an invitation-only network based on the WeChat platform. WeChat’s popularity and dominance, along with restricted internet access in China, make building accessible communities on other platforms nearly impossible. Chinese internet users cannot easily access social media platforms, including Google, YouTube, LinkedIn, Meta (previously Facebook), X (previously Twitter), and Instagram. As a result, Chinese internet users cannot use common social media websites for community groups.

The DWB network has been managed by a quasi-advisory committee of community members since 2020. The committee currently has six members, five of whom have disabilities. The committee provides suggestions and rotates the network manager position to a new member every July. DWB supports disability inclusion and community organisation in four ways: information and resource-sharing, event organisation (online and offline), hot-topic discussions, and connection-building.

DWB members generously share global and local disability-related information to which they have access and support disabled people in numerous ways. The DWB network also hosts speaker series, professional development events, documentary screenings, and encourages member meetups offline. Some DWB members have facilitated such in-person gatherings in different Chinese cities.

DWB has its limitations, one of which stems from the intersectional challenges I personally encounter. As a researcher, mother, immigrant, spouse in an intercultural relationship, and disabled person, I struggle to balance my responsibilities and self-care needs while engaging in transnational disability activism. This intersectional challenge is shared by disabled women activists worldwide, highlighting an issue common beyond China (Galer 2023; Heumann and Joiner 2020).

There are unique strengths in female-led DPOs, too. Intersectional life experiences can be sources of motivation and catalysts for community connection. As a DPO led by a disabled woman, DWB encourages and amplifies the work, voices, and achievements of its female members. As the leader, I understand the common invisibility of female voices in traditional organisations. DWB also receives substantial support from women volunteers and continually attracts female community members who actively engage in and contribute to community-building. These could all potentially serve as empowering mechanisms to foster the growth of other women leaders and inspire them to start their own community organising or leadership initiatives.

A New Generation of Community Leaders

In this essay and the personal narrative it includes, we have discussed the rise of community leaders among disabled women and the development of their organisations and networks in China. We have shown how many female-led DPOs have been established in recent years by well-educated and empowered disabled women. This surge is partly due to the accessibility of digital platforms such as WeChat, which enable national and international network-building. Those with overseas experience often advocate for inclusive practices and share their international knowledge and information with their communities. The higher education attainment, increased awareness of feminism, and social connectedness of disabled women also drive them to form communities, sharing ways to lead more fulfilling lives. The unique intersectional struggles faced by disabled women, distinct from those faced by men, not only motivate them to start their organisations and networks but also provide insights and opportunities to better connect with different community members.

The authors would like to thank the generous sharing from disabled women community leaders, including Peng Yujiao, Peng Lilian (Linqian), and Zhao Hongcheng. The research was partially supported by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Early Career Scheme, RGC Ref. No. CUHK 24612423).

Featured image: Detail of an event poster designed by a volunteer named Wei, a long-term ally for disability rights and a practitioner in the non-profit sector in China. Provided by the authors.

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