Implementing Belize's New Disability Legislation: Advancing Inclusion and Accessibility

Belize’s landmark Disability Act, enacted in December 2024, established the country’s first comprehensive legal framework protecting the rights of persons with disabilities. Yet implementation remains delayed: the National Commission tasked with operationalizing the legislation has not yet been established, leaving critical gaps between the legal mandate and the government’s capacity to serve Belizeans with disabilities.

During the spring 2026 semester, the Columbia SIPA team partnered with the Government of Belize to translate this legislation into tangible action, given the aforementioned limitations. Specifically, the team partnered with the Ministries of Education, Health, and Labour. In March 2026, the team conducted a week of in-person interviews in Belize with five ministries, UNICEF, and disability-focused NGOs. The team also conducted field visits to multiple schools and healthcare facilities. While in Belize, the team also met with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Education and Foreign Affairs to provide an overview of the project’s scope.

This report’s central contribution to international affairs was a replicable governance model that placed persons with disabilities at the forefront of state systems, even for nations with limited resources. The team’s flagship recommendation leveraged the Ministry of E-Governance’s emerging national ID platform to build an integrated data system that tracks individuals from initial disability screening through educational accommodations, training, and workforce transitions, automatically notifying relevant ministries and stakeholders at each stage. Complemented by inter-ministerial recommendations, sample materials, and implementation roadmaps grounded in regional benchmarking, the framework offers other nations a blueprint for embedding disability inclusion into the architecture of governance itself.