Disability and Development is the buzzword for the development of disability access activities by large multinational institutions such as The World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and international Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) such as World Health Organization (WHO) or Handicap International.

The World Bank began pursuing Disability and Development policies under the tenure of World Bank President James Wolfensohn from 1995 to 2005 as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) recognized that eradicating poverty meant focusing on the issues of disabled people as poverty and disability were found to be strongly correlated, therefore in order to reduce poverty policies were needed to enable access for the disabled population in respect to transportation, housing, employment, education and other human development needs.

This work in the Disability and Development field is still very much in its infancy and focuses on structural development such as making sure disability access is included during the building of large projects such as train stations, schools, government buildings and medical institutions. Even then, much work remains to be done.