Disability unplugged: What really matters to people with disabilities?

This special issue presents selected articles that were presented at the sixth African Network for Evidence-to-Action in Disability (AfriNEAD) virtual conference in December 2020. The conference space always affords a reflective space on how far we have come in our quest to drive translation of disability evidence to action. The conference was themed ‘Disability unplugged – Beyond conventions and charters, what really matters to persons with disabilities in Africa’. The theme promoted the presentation of research and community articles as well as a dialogue on issues impacting the day-to-day lives of persons with disabilities beyond the rhetoric of policies and conventions. The articles in this special issue strove to achieve this goal. The special issue attempted to be inclusive and representative of all the seven conference streams, which can be viewed at https://blogs.sun.ac.za/afrinead/files/ 2022/05/Updated-Programme-Booklet-2.pdf. A combination of keynote speakers and plenary speakers were approached to submit articles. Initially, a total of 16 articles were expected to be part of this issue; however, not all approached authors were able to submit their articles. All contributions followed a rigorous, blinded peer review process before consideration for publication. There were 11 articles reviewed in total for this special issue, and 10 of them were accepted for publication after going through the peer review process. The editorial team is therefore delighted to present this special issue comprising the 10 articles (inclusive of original research and opinion articles) that were selected for inclusion. These articles, combined, reflect diversity of research perspectives following the theme of the conference – what really matters to persons with disabilities in Africa?