Data was analysed using MAXQDA. Semantic categories were deductively derived from international tools that promote the inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action and from the interview guide. These categories include ‘data collection’, ‘participation’ and ‘empowerment’. In this way, the analysis could detect practices that organizations undertake to mainstream disability. One category centred on ‘collaboration and cooperation’ between different actors in Cox’s Bazar and included several subcategories on partnerships between mainstream and disability-focused organizations, consortia and working groups.
Several interview partners highlighted challenges in their daily work and their impact on mainstreaming activities. This category of ‘challenges’ included several subcategories, such as ‘high staff turnover’, ‘work in silos’ and ‘short funding cycles’. Another category focused on the barriers that persons with disabilities experience, divided into ‘attitudinal’, ‘environmental’ and ‘institutional’ barriers. Many respondents commented on these barriers, and as mentioned previously, demonstrated a high level of awareness of the multiple forms of discrimination that persons with disabilities face in the camps and host communities. The main challenge, however, still concerns how to remove these barriers.