The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) has now entered into international law. It requires that all governments take cognisance and action to ensure that the human rights of people with disabilities are realised. This will be particularly challenging in some of the poorest countries; a fact recognised by the Convention's requirement that all international aid-giving countries address disability as part of their programmes. This Special Issue of Disability and Rehabilitation arises from the first conference of a new network – the African Network for Evidence to Action on Disability (AfriNEAD) – which was established to address, on a regional basis, the ‘know-do' gap, in the field of disability. Papers in this special issue address a broad range of themes including the measurement of disability; the involvement of persons with disability in the design, conduct and analysis of research on disability; the role of Community Based Facilitators; the impact of HIV/AIDS on people with disabilities, and the challenges of mainstream schooling for children with disabilities. Promoting the human rights of persons with disabilities places an obligation on us all to ensure that the value of research goes beyond publication, to influence policy and practice. One important way of promoting efforts to collectively achieve this is through networks of disabled people's organisations, practitioners, policy makers and researchers working together.