Brazil

Key Factors: Brazil is one of the largest countries in the region, and thus has a large population of people with disabilities. The country's legal framework provides multiple protections for the rights of people with disabilities including Law 7853, which criminalized discrimination based on disability.

Terminology

The Portuguese term "pessoas portadoras de defi ciência", has been translated in this report as "people with disabilities." This comes closer to the meaning of the Portuguese expression as it is used than the literal translation, "persons having an impairment." The term "transtornos mentais" (mental disorders)" has been literally translated from the offi cial documents, and refers to "psycho-social and/or psychiatric disabilities." Also, "doença mental" (mental disease) is used in offi cial documents in lieu of psychiatric disability.

Definition of Disability

Section 3 of Decree 3298/99, which contains the regulatory provisions of Law 7853/89, defines disability as follows: "any loss or abnormality of a psychological, physiological or anatomic function or structure resulting in a lack of ability to perform an activity within the range considered normal for the human being."¹

Disability Population

The most recent Brazilian census was conducted in 2000. It found that
14.5% of the Brazilian population, or about 24.5 million people, have some degree of activity/functional limitation.² This fi gure represents a signifi cant increase from the disability rate of 1.41% reported by the 1991 census. The approach used in the 1991 Census only identifi ed a small portion of the disability population. Because the rate was far different from international estimates, various studies were conducted to understand the reasons for the discrepancy.³ The low number of people with disabilities reported in that census was due to the methodology used

^1. Decree 3298, 20 December 1999, http://www.mj.gov.br/sedh/dpdh/corde/dec3298.htm.

^2. Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, http://www.ibge.gov.br/.

^3. Izabel Madeira de Loureiro Maior (General Coordinator of the National Coordination Offi ce for the Integration of People with Disabilities - CORDE).

^4. Ana Maria de Resende Chagas Renato Baumgratz Viotti, Retrato da pessoa com defi ciência no Brasil segundo o censo de 1991, [Portrait of People with Disabilities in Brazil, 1991 Census]Brasilia, August 2003, http://www.ipea.gov.br/pub/td/2003/td_0975.pdf.