The Ministry of Health defines a person as having a disability when they cannot "meet the demands of the environment as compared with a non-disabled individual of the same age, gender, training, social status, family status, and geographical location as the individual to be assessed."3 The Ministry's definition of both impairments and disabilities is in accordance with those of the World Health Organization. Impairments include "intellectual/mental impairments," "sensory impairments," and "physical impairments." Disabilities are categorized as learning, labor, or social integration disabilities.
The definition found in section 3 of Law 19284 identifies a person with
disabilities as "any individual who is restricted in at least one third of his or her
ability to perform educational, labor or social integration activities, as a result of
one or more congenital or acquired physical, mental or sensory impairments, and
which can be expected to be permanent, regardless of their cause."4 According to
Decree Law 869 on Social Security Pensions, persons may be classified as low-income individuals with disabilities when they are over the age of 18 and under the
age of 65, meet the disability criteria established by Law 19284, and do not have
an income of their own or have an income lower than the minimum monthly wage
as established by law.5
Disability statistics in Chile are not reliable.6 According to the last census
conducted in 2002, Chile has a total population of 15,401,000 people of whom
334,377 (2.2%) are persons with disabilities.7 Other national surveys of people
with disabilities have obtained very different figures.
3. Mauricio Zepeda Sanchez (Deputy Director for Studies and Planning) and Eladio Recabarren Hernández (FONADIS Deputy Director's Office), email response, 9 September 2003.
4. Law 19284, www.fonadis.cl; Proposed amendments to Law 19284 on the Definition of person with disabilities states that: Leonor Cifuentes (Head of the FONADIS Legal Department), interviewed by author, Santiago, 12 August 2003. "...any individual who, as a result of one or more physical, mental or sensory impairments, has objective difficulties for his or her social integration, personal development or autonomy."
5. Decree Law 869, (1975), http://www.bcn.cl/publicadores/pub_leyes_mas_soli/admin/listado_ leyes_mas_soli.php.
6. Georgina Trincado (Documentation Center of the National Statistics Institute), interviewed by author, Chile, 7 October 2003.
7. Ibid.