Ecuador

Key Factors: Ecuador has a strong legal framework, recognized when the nation received in 2002 the Sixth Franklin Delano Roosevelt International Disability Award.¹ However, the country is in the midst of a servere economic crisis. Budgetary allocations prioritize the payment of the foreign debt, often at the expense of social expenditure. Few protections are implemented, and people with disabilities remain a severely vulnerable population.

Terminology

The 6th Population and 5th Housing Census, conducted by the National Statistics and Census Institute (INEC) in 2001, used the word "incapacidad," which is translated to "incapacitated" or "incapacity." Section 102 of the Civil Code, in describing certain restrictions, uses the term "los dementes, los ciegos, los sordos y los mudos" which, when directly translated, means "the insane, the blind, the deaf and the mute." When quoting directly from these documents, the orginal terminology is retained.²

Definition of Disability

Chapter II of Executive Decree 3603, which provided regulations for and amended the Disability Act, contains the following definition:

For the purposes of the law and the regulations thereto, a "person with disabilities" is any individual who, as a result of one or more congenital or acquired physical, mental or sensory impairments, which can be expected to be permanent, is restricted in at least 30 percent of his or her ability to perform an activity within the range considered normal, limiting or preventing him or her from performing daily life functions or activities.³

The definition is based upon the World Health Organization's ICIDH-1 classification.⁴

^1. National Organization on Disability, http://www.worldcommitteeondisability.org.

^2. Comissión Andina de Juristas, Personas con Discapacidad [People with Disability], http://www. cajpe.org.pe/RIJ/BASES/pcd/CUADRCIV.htm.

^3. Executive Decree 3603, General de la Ley Reformatoria de la Ley de Discapacidades [General Regulations of the Law amending the Disability Act].

^4. World Health Organization Classification (WHO), ICIDH Geneva 1980.