El Salvador¹

Key Factors: During the 1980's, El Salvador endured a bloody civil war, which ended in 1992 after claiming the lives of an estimated 80,000 people. Post-conflict El Salvador faces social crises including continued violence and high unemployment. Although some legal protections for people with disabilities exist in El Salvador, weak implementation and poor enforcement of the law, along with the general social instability and widespread poverty are significant barriers to the full inclusion of people with disabilities in the Salvadoran society.

Definition of Disability

The definition of disability contained in the Equal Opportunities Law establishes that disability is "any temporary or permanent restriction of a psychological, physiological or anatomical function resulting from an organic impairment."² Because the definition focuses on impairment rather than the social context of disability, the law focuses on a welfare and medical perspective rather than on non-discrimination and civil rights.

Disability Population

Currently, there are no available statistics on the disability population in El Salvador that are considered reliable.

From April to November 2003, the General Bureau of Census and Statistics and the National Council for the Comprehensive Care of Persons with Disabilities (CONAIPD), a regulatory entity that deals with disability-related issues, fielded the Multiple Purpose Household Survey that aimed in part at identifying the disability population of El Salvador. The results of the survey were not yet available as of February 2004.

^1. The IDRM researchers for El Salvador's field trial stage were Eileen Giron Batres, Director of the Association of the Independent Group for Total Rehabilitation (ACOGIPRI) and Julio Canizales of the National Association of the Blind.

^2. Legislative Decree 888, Official Gazette 347, no. 95, 24 May 2000.