DISABILITY: Difficulty that some people have to hear, see, speak, learn or move as the others, which may be present from birth or acquired as a result of a disease or an accident. (National Institute of Statistics. 11th National Population Census and 6th National Housing Census. Guatemala, 2002.)

In the case of the Guatemalan Social Security Institute (IGSS), two of its programs use different definitions of disability. The IGSS Disability, Old Age, and Survival Program (IVS) defines disability solely in terms of impairment and uses monetary units to conceptualize disability. Human beings are appraised in terms of the value of various body segments. Based on this appraisal, a calculation of "lost" body segments is made in order to determine a pension benefit.¹

In contrast, the IGSS Rehabilitation Unit assesses disability from a functional standpoint. Although belonging to the same institution, the Rehabilitation Unit supports comprehensive rehabilitation of people with disabilities. Consequently, the Rehabilitation Unit uses different criteria to assess disability than the IVS program.²

Overall, a medical model of disability focused on rehabilitation continues to prevail in Guatemala. As a result, laws, policies, and programs are still designed for the purpose of meeting the needs of people with disabilities in a segregated and special manner.

Disability Population

Little effort has been made to reliably identify people with disabilities in Guatemala. Although the disability community has been included one way or the other in the last three national censuses, the information collected has been varied and highly inconsistent.

The 1994 National Population Census identified a total of 8,331,874 people, 59,841, or 0.72%, of whom had some kind of disability.³ The latest national census, conducted in November 2002, indicates a total population of 11,237,126 with 53.9% living in rural areas.⁴ It included one question in the "household" section aimed at determining whether at least one person with a disability lived in a household. The census surveyed a total of 2,200,608 households, 135,482 of which—6.2% of the total—reported at least one person with a disability. Of households reporting a person with a disability, 53.8% were located in rural areas. The disabilities identified in the various households are sorted on a reported-case basis as follows: visual, hearing, lower limb, upper limb, mental, and others.

^1. Juan Carlos Lorenti (Deputy Director of the IGSS Rehabilitation Unit and IGSS alternate member to CONADI's Council of Delegates), interviewed by author, Guatemala, 4 September 2003.

^2. Ibid.

^3. National Institute of Statistics, Censo Nacional de Población, [National Institute of Statistics. National Population Census], Guatemala, 1994.

^4. National Institute of Statistics, Censo Nacional XI de Población y VI de Habitación. [National Institute of Statistics. 11th National Population Census and 6th National Housing Census], Guatemala, 2002.