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Key Factors: The legal framework protecting disability rights in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is fairly broad, and the current government appears willing to commit itself to meeting the needs of this sector of the population. However, entrenched barriers such as architectural and communication inaccessibility make elimination of inequalities in daily life more remote.
In general, most legal documents in Venzuela refer to people with
disabilities as "personas incapacitadas." There are still some discrepancies,
however. One example is that the Labor Act, Chapter II, Section 26, uses the term
"minusválidos," translated as "handicapped." In this report the original terminology
of legal documents has been utilized.
There is no single definition of disability in Venezuela. Different agencies and laws each use their own definition. However, the definitions generally focus primarily on individual impairments.
The most prominent legal definition can be found in the Integration of People with Disabilities Act. This act defines people with disabilities as "all those people whose social integration possibilities are reduced due to physical, intellectual or sensory impairment, in its various levels and degrees, that limit their ability to perform any activity."1
The draft bill on Comprehensive Care for People with Disabilities uses a somewhat similar definition that identifies persons with disabilities as people who "due to various reasons, whether genetic, congenital or acquired as a result of paranatal, occupational, traffic, home-related or other type of accidents or due to medication intake, exposure to environmental polluting substances, show a reduction - with various statistical values- or prolonged or permanent lack of
1. Integration of People with Disabilities Act, Republic of Venezuela Official Gazette 4623 Special Edition, Year CXX Month XII, sec. 2, 3, September 1993.