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Icono Discapacidad

Disability

(Disability)

Ilustración de pluralidad de personas con distintas discapacidades.

This is a dynamic and living concept that changes based on the evolution of the social movement of people with disabilities and as a result of regulatory and social victories.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities defines this as the ‘interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinders their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others’ (United Nations, 2006, Preamble).

Therefore, the concept of disability expresses the negative aspects that result from the interaction between an individual with given health conditions and contextual factors (environmental and personal). This term encompasses every component: impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions (Fernández Iglesias, 2006, p. 58).

Recently, and as a result of the development of a human rights model, the understanding of disability has shifted away from impairment and limitation, turning instead to the recognition of human diversity. Disability is still a situation that hinders participation and the exercise of rights, but pertaining to people with physical, sensory, cognitive, and psychosocial conditions that differ to the majority of the population.

Disability emerges in contexts that exclude people with disabilities and that do not ensure universal accessibility or the reasonable accommodations they require. For this reason, disability should not be equated to illness, which means it is incorrect to say that a person is afflicted with or suffers from a disability, or that they are disabled (Cardona, 2019).

 

References:

Fernández Iglesias, J. (2006). Guía de estilo sobre discapacidad para profesionales de los medios de comunicación. Madrid: Real Patronato sobre Discapacidad.

Cardona, K. (2019). Estudio sobre el tratamiento informativo de la discapacidad en los medios de comunicación. RENADISGUA, PADF, USAID.

United Nations. (2006). Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. United Nations.

Servicio de información sobre Discapacidad. (September 2019). Terminología empleada en el SID. 

Photo credit: cosmaa

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