The Invisible Wealth of Nations

14.7% of the population of LAC-Latin America and the Caribbean – 85 million people, equivalent to the entire population of Colombia and Peru combined – has some form of disability.

Beyond this global statistic, it is interesting to note that households where people with disabilities live are poorer: in 1 out of every 5 extremely poor households lives a person with a disability; 15% of children with disabilities do not go to school; 1 out of every 2 heads of household with disabilities does not participate in the labor market; illiteracy is 5 times higher among people with disabilities.

The situation of simultaneous poverty and disability also particularly affects women: 6 out of 10 female heads of household with a disabled member are unemployed.[1]

In the case of LAC, this panorama presents a triple dimension of transition, reflected in innovations that are still in progress, based on the profound conceptual, programmatic, and technological changes that are taking place in the disability universe, namely:

• From the bureaucratic to the communitarian. On the one hand, the innovation of social practices includes attending to the realities of community care, which involves a wide range of supports that seek to protect subjects, families, and the social contexts in which they develop. This social innovation, which has emerged with strength in the most vulnerable reinforce the sense of solidarity and fraternity raised by Pope Francis, especially when he mentions the emergence of popular movements throughout the region.
• From calligraphic revolution to practical support. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has been ratified by many countries in the region, but it needs to be translated into concrete funding actions and cross-cutting deployment across all public policies. Simultaneously, a new new welfare state must address a profound challenge of innovation, ranging from the proper measurement and statistical recording of disability in its multiple dimensions, also including a set of devices that account for the principle of subsidiarity, overcoming a mere monetary or institutionalist approach to disability and promoting inclusive and effective social policies.
• From multidimensional barriers to physical and digital autonomy. At the same time, innovation cannot fail to consider also the technological and scientific level, as it addresses research, medical and therapeutic developments, and a wide range of issues that have to do with accessibility, vulnerability to social networks, social inclusion, promotion, and support of the most disadvantaged sectors.

In times of the digital revolution and considering the experiences developed when Covid-19, it is important to consider not only the risks but also the opportunities offered by new technologies in this field.

In short, whether from the State, from the care economy communities, or from the deployment of new scientific and technological advances, it is a matter of becoming “social poets of the care economy”, placing special emphasis on overcoming the cruelest or subtlest expressions of the “discard theory” of the most vulnerable. The exclusion of people with disabilities can represent a drop of between 3% and 7% of the GDP, which even from an economic perspective and inclusive social productivity means a waste of potential for a concept of integral human development.[2]

1. First innovation

A long and unfinished road to change the way of looking and recording.

In the image of the Good Samaritan, the Gospels tell us. “He saw him and was moved”. While the doctors of the law passed by, the recording of the pain of the neighbor and its practical consequence were a continuum of mercy that is also important to highlight in these times in the problematic that concerns us.

Throughout social history, the attention to disability has gone through different degrees of conceptual treatment, in a path that has not yet ended despite the normative and practical advances that can be verified in the world and in LAC.

The stations along this path included a traditional model that expressed itself in the extreme of eugenic and shameful discarding and the justification of infanticide – as in ancient Greece; isolation and confinement to hide stigmatization; charitable and beneficent actions that sought to make up for the absence of effective state policies; the emergence of institutional rehabilitation impulses as a consequence of war conflicts and violence; invisibilities and indifference; and more or less eloquent segregation and discrimination.

All this evolution led to a social model, initially in Europe and the United States, generated from movements of organizations of people with disabilities claiming a human rights approach and community-based recovery: “In this sense, it shifts the locus of disability from the individual to a relational phenomenon between the individual and his or her environment. Conceptual changes regarding disability have occurred in parallel with normative advances to protect and promote the rights of children with disabilities”.[3]

Currently, we could say that we have moved from the biomedical and exclusively social model to the biopsychosocial model, which integrates the above through the terms of functioning, disability, and health. Article 12 of the Convention evolves from a tutelary model to a support model, which enables the autonomy and full exercise of the rights of persons with disabilities.

The Convention seeks to “promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms”, and defines persons with disabilities as those who have “long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others”. This definition recognizes that disability is a social construct, the result of the interaction between people with impairments and environmental barriers.[4]

“Disability is not in the person but arises from the interaction of people with environmental barriers (physical space) and attitudinal barriers (society’s treatment of them). Once the barriers are eliminated, diversity emerges.[5] Who are considered persons with disabilities? Some people with long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments that affect their full and effective participation in society. The functional alteration may be permanent or prolonged, requiring support for their family, social, educational, or labor integration”.[6]

The conceptual definition is not merely a semantic or grammatical issue but has an impact on the public policies to be implemented. It has consequences on the way in which programs are designed, actions are deployed in the territory and support devices are effective.

Several obstacles still need to be overcome in these conceptualizations:

• Disability cannot be defined as the inability to work, as this vision nullifies processes of social inclusion and integration and causes undesired consequences even in support programs.
• The support and human rights approach is the most appropriate to address this reality, considering the different types of barriers that prevent full and effective social participation on an equal footing with others.[7]

The above leads us to the next point, which is crucial for the deployment of humanized public policies. Without accurate statistics and adequate records that account for this reality, the effectiveness of public policies diminishes and social awareness itself fails to overcome discriminatory or biased views.

Most of the measurement instruments are intended to be applied in censuses and surveys, such as the Model Disability Survey (MDS) and the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Questionnaire (WHODAS 2.0). The Washington Group at the United Nations Statistical Commission developed a short set[8] and a long set, emphasizing comparability and universality of responses across countries.

It is not only the way of looking at the problem that counts, but also the way of asking and recording the problem. Both dimensions are part of the challenge of welcoming and embracing with an expanded way of fraternity and solidarity. The reality of community support also requires special attention when documenting initiatives.

• First, it is interesting to note that instead of using the term “disability”, a more neutral language is used in the census and surveys, focused on the “difficulties” and “limitation” to perform basic tasks. In Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay, New Zealand, Italy, Portugal and Israel, among others).
• It is also key to deepen initiatives that must do mainly with the measurement of the care economy phenomenon: measuring its contribution to the gross domestic product with satellite accounts (as Colombia is doing) and within this more general context, not losing sight of the contribution of women in activities related to the care of persons with disabilities, which involve unavoidable challenges of recognition.[9]
• Complying with international standards on how to adequately measure the phenomenon in the educational world and in national censuses is another major challenge. In the case of minors, UNICEF developed specific modules, which have an additional difficulty of implementation because in many cases they are answered by parents or guardians. UNESCO reviewed the methodological framework of the System of Indicators for the Registration of Information on Students with Disabilities (SIRIED).[10]
• There is another statistical gap with respect to the usual precariousness of children with disabilities who are institutionalized, which is not recorded by household surveys and therefore ignores the vulnerability in which they live, with small spaces, lack of personalized attention, poorly paid staff and the absence of a family support group for more comprehensive support.[11]
• Overcoming the invisible statistics, especially for people with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities, is another enormous challenge.[12] The lack of an adequate diagnosis, the social stigma it causes and the concealment of these situations by the families themselves are major obstacles to progress.[13]
• In terms of evaluating the impact of programs, the situations described above generate a very worrying fog of scientific evidence. “There are very few studies that analyze the impacts of social protection schemes for people with disabilities, particularly because the existing information does not allow distinguishing the population with and without disabilities”.[14]
• This leads to the obvious difficulty of adjusting support to the specific requirements of the universe to be served. “It is not always possible to verify whether reasonable adjustments have been made to ensure the access of persons with disabilities to social protection systems and, secondly, it is not equivalent to provide a pension to a person living in poverty than to provide it to a person with disabilities”.[15]
• Unfortunately, this series of shortcomings are not only the heritage of LAC countries. In developed countries there is also an alarming lack of statistics on the condition of people living in processes far removed from classic treatment institutions.[16]
• Finally, it is of primary importance to listen to the voice of community organizations and the beneficiaries of the programs, to promote a “bottom-up” approach that overcomes paternalistic bureaucracies, actions that do not meet real needs and “technocratic” positions. Data from household surveys should be combined with data from administrative records, in order to have an on-line record of needs, and also to be able to take advantage of the benefits of big data in expanding the comprehensiveness of interventions.

“Lord, let him see”, is not only the appeal of the blind man in the Gospel, but a request that is needed today to make the phenomenon visible and to take due note from all sectors.

Second innovation

Associative creativity to welcome with universality from the peripheries

All the above leads us to a purpose of social innovation that must be expressed at the level of both the State and community practices. It is important to move towards an approach of universalism sensitive to differences, according to ECLAC, which builds “tangible consequences” from adherence to the Convention.[17]

Thinking from the peripheries and building responses “from below” (paraphrasing the Pope’s request in Laudate Deum to renew multilateralism), means abandoning unilateral approaches. Neither the State alone can solve all problems, nor can mercantilism or the organized community provide answers if they are left to the law of the jungle of “every man for himself”.

We need associative formulas built from the existential peripheries, which consider their cries of pain and prioritize a new multidimensional tenderness.

The new new welfare state that embraces and enshrines the effective rights of people with disabilities implies a construction that involves political sensitivity, fiscal prioritization in budgets, and continuity in progress. It does not exhaust the set of interventions, but it is an indispensable social network in LAC.

If we take the case of Argentina,[18] people who accredit their disability through an evaluation board and access the Single Disability Certificate, are entitled to, among other benefits, to: 100% coverage in basic health benefits (medicines, equipment, treatments); non-contributory pension; family allowance for a disabled child for formal workers and in vulnerable situations; maternity allowance for the birth of a child with Down Syndrome; the right to study in regular schools and to receive the necessary support to learn and participate; 4% quota of state employment for people with disabilities and tax benefits for the private sector to hire people with disabilities; Free Pass in transportation and tax exemption.[19]

This theoretical and regulatory framework contrasts with the reality of the lack of labor inclusion. In Argentina, more than 87% of people over 14 years of age with a Single Certificate of Disability (CUD) do not have a job. Within this universe, according to the latest statistical yearbook of the National Registry of People with Disabilities, there are more than 3,744 people with CUD who are looking for work and cannot find it. Only 3 out of 10 companies currently include people with some type of disability in their work areas, and more than 60% of these organizations lack programs and policies that promote the incorporation of people with disabilities.[20]

All the above leads us to the dimension that has to do with the social reality of popular neighborhoods, where expressions of solidarity coexist with worrying situations of vulnerability. Wherever the real social protection networks of the visible hand of the state do not reach, community networks of support and shelter emerge.[21]

In the families of working-class neighborhoods in Argentina, 42% of the hours that families devote to producing care are unpaid. Working-class neighborhoods have almost twice as many families with care responsibilities as neighborhoods with adequate infrastructure (46.2% vs. 23.9%); families residing in poor neighborhoods spend 10 hours more per week on unpaid work than those families residing in neighborhoods with adequate infrastructure; women in poor neighborhoods with caregiving responsibilities spend 11 hours more on unpaid work than women in households without caregiving responsibilities, and more than twice as many hours as men spend on these tasks.

The bonus of solidarity and community fabric is also expressed in a significant fact: only 8% of families with young children are headed by mothers raising children without the support of other cohabitating adults.

The symphonies of care are varied. The tasks fall mainly on women; they affect more intensely the poorest segments of the population; they tend to distinguish strongly between the stage of childhood (which usually falls on the family group, with clear gender tendencies) and the stage of old age (whose care tends to be commercialized, thus impacting more directly on the family economy).[22]

This national reality, given as an example, extends to other cases in the rest of the LAC countries. Women, the rural population, indigenous peoples, and Afro-descendants suffer more serious consequences in the face of disability. “In countries as different as Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico and Uruguay, people with disabilities are on average 24% less likely to complete primary education, but 30% less likely if they also belong to an ethnoracial minority. The imbalances are also multiplied by gender-based inequalities. In most countries in the region, the probability of being vulnerable increases if the household is headed by a female head. When there is a functionally dependent person in a household, the study shows that it is mostly women who are responsible for unpaid care work. The value of unpaid care work ranges between 16% and 25% of GDP”.[23]

This panorama leads us to a set of innovations that need to be addressed in the region from a cooperative dimension between the state and the organized community.

• It is essential that the pensions granted are compatible with the work activity of the beneficiaries, with a more flexible approach to cover the additional expenses derived from the disability, building inclusive and non-exclusive systems that avoid incentives to unregistered work.[24] The informality rate of people with disabilities is 11 points higher.[25]
• Promote training for self-employment, adequately monitor compliance with labor quotas, generate incentives and subsidies for private companies to remove prejudices and barriers to access and promotion of people with disabilities, are other strategic elements.
• Disability certificates should be easy to obtain, and informative obstacles should be removed, so that the target population can have access to them.
• Cash transfers should be part of more comprehensive assistance.[26]
• The need to consider the framework of decent work and rights of caregivers and cared-for persons is also central as part of the pending agenda.[27]
• Psychosocial disability is the new old name for vulnerability, with serious mortgages for the future. The experience of Hogares de Cristo in Argentina addresses this problem. “The consumption of illicit drugs and alcohol is mainly causing schizophrenia, bipolarity and depression in the adolescent population, illnesses that consequently lead to psychosocial disability. The situation is serious. Already the World Health Organization (WHO) foresees that this will be the third cause of disability in the world caused, among other factors, by the stress and systematic violence experienced in the world”.[28]
• The promotion of creative modes of community participation and care that promote personalization and family containment is of high impact. In Uruguay,[29] for example, the Community Care Homes are an early childhood care service provided by an authorized caregiver, who works in his/her home or in an authorized community physical space.
• A significant study conducted in 27 European Union member states showed an alarming lack of statistics on people with disabilities living in a deinstitutionalized way. Only the case of Sweden stands out as the country where community involvement in care is achieved, highlighting the importance of family supports and small-scale habitats, rather than larger and less personalized settings for support and social inclusion tasks.[30]
• Regarding access to justice, it is also important to emphasize those cases in which the person with a disability is a victim of the crime of human trafficking, which, despite aggravating the penalty, is not necessarily approached from the specific perspective of “disability”, but simply of “vulnerability”, thus making it difficult to implement appropriate restorative measures.[31]
• Not the least of these is the cluster of actions of a cultural nature that must be promoted in order to remove the stereotypes and prejudices disseminated by the media about this universe.[32]

3. Third innovation

An exponential leap in equity to take advantage of digital and scientific advances

In conclusion, the issue of accessibility to state-of-the-art technologies, which can improve the quality of life and social inclusion of people with disabilities, cannot be overlooked.

The World Health Organization’s Global Report on Assistive Technologies identifies critical points to consider, among others: establishment of adequate standards in the manufacturing processes of the products; innovation eco-systems to promote start-ups that can generate exponential advances; reduction of costs and inclusion of the technologies as part of universal health benefits; promotion of industrial policies that favor their production; training of health personnel and families for their use; and the development and implementation of new technologies in the health sector.[33]

In this context, the following opportunities should be considered:

• Telework implies the possibility of overcoming physical accessibility barriers, as long as the right to connectivity and equipment is guaranteed to people with disabilities.
• Equipment that improves hearing, vision and mobility capacity represents an advance in terms of autonomy and independence, which also requires equal access.
• A regulatory effort and the establishment of standards with the manufacturers of new technologies is required, so that they contemplate the inclusiveness of people with disabilities both at the level of equipment and programming (readability, readability, intuitive comprehension, etc.).
• According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, assistive technologies will tend to reach 2 billion people by 2030, including robotization, smart power applications, brain-computer interfaces, smart glasses, home assistance robots, neuro-prosthetics, 3D manufacturing, exoskeleton suits, etc.
• The issue of artificial intelligence and its regulation is also of prime importance. In the provisions of the European Union, for example, people with disabilities, minors and the elderly are at risk and in need of special regulatory attention.
• The issues of physical barriers associated with a new urban conception are also essential to continue to deepen with technological advances.
• All these initiatives seek not only to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities, but also to promote their inclusion in society and the labor market.

By way of conclusion

Overcoming the double social madness with a mystique of proximity

I would like to quote the phrases of two lay people – today in the process of beatification – who enlighten contemporary life with examples of contemplation and action from various spheres of public service in the broad sense.

Giorgio La Pira, the mayor of Florence in the post-World War II period, once said that “unemployment is a form of social madness”. Adapting his phrase to the reality we are discussing, in the case of people with disabilities the main challenge is to overcome this “double form of social madness”, promoting their inclusion, autonomy and equal opportunities and possibilities. It is not a matter of thinking of isolated initiatives, but of endowing them with an associative and cooperative dimension that mobilizes soul, head, and heart, as Pope Francis asks us to do.

Madeleine Delbrel, the French social activist, poet, musician, example of dedication to the humblest from the simplicity of everyday life, spoke to us around the same time of La Pira of a “mystique of proximity”. It is not a technocratic paradigm or an endless theoretical discussion that we need, but above all a “revolution of tenderness” that frees our deepest attention from the daily kidnapping by the noise of social networks and the culture of polarization.

There is a need for embraces that “prevail in the culture of encounter”, because “no one is saved alone”.

There is an invisible wealth of nations that we must value in terms of fraternity and the ethical capital of our societies. As in so many other fields of geopolitics, here too, in our more concrete daily lives, we must avoid the globalization of indifference.

[1] “The Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Path to Sustainable Development”. https://www.bancomundial.org/es/news/press-release/2021/12/02/la-inclusion-de-las-personas-con-discapacidad-clave-para-el-desarrollo-sostenible-de-america-latina-y-el-caribe World Bank, 2021.

[2] Idem.

[3] Ullman, Heidi et al. “Non-Contributory Cash Transfers: An Instrument to Promote the Rights and Well-Being of the Child Population with Disabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean”. ECLAC, 2020 https://repositorio.cepal.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/6fe832a0-3371-4834-b5d7-f8e9f5121bce/content

[4] The principles that govern it are: (i) respect for inherent dignity, individual autonomy and independence, including the freedom to make one’s own decisions; (ii) non-discrimination; (iii) full and effective participation and inclusion in society; (iv) respect for difference and acceptance of persons with disabilities as part of the human diversity and condition; (v) equality of opportunity; (vi) accessibility; (vii) equality between men and women; (viii) respect for the evolving capacities of children with disabilities and their right to preserve their identity. Carcar, Fabiola. Personas con discapacidad: de la prescindencia a sujetos plenos de derecho. Revista Derecho Laboral. Buenos Aires, 2015

[5] Argentina, National Agency on Disability https://www.argentina.gob.ar/salud/mental-y-adicciones/salud-mental-y-discapacidad

[6] Idem.

[7] Bietti, María Fernanda. “Personas con discapacidad e inclusión laboral en América Latina y el Caribe Principales desafíos de los sistemas de protección social”. https://repositorio.cepal.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/1535653e-6f21-456e-bb5a-dc446ff5c8ad/content ECLAC 2023.

[8] It includes questions on six basic domains of functioning: seeing, hearing, walking, remembering, or concentrating, self-care and communication.

[9] “The System of National Accounts includes within the valuation of the Gross Domestic Product the production of care services, which has a value since it is carried out through market relations. However, the production of care services that does not take place within market relations, that is, unpaid activities that are offered by the household or the community, is left out of the GDP”. Care Economy: literature review, stylized facts and care policies. https://colaboracion.dnp.gov.co/CDT/Desarrollo%20Social/4.%20Documento%20Preliminar%20Econom%C3%ADa%20del%20Cuidado.pdf Care Economy Satellite Account (CSEC) Production and Income Generation Account of Domestic and Unpaid Care Work (TDCNR) Colombia, 2021.

[10] “It asks directly about disability and medical diagnoses instead of asking about difficulties in performing certain activities of daily living that may limit full and effective participation. – Only the most severe impairments are asked about, without considering the full spectrum of disability and functionality. – Wide differences are observed in the domains that each country considers without harmonization between countries”. Musante, Bianca. “Measuring disability through administrative records of education in Latin America Diagnosis and recommendations to move towards regional harmonization”. https://repositorio.cepal.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/b0d4d4a2-e70e-4b8c-9f4e-79c9201dbd54/content ECLAC, 2023.

[11] Despite this data limitation, it is estimated that 50,000 children and adolescents with disabilities live in residential institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean, most of whom are between the ages of 6 and 18. “The Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Path to Sustainable Development”. https://www.bancomundial.org/es/news/press-release/2021/12/02/la-inclusion-de-las-personas-con-discapacidad-clave-para-el-desarrollo-sostenible-de-america-latina-y-el-caribe World Bank, 2021.

[12] A focus on invisible work may show that it is, for disabled individuals, necessary not only for daily living, but as an underpinning of and safety net below the formally recognized work. We can define invisible work in this context as all of the unpaid and/or unrecognized tasks that disabled people are obliged to carry out in order to participate in different areas of society whenever accessibility is absent or insufficient. Crucially, the invisible work carried out by disabled people contributes to them being able to function as students, employees, customers, recipients of health care – and to fulfilling the role expectations associated with being a romantic partner or spouse, a parent, a caregiver, and so on. It serves to bolster the low rate of employment from even lower levels, and so – much like the gendered invisible work previously identified – serves as an informal underpinning to the formal economy. Jan Grue (2023) The CRPD and the economic model of disability: undue burdens and invisible work, Disability & Society, DOI: 10.1080/09687599.2023.2255734

[13] “The Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Path to Sustainable Development”. https://www.bancomundial.org/es/news/press-release/2021/12/02/la-inclusion-de-las-personas-con-discapacidad-clave-para-el-desarrollo-sostenible-de-america-latina-y-el-caribe World Bank, 2021.

[14] Ullman, Heidi et al. “Las transferencias monetarias no contributivas. Un instrumento para promover los derechos y el bienestar de la población infantil con discapacidad en América Latina y el Caribe”. ECLAC, 2020 https://repositorio.cepal.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/6fe832a0-3371-4834-b5d7-f8e9f5121bce/content

[15] Idem.

[16] “There is a serious lack of data (either official statistics or research) in EU countries on people’s participation in deinstitutionalization processes, their degree of acceptance by the community, the degree of choice about their living situation or their options for leaving the institution in which they reside, the quality of the support they receive, or their perception of the treatment received in terms of dignity and respect, among other issues”. Transition from Institutional Care to Community-Based Services in 27 EU Member States: Final report. Research report for the European Expert Group on Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care, European Commission, 2020.

[17] “Although the Convention has been widely ratified by the countries of the region, this change in perspective has not yet been translated into public policies for the social protection of persons with disabilities”. Bietti, María Fernanda. “Personas con discapacidad e inclusión laboral en América Latina y el Caribe Principales desafíos de los sistemas de protección social”. https://repositorio.cepal.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/1535653e-6f21-456e-bb5a-dc446ff5c8ad/content. ECLAC 2023

[18] Argentina passed Law 26.378 (2008) approving and adhering to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Law 27.044 grants constitutional hierarchy to the Convention.

[19] The regulations also include systems of reasonable supports and adjustments for autonomous living, which facilitate communication, understanding and the expression of the person’s will for the exercise of his or her rights. They cover a wide range of interventions: personal or animal assistance and intermediaries, mobility support, support products and/or technical aids.

[20] https://www.defensorba.org.ar/contenido/discapacidad-y-empleo-el-desafio-de-la-integracion Office of the Ombudsman of the Province of Buenos Aires. 2021.

[21] Mobilization, containment, fraternal embrace and expressions of community accompaniment played a decisive role in avoiding an escalation of Covid-19, as well as being able to cushion social impacts as a result of the confinement policies. The popular movements organized in cooperatives, productive enterprises, community kitchens, complementary mechanisms of education and novel associative forms of popular economy, played a decisive role in avoiding the escalation of Covid-19, as well as in cushioning the social impacts of the confinement policies.

[22] Observatorio del Conurbano Bonaerense. Universidad de General Sarmiento. http://observatorioconurbano.ungs.edu.ar/Newsletter/2023Mayo/index2.html 2023

[23] “The Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Path to Sustainable Development”. https://www.bancomundial.org/es/news/press-release/2021/12/02/la-inclusion-de-las-personas-con-discapacidad-clave-para-el-desarrollo-sostenible-de-america-latina-y-el-caribe World Bank, 2021.

[24] “This is due to the fact that the eligibility criteria for social protection programs and, specifically, non-contributory monetary benefits are subject to poverty and to the determination of an inability to work. This widespread situation in Latin America and the Caribbean should be a warning to governments as it impacts employment by promoting labor informality”. “Personas con discapacidad e inclusión laboral en América Latina y el Caribe Principales desafíos de los sistemas de protección social”. https://repositorio.cepal.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/1535653e-6f21-456e-bb5a-dc446ff5c8ad/content. ECLAC 2023.ECLAC

[25] “The Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Path to Sustainable Development”. https://www.bancomundial.org/es/news/press-release/2021/12/02/la-inclusion-de-las-personas-con-discapacidad-clave-para-el-desarrollo-sostenible-de-america-latina-y-el-caribe World Bank, 2021.

[26] “Closing opportunity gaps for children and adolescents with disabilities not only involves providing monetary support, but also developing accessible and inclusive education and health systems”. Ullman, Heidi et al. “Las transferencias monetarias no contributivas Un instrumento para promover los derechos y el bienestar de la población infantil con discapacidad en América Latina y el Caribe” https://repositorio.cepal.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/6fe832a0-3371-4834-b5d7-f8e9f5121bce/content ECLAC, 2020.

[27] Community care in Latin America and the Caribbean. “Una aproximación a los cuidados en los territorios”. https://lac.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2022-11/Cuidados_Comunitarios_09112022.pdf UNDP, UN Women, ILO, ECLAC and Oxfam, 2022.

[28] Defensor. Human Rights Commission of the Federal District of Mexico (2010) Psychosocial disability: unacceptable invisibility.

[29] https://www.gub.uy/sistema-cuidados/tramites-y-servicios/servicios/casas-comunitarias-cuidados-0

[30] 1,438,696 people live in residential facilities and only a minority reside in small community-based (community-integrated) facilities. Transition from institutional to community-based care in 27 EU Member States: Final report. Research report for the European Expert Group on Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care, European Commission, 2020.

[31] “Almost ten years after the enactment of the specific aggravating circumstance of disability, judges continue to analyze this condition of the victim within broader socio-legal concepts, such as vulnerability. This is highly problematic, as it results in the invisibility of this group of people, for whom a particular way of aggravating the criminal offense was stipulated and, consequently, a different approach to reparation strategies. Disability and other conditions affecting mental health as aggravating factors in the crime of trafficking. A tour through some sentences and complaints of line 145”. Office of the Prosecutor for Trafficking and Exploitation of Persons. Public Prosecutor’s Office of Argentina. 2021. https://www.mpf.gob.ar/protex/files/2021/12/Discapacidad-y-otras-condiciones-que-afectan-la-salud-mental-como-agravante-del-delito-de-trata.pdf

[32] Recommendations for the Responsible Treatment of Disability in the Public Media. https://www.argentina.gob.ar/sites/default/files/2021/04/recomendaciones_para_el_tratamiento_responsable_sobre_la_discapacidad.pdf Buenos Aires, 2021.

[33] It is recommended that national strategies involving governments, nongovernmental organizations, families, and professional and scientific groups be developed. “Policy brief: access to assistive technology”. https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/339964/9789240016392-spa.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed= World Health Organization, 2023.