ABSTRACT
According to recent reports of the United Nations Organization, people with disabilities are the world’s largest minority. They number 650 million people, representing about 10 per cent of the world’s population. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this figure is increasing through population growth, medical advances and the ageing process. In countries with life expectancies over 70 years, individuals spend on average about eight years, or 11.5 per cent of their life span, living with disabilities. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) stated that 80 per cent of persons with disabilities live in developing countries.1
The UN Special Rapporteur declared in 2000, ‘In all countries, in all types of living conditions, the consequences of disability interfere in the lives of disabled persons to a degree which is not at all acceptable.’2 These facts have been among the decisive motivations behind an increasing international interest in improving the conditions of people with disabilities.
