Disability in the Caribbean -A study of four countries: a socio-demographic analysis of the disabled: LC/CAR/L.134

With the adoption of the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in December 2006 and its entry into force in May 2008 ECLAC considered it timely to conduct a study on disability in the Caribbean. The present paper presents an overview of definitions and concepts applied by the United Nations and further describes different concepts and methodologies that are available to quantify and measure disability. The results of a desk-review on policies and programs in the region revealed that much more needs to be done to sufficiently address the wide scope of needs of the disabled. In order to fill the knowledge-gap on disability, the focus of this paper is to present the findings of an empirical four country study using recent census data. The data for Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago revealed rather common trends.