Views about people with disabilities have changed over the years. The same has occurred with the numbers and perceptions that portray the disability dimension. The aim of this study is to identify these changes using population survey instruments. To this end, we followed how the ways disability of approaching have changed over time, regarding focus, as the conceptual basis of these instruments. For this analysis the censuses during the period from 1872 to 2010 and the National Household Sample Surveys conducted between 1981 and 2003 were studied. It was found that changes in censuses followed the conceptual evolution of disability. This change of view also shows that the universe of disability is much broader than previously conceived. The results also show that society, by not considering inequalities, is responsible, for the social creation disability, encompassing approximately 45.606.048 million people, which accounts for 23.9% of the population.
Special education; Social Integration Process; Official Documents; Social Reality
