Although incipient in Brazil, international studies on disability are a consolidated field in social sciences. The concept of disability concerns issues of health or illness faced by people whose abilities are restricted by body impairments. This paper aims to analyze the debate on disability based on two approaches: 1) to understand disability as a manifestation of the human being diversity, analyzing the debate on the social model of disability - a political and theoretical trend that considers deficiency as oppression suffered by impaired people in social environments not adapted to corporal diversities; 2) to show that changes in the comprehension of the disabled body as manifestation of corporal diversity brings better tools to the way society must organize itself to promote justice for disabled people, thus ensuring citizenship rights for those 14.5% of the Brazilian population, according to the 2000 Census.
disability; social model of disability; social protection; social justice