The Millennium Nucleus for Disability and Citizenship (DISCA: DIScapacidad y CiudadaníA, in Spanish) is a research center that since 2022 has been dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of the processes and mechanisms through which people with disabilities transform into citizens. Currently, DISCA’s research lines are:
Political participation
Access to justice
Access to mental health
Inclusive and participatory methodologies
The objectives for each of these areas are: to identify barriers and facilitators, analyze strategies of adaptation and resistance, and develop evidence-based recommendations.
At Millennium Nucleus DISCA, we respect the motto of the movement of people with disabilities: “Nothing about us without us.” Research will be conducted with people with disabilities and not about them.
DISCA is led by Florencia Herrera, an academic with a disability, and the incorporation of people with disabilities is prioritized in the formation of the team. The inclusion of people with disabilities in the academic world through DISCA is a valuable opportunity to make changes that pave the way for greater participation of other people with disabilities.
DISCA’s principal investigators, pioneers in disability research in Chile, use mixed methodologies—quantitative and qualitative—integrating knowledge from social anthropology, law, health, economics, sociology, psychology, and occupational therapy, together with the transdisciplinary field of disability studies.
Our approach is based on two pillars. First, citizenship as a form of social integration through the equal consideration of everyone. We consider institutional aspects (civil, political, and social rights) and relational aspects (demands for recognition). Second, the social model of disability, which seeks to overcome the biomedical approach and understands disability as the result of the interaction between health conditions or individual deficits and social barriers that prevent the full participation of people with disabilities.
The social model is not the predominant view. Welfare-based (asistencialista) visions that restrict the inclusion and the exercise of citizenship of people with disabilities remain in effect. It is urgent for academia to create synergies, both with organizations of people with disabilities and with State institutions, to examine the barriers affecting people with disabilities and the pathways to overcome them.
As a center, we have come to fill a vacuum in disability studies, providing a space where the research community and students working in disability have been able to meet and collaborate.
Our long-term goal is to consolidate DISCA as the first center of excellence in disability research in Latin America.
DISCA was funded by the 2022 Millennium Nucleus Competition (NCS2022_039) and renewed by the 2025 Millennium Nucleus Competition (NCS2025_37) of the Millennium Science Initiative, of the National Research and Development Agency (ANID), under the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge, and Innovation.