97 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 K. H. Smith, P. K. Ram (eds.), Transforming Global Health, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32112-3_7 Chapter 7 Gender, Disability, and Access to Health Care in Indonesia: Perspectives from Global Disability Studies Michael Rembis and Hanita P. Djaya Introduction Disability is a global health crisis. About 15% of the world’s population or approxi- mately one billion people are living with a disability—usually defned as a motor, sensory, speech, learning, developmental, or intellectual impairment or chronic ill- ness. The World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations (UN) estimate that between 110 and 190 million people live with what they defne as “severe dis- abilities” [1]. If we add mental illnesses and autism to the list of disabilities, the number rises. A 2011 WHO report states that “Across the globe 450 million people suffer from a mental or behavioral disorder. The estimate is that one in fve persons will suffer from a mental illness in a given year” [2]. The WHO predicts that “depression will be the number one global burden of disease by 2030, surpassing heart disease and cancer, and [it is] anticipated to be the number two burden by 2020” [2]. Disability or mental illness can affect anyone, anytime. We are all likely to encounter disability at some point during our lives, whether it is through our fami- lies, our jobs, our recreational activities, or through our own bodies. Approximately 85% of disability is acquired throughout our lifetime. This means that only 15% of disabled people are born with their disabilities [3]. Disabilities are usually caused by unsanitary, unhealthy, overcrowded living conditions, malnutrition, war, envi- ronmental hazards, disease, poverty, accidents, and childbirth, among other social factors. M. Rembis (*) · H. P. Djaya University at Buffalo, State University of New York (SUNY), Buffalo, NY, USA e-mail: marembis@buffalo.edu