On the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the Defensor del Pueblo issued a reminder of the need to keep striving for the rights and demands of these people, to guarantee that they are fully included in society.
Over the last few decades, considerable advances have been made in gaining insight into and understanding the problems that affect people with a disability of some kind and in the exercise of their rights.
The Defensor undertook several courses of action in 2015 to help protect their rights.
Noteworthy actions
* The Institution started to conduct a study on the quality of the care that young people under the age of 16 with acquired brain injury receive on the part of the health and education authorities (Estudio sobre la calidad de la atención que reciben los menores de 16 años con daño cerebral adquirido).
* It also presented a study on the Safety and Accessibility of Children’s Play Areas (Estudio sobre la Seguridad y Accesibilidad de las Áreas de Juego Infantil) in Spain, in which it recommends that steps be taken to remove architectural barriers, that some minimum accessibility requirements be regulated and that advantage be taken of maintenance tasks to make these play areas gradually more accessible.
* The Institution has conducted an own-initiative inquiry on the regulation of accompaniment by service dogs (regulación del acompañamiento por perros de asistencia). Madrid, Navarre and Murcia have already passed specific laws on this matter.
* The Spanish train operator, RENFE, has accepted a recommendation by the Institution to give publicity to its Accessibility Plan (recomendación de la Institución para dar publicidad a su Plan de Accesibilidad), so that it becomes a real commitment and persons with disabilities see their rights increase and find it easier to plan their trips.
* The Ministry for Development (Ministerio de Fomento) also accepted a recommendation for bus companies to inform users (recomendación para que las compañías de autobuses informen a los usuarios) of the accessibility conditions, both in the vehicles themselves and at all the stops at bus stations along the way.
* As regards housing, the Office of the Defensor has insisted on the need to put back in place the deduction for investment in a permanent home, when building work is undertaken and facilities put in to adapt the home for disability reasons.
* The Office also recommended the education authorities to adopt regulatory and budgetary measures to ensure that educational support for persons with disabilities (atención educativa de las personas con discapacidad) be provided in accordance with the principles of the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities.
