Las Palmas De Gran Canaria (EFE) It involves enforcing existing laws and also arbitrating new transversal inclusive strategies.
This has been made clear in the debate organized by Full Inclusion, an organization that brings together 27 entities for intellectual disabilities and development on the islands, where seven young people questioned candidates from the PSOE, CC, Unidas Sí Podemos, NC and PP to Canarian Parliament on issues that make their day-to-day more difficult in terms of accessibility, employment and training, health or community life.
This initiative, which Plena Inclusión will repeat in La Palma, Tenerife and Lanzarote and which is promoted on social networks with the hashtag #Mivotocuenta, calls for easier and more understandable elections for this group and promotes their active participation in the development of the electoral campaign.
And in this first round, the participants have put Elena Máñez (PSOE), José Joaquín O’Shanahan (Unidas Sí Podemos), Natalia Santana (NC), Poli Suárez (PP) and Vidina Espino (CC) on the hour on the ropes. to make them see the obstacles they encounter on a daily basis.
Getting lost in hospitals, banks or shopping centers due to the absence of easy-to-read signs that make those spaces more understandable, not being able to enter sports or leisure venues, having sidewalks and adapted toilets, being able to use public transport that tells them where they are there, which bus they take and when the next one comes and in which the drivers respect their times, and that the Administration offers more accessible telephone service and electronic appointments have been some of the demands raised by Antonio and Melania.
They have been joined by Nerea and Esther, who have made it clear that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities “want and are able to study and work”, for which they demand that teachers be trained and know the limitations that affect their skills, so that they take into account what each student needs in order to progress.
“We don’t like the options they give us: hairdressing assistant, agriculture or data recording, we want to be able to choose what we want to study, like the rest of the students, that these studies are adapted to our needs and more adapted FP specialties”, Esther has listed, who has also claimed that the support for the group does not end in Primary, but that it extends to Secondary and Baccalaureate so that she can continue studying.
Selection processes and jobs, public and private, adapted to people with intellectual disabilities and that the reserve of 2% of employment in the public sector be covered for them are also demands of this group.
Salvador and Elena have asked the candidates to work to reduce waiting times in early care or speech therapy, that there be more public attention to mental health, that doctors address them, and not their companions, than the staff of the centers doctors understand how they feel and respect their times and that they are guaranteed by law the administration of anesthesia beyond the age of 14 in digestive consultations or at the dentist.
In this face-to-face meeting with future regional parliamentarians, Pablo and Óscar have also stressed that the intellectually disabled “want to live in a community, with whoever they want, and not with who they say or in a residence with 30 or 40 other people”, so they They have demanded access to social rents because with their pensions of 350 euros it is impossible for them to live in privately promoted houses.
That the personal assistance service of the Dependency Law be launched in the Canary Islands or that the public Administration be closer to the people with intellectual disabilities whom it protects in order to respond more quickly to their demands and prevent them from losing the opportunity to participate in community life has been another of the requests made to the candidates of these five electoral plates.
THE RESPONSE OF THE DEPUTIES
In response, Vidina Espino (CC) has insisted on the need for the Accessibility Law to be complied with and that those who do not do so be punished, and Elena Máñez (PSOE) has advocated updating it to adapt it to the new barriers that affect all people and has announced that at the end of the year the first fully accessible employment office for all disabilities will be launched in the Canary Islands.
Poli Suárez (PP) has opted to change the Transportation Law so that municipalities like Moya, with 8,000 inhabitants, have adapted taxis, Natalia Santana (NC) has proposed reaching universal accessibility and José Joaquín O’Shanahan (Unidas Sí Podemos ) has asked that the decision-making power on this and other issues come down to the neighbourhood, so that it is managed by “superblocks”.
In employment and training, the PP has raised the need to facilitate the labor incorporation of the intellectually disabled, not only ten days before the elections, but also giving aid and tax incentives to companies that hire them “because they are not a burden” and NC It is committed to inclusive education reaching dual vocational training.
United Sí Podemos advocates for councils to help non-profit third-sector entities so that they have more stability, CC is committed to guaranteeing training places for the group from the age of 21 and the PSOE to promote a comprehensive law rights of people with disabilities, with budget allocation and comprehensive vision.
In health matters, NC believes that a transformation of the public system is necessary to avoid having to go to the private sector to be attended by a speech therapist or pedagogue, an idea shared by Unidas Sí Podemos, which believes that health centers should attend to 25,000 users and expand its portfolio of services with speech therapy, occupational therapy or psychotherapy.
For its part, CC is committed to opening twenty new early care units, the PSOE is committed to families being represented on the patient participation committee and the PP proposes separating the general directorates for dependency and disability and for the latter to be a backbone of all areas of the Canarian Government.
To make life in the community easier for these people, Unidas Sí Podemos is committed to the Social Rights area of the regional Executive having more budget, stability and qualified personnel to enforce the laws, CC because they have priority when it comes to accessing a public housing and that the Dependency Law offers them the services they demand, instead of aid of between 180 and 300 euros.
The PSOE for the figure of the personal assistant to become a reality and offer family respite measures to the caregivers of these people, the PP advocates facilitating their social inclusion, rather than tutoring or remotely directing them from the institutions and NC has promised to give them a voice and provide them with real solutions, such as more substantial rental aid and agile processing.
Only the PSOE and NC have committed to Full Inclusion to publish their respective electoral programs for the 28M in easy-to-read formats. EFE
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