People with disabilities have been demanding constitutional change for 20 years, we don't fit into the position of victims

CERMI is demanding a change to the Horizontal Property Law because "100,000 people cannot freely leave their homes in Spain".

Madrid, Dec 2 (EUROPA PRESS)

The year 2023 will mark the 20th anniversary of the call to reform Article 49 of the Spanish constitution, which refers to people with disabilities as "invalids". "It is necessary to update this. We don't feel disadvantaged, we are just as valuable, just as complete as everyone else," says Luis Caio Perez Bueno, president of the Spanish Committee of Representatives of Persons with Disabilities (CERMI), in an interview with Europa Press.

CERMI asked in 2003, the year of Europeans with disabilities, to update this article because it contains the term 'disabled' to refer to people with disabilities. On this occasion''Perez Bueno explains that it "feels like an insult, like a harm".

'There is another issue, beyond terminology, that is the most visible and that is felt by public opinion, and that is related to the speech of rights,' said Pérez Bueno.

He also explains that after years of waiting, the main political groups finally responded to the request and the government sent a draft constitutional reform to Congress, which was passed. In May this year, the Parliamentary Group of the Party of Socialists and the People's Party (PSOE and PP) reached an agreement and agreed on the text. "It was supposed to be reviewed and adopted in May, and then in June and July the whole process was to be finalized in Congress and the Senate, but because of the premature elections, these plans'''time Article 49 of the constitution is worded as follows: "The public authorities shall develop policies for the anticipation, treatment, rehabilitation and integration of physically, visually and mentally retarded persons who will be provided with the specialized services they require and who will be particularly protected to exercise the rights granted by this Title to all citizens. "

The HORIZONTAL PROPERTY LAW.

In addition, Perez Bueno expressed his concern about the Horizontal Property Law as a "very old, unsatisfactory" issue that he now believes is "a major form of discrimination in accessibility for people with disabilities and the elderly. "

Thereby, he''Calls for the law to be changed so that accessibility works and activities are made mandatory and carried out at the expense of the community where people with disabilities and over 70 years of age live.

In this context, he specifies that CERMI estimates that about 100,000 people "cannot leave their homes freely, they need someone to support them or they cannot leave their home at all because of lack of opportunities." It also speaks of "a very serious problem that the new Minister of Construction must address. "

He''points out that neither the People's Party nor the recent socialist or coalition governments in the latest Housing Act, which is recent, are interested in this issue. Furthermore, he notes that the Ministry of Housing is 'detached from reality. "They don't realize that this is a punishing factor for the elderly person and the person with a disability," he says.

EUROPEAN MAP OF INVALIDNESSG/h3>

On the occasion of International Day of Assistance to Persons with Disabilities, which is Dec. 3, he says there is still "much more" to be done. "The agenda is endless," he says, adding that this year they are focusing on the European disability map so that there is gegnoctrml6anycqpymr2gmc. "Goods or capital have more guarantees of entitlement to''traveling than people with disabilities,' he complains.

In this context, he says there are people with disabilities who choose not to travel for fear of not getting 'help and support' and that this could affect their 'employment' and 'ability to get higher salaries or better contracts'.