The government delegate in Extremadura, José Luis Quintana, participated today in the institutional event of the National Day of the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities organized by Cermi Extremadura and held at the headquarters of the Presidency of the Junta de Extremadura.
Quintana has said that disability is diversity and it is everyone’s responsibility to build a society in which that diversity does not cause any harm to anyone, and to achieve this we must do things, such as changing laws, improving public services, but above all, we must change the mentality of society.
During his speech, the government delegate recalled that recently the Congress of Deputies approved a reform of the Spanish Constitution in which the term reduced by that of people with disabilities was eliminated. “We have taken too long to make that reform, but at last, it has been done, and that was justice.”
Likewise, Quintana has alluded to other facts such as the Law of the Unit, the vote in the braille system for people with visual disabilities to guarantee the exercise of active suffrage with total autonomy, the presence of people with hearing disabilities at the polling stations supporting them with the resources they need or the recovery of the right to vote for people with intellectual disabilities.
In this regard, the government delegate has explained that there is currently a special signage to favor accessibility for both people with intellectual disabilities and older people who have problems of orientation in the electoral processes.
“In Extremadura we have been pioneers. Already in the 2019 elections we managed to make this signage available to all municipalities in the region and it was achieved with the involvement of the Government Delegation and CERMI. This example perfectly reflects the commitment we have in Spain with people with disabilities” said the delegate.
Finally, Quintana has thanked the work done by CERMI and all the associations and entities that form it for the equality of all people and a better society. “You are the example of the society to which many of us aspire, in which we are all equal and no one is less than anyone,” he concluded.