For the second consecutive year, the Government is launching the A+ Accessibility award for the year 2015, a competition being held in collaboration between the Parliamentary Secretariat for Rights of Persons with Disability and Active Ageing and the Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government.

The Parliamentary Secretary for Rights of Persons with Disability and Active Ageing Justyne Caruana, announced that the Government has decided to launch this competition after last year’s success, where a total of 26 Local Councils took part, some of which submitting more than one project.

She explained that winning localities will be chosen by an independent board made up of a person with disability, a KNPD representative and a civil engineer with experience in the disability sector.

Dr Caruana also explained that the winning criteria will be based on the needs of persons with disability to assure maximum benefits from winning projects.

Justyne Caruana highlighted the Government’s commitment to work on accessibility, saying that work is being finalised by KNPD and MCCAA to publish National ‘Access for All’ Standards. She also mentioned that ongoing work is being done on Accessibility Audit reports on several Government entities and facilities, and an Audit Report on Corradino’s Correctional Facility is at an advanced stage.

The Parliamentary Secretary spoke about the work being done in collaboration with the Malta Communications Authority to increase IT accessibility.

She concluded her speech by mentioning that she will be attending a conference in New York as part of the United Nations Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disability, where Malta’s state report will be presented and where it will be examined.

Dr Caruana said that the Government is committed to implement the National Policy on the Rights of Persons with Disability launched last December. In fact, work is ongoing on a strategy in order to implement the policy.

Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government, Stefan Buontempo said that last year, KNPD reported 36 discriminatory cases against Local Councils, 34 of which being on accessibility. He added that these cases increased as of last year. “This is a disappointing fact especially when one notices that cases had increased from last year.”

Parliamentary Secretary Stefan Buontempo explained that in order to ensure effective results in accessibility in our localities, he took the decision of announcing an official from the Department of Local Government to serve as a liaison officer between KNPD and the department.

“This is being done so that when KNPD is working on complaints with regard to Local Councils, the Department would be informed in order to take an active role and be able to take appropriate action.”

The Parliamentary Secretary spoke about new measures, which the Government will be taking to address this problem, one of which being to invite KNPD to assess Local Councils and Civic Centre buildings for their accessibility.

He said that in the case that a building is not found to be accessible for everyone, the council would be advised so that it would make it so for all, thus, excluding none

Applications can be obtained from both Parliamentary Secretariats’ offices or from www.activeageing.gov.mt.

Local Councils can apply for the competition till the end of July, and the Projects have to be completed between August 2015 and January 2016. Winners will be announced in March 2016.

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