The socialist candidate for Mayor of Elche, Héctor Díez, held the second of his sectoral meetings since announcing his intention to run for Mayor in February. This time, the meeting took place with around thirty representatives from disability groups at the Candalix civic center, where Héctor Díez listened to each attendee express their complaints, needs, suggestions, and requests, aiming to gather these concerns, work on them, and provide future responses.
Topics such as employability for people with various disabilities, housing, communication barriers, lack of accessibility in public spaces, and parking reservations dominated much of the three-hour meeting. However, a common theme among practically all groups was the transversality of disability across all municipal areas.
It is fundamental that the perspective of people with disabilities is present in all types of decision-making within the city council, and they have conveyed this to us. When acting in urban spaces, when organizing all kinds of activities, when thinking about projects, or simply adapting buses to the needs of people with disabilities.
Furthermore, they requested training for municipal officials to integrate the perspective of disability into their projects and actions. Another issue raised was the occasional lack of empathy and humanity when dealing with people with disabilities, which, according to some groups, "is an issue that must be addressed to ensure such situations never occur."
We must work to ensure that groups feel truly represented and heard, and that their participation is real, with meetings like the one we held today, where everyone could speak and suggest initiatives to make Elche more inclusive, and that is the path forward.
Regarding the Municipal Council for Disability, attendees indicated that it is not very effective and that the goal is for entities to have participation and be heard.
