Once again, people with intellectual disabilities claim their right to participate in society and make their voice heard. This is clear from the different debate sessions that are being carried out in Plena Inclusion CV within the European IDemocracy project led by this organization.
People with intellectual disabilities, professionals, family members and other people from the community have participated in these sessions with the intention of reflecting on the implementation of democratic rights, participation and representation of people with disabilities at the organizational, community and political level.
“The best way to promote rights is through debate, manifesting and vindicating our interests and requesting adaptations to be able to fulfill our rights”, people with disabilities say.
Adaptations such as training in digital skills or exercising the right to vote are needed. This was highlighted by Cesar Marí, Head of the Functional Diversity section of the Valencia City Council.
However, people with intellectual disabilities also claim their presence and active participation in Boards of Directors and other organization advisory bodies, with the necessary supports and adaptations. Their claim is supported by families and professionals, “it is very important that people with intellectual disabilities have a voice, we cannot speak for them.”
The IDemocracy project continues to advance and all the Consortium organizations are working on organizing discussion groups to extract reflections and needs in this regard. The organizations come from Spain, Portugal, France, Croatia, Greece and Lithuania. The involvement of people with disabilities in this stage promotes the exercise of their participatory and democratic rights from the beginning of the project implementation.
IDemocracy is a European project funded by the ERASMUS + Program that aims to create tools and materials to improve the skills of people with intellectual disabilities and their support in the exercise of their democratic rights in the digital society.
