Today Gibraltar celebrated International Day of Persons with Disabilities and the Department of Equality launched a new video to raise awareness of people with disabilities and promotes their abilities.

The video aims to highlight the fact that even though a person may have a disability, they are first and foremost a person and a member of our community. The intention is to remove labels and raise awareness, especially for those disabilities which are hidden.

The Ministry of Equality had also planned to have an information and awareness stand in Main Street today, but this had to be cancelled as it would have been impossible to do this successfully and keep with social distancing rules.

The Disability Awareness Video showcases different members of our community with different disabilities. It is hoped that this video reaches people of different ages and walks of life and gets the message across in order to make people aware of the different disabilities out there and what can and should be done when in contact with a person with a disability.

The video can be accessed on the HM Government of Gibraltar Facebook page: https://facebook.com/gibraltargovernment or from the Ministry of Equality’s website page:

https://www.gibraltar.gov.gi/department-equality

This Government has launched a number of initiatives for people with disabilities in recent years, a couple that are worth mentioning are the Disability Information Card and the RADAR Key Scheme. The Disability Information Card allows the holder to inform any person who may need to know about their disability in a discreet manner without anybody else having to find out. The RADAR Key Scheme allows key holders access to certain accessible public toilets after these are closed to the general public. This allows people with mobility impairments or incontinence more freedom when going out in the evenings and night. More information on these two schemes, as well as electronic versions of application forms, booklets, leaflets and other initiatives launched by the Department of Equality can be found on the website:

https://www.gibraltar.gov.gi/department-equality

The Minister for Equality, the Hon Samantha Sacramento, MP, said: “I am very proud with the work that this Government has been doing in relation to disabilities since we came into Government, we have taken huge steps in making Gibraltar more inclusive for people with disabilities. On the back of the milestone legislation, the Disability Act, a number of initiatives have been developed and implemented by the Ministry of Equality. I am very pleased with the take up of these initiatives by people with disabilities, in particular with the Disability Information Card, an unprecedented initiative in Gibraltar which has seen a take up of over 80 people. I am very grateful to my department for coming up and developing these initiatives. My thanks also to the participants who gladly accepted the Department’s invitation to appear in the Disability Awareness Video. I indeed hope that many people get to see it and adopt the mantra that a disability or a label should not define a person. Only by doing this will we be able to start to pull down society’s barriers, one by one.”