Podgorica, (MINA) – Status of the persons with disabilities in Montenegro is not at the satisfactory level, but, in comparison to the situation of about ten years ago, their status has been improved, said executive director of the Union of the Blind of Montenegro Goran Macanovic.
He noted that the biggest progress has been achieved at the normative level by adoption of a series of laws which envisage the rights of the disabled persons.
“Their implementation is not satisfactory”, said Macanovic in an interview to Mina.
He warned that there is almost no area in which the disabled are not facing obstacles in everyday life, and stressed the problem of accessibility in wider sense- accessibility to public facilities, public surfaces, information and communication.
Macanovic remarked that as long as the disabled persons are facing accessibility problems in their environment, obtaining information and communication, it is hard to expect any progress in other areas of life.
Answering to the question on satisfaction with support by the competent institutions, Macanovic said that unfortunately his answer could not be fully affirmative, since cooperation and support of the institutions often depend on the individuals at managing positions and their sensibility for the problems of the disabled.
As a positive example he referred to the cooperation between the Ministry of Sport and Paralympic Committee of Montenegro.
Macanovic praised the Ministry for constantly improving support to paralympians in Montenegro, and added that the number of the paralympians demand even greater support.
He stressed that there is insufficient number of sport facilities accessible to the disabled persons, who do not have adequate conditions for training and thus cannot give their full potential at sporting events.
This article was published with the financial support of the US Embassy available within the project “Rereading – Rewriting. Improving media literacy in Montenegro”. The Mina agency assumes full responsibility for its contents, which do not necessarily reflect the position of the USA. The article can be used with mandatory citing of its source.
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