When disabled people are ignored by employers, society loses a human resource and a consumer, according to Joe Camilleri, chairman of the National Commission Persons with Disability.

“Sometimes, employers don’t even consider us as prospective workers, so we end up as lost human resources. And if a disabled person does not have any money to spend, the local market loses another consumer,” he added.

Mr Camilleri was speaking at the launch of the commission’s annual report on the Equal Opportunities Law enacted in 2000, which strives for “real inclusion” of disabled people in society.

This year, the commission received 22 reports more than the average 100. However, the highest number of complaints remains those that were registered between 2008 and 2009, when 172 had been filed.

Until 2010, most of the complaints were related to accessibility but, over the past couple of years, one third of the complaints were about items and services, including the public transport service, with disabled people expressing concern about malfunctioning bus ramps.

Executive director Anne-Marie Callus said talks with Transport Malta about infrastructure issues, including pavements, poles and bus stops were moving at a slow pace.

Another concern related to the service sector was that travel agents did not accept bookings for accessible cruise liner cabins because all available ones were taken up by clients that booked through the mother company in Italy.

Mr Camilleri said that severely disabled people could not travel by plane and it was unfair to deprive Maltese tourists of this “nice experience”.

When it came to complaints related to the education sector, Dr Callus urged trade unions to consult with the commission before issuing directives that could affect the most vulnerable children.

She was referring to directives issued to learning support assistants that affected the children’s social life and the preparation of modified exam papers.

On the other hand, Dr Callus commended the unions for helping in solving employment-related issues, including a case where a mother needed to maintain her working hours to be able to take her disabled child to therapy sessions when her employer decided to change shifts.

Over the past year, the commission worked on 274 complaints, including 152 that were still pending.

The report also showed that most of the new complaints were filed against the public sector (79).