The authorities are clamping down on abuse of the blue sticker, which allows disabled people to park in special zones.

Last year, the Commission for People with a Disability (KNPD) retrieved 655 stickers which could not be used anymore. The majority of them belonged to people who had died but which could still be used undetected by their relatives.

Applications for the stickers are vetted by the KNPD and the sticker is then issued by the Commissioner of Police. The KNPD has been asking relatives of deceased blue badge users to return them and when they fail to comply, the police sends them a warning.

Anne-Marie Callus, KNPD executive director, said this kind of abuse was very hard to detect. Even though a warden could spot a perfectly able person using a car with a blue sticker, she said, the ready excuse could be that the person had just given a lift to the person under whose name the sticker was issued.

KNPD chairman Joe Camilleri said there were reports of stacks of counterfeit blue stickers waiting to be laminated at some stationers. Some went as far as to change the photo on the card, while others did not even bother.

“This has become a business,” he said.

The KNPD, however, has no record of any of these counterfeit cards being confiscated.

There are currently 5,850 blue cards in circulation and last year there were 1,514 applications for the cards, only 126 of which had been rejected.

The issue emerged at the presentation of the KNPD’s annual report for last year.

“The biggest problem we face is not accessibility to buildings but it’s accessibility to jobs. If one were to compare physical accessibility to social accessibility, they are miles apart,” Mr Camilleri complained.

Last year, the commission focused on what happened to disabled people over the compulsory education age of 16, who did not have adequate support. The KNPD was increasingly being challenged by young people who after their education felt they could go for professions which up to a few years ago were inaccessible to disabled people.

“Sometimes, even we feel a bit sceptical over whether some jobs can be done. But we go online and we find that yes, these things have been done in other countries, and we do our best to make it happen,” Mr Camilleri said, citing the example of a deaf person who became a mechanic.

The KNPD also called for workplaces to be flexible enough to accommodate people with a disability who were capable of doing a job, saying the army and the police force had already enrolled people who could still work within them despite their disability.

The council is also working with the Malta Qualifications Council so that skills such as being able to catch a bus and being able to use money could be certified, as this would help disabled people’s employment prospects.

Yesterday’s conference was attended by parliamentary secretary for youth and sport Clyde Puli.