Persons with disability could soon be allowed to be accompanied into polling booths by someone of their choice, a situation at present not permissible at law.
Once the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability is ratified, and progress has been made on that front, they would be entitled to the "necessary support" if their disability impedes them from voting.
The issue was one of the stumbling blocks that needed to be discussed for the convention to be ratified, Social Policy Minister John Dalli said. Despite the fact that Malta was almost in conformity with the convention, in terms of legislation, minor changes still needed to be made. Cross-party agreement is needed on the matter but Mr Dalli said he was confident consensus would be achieved.
He said the final report of an inter-ministerial committee on the convention was almost completed and would be presented to the Office of the Prime Minister in the coming weeks.
However, its ratification would not mean problems facing persons with disability and their families are solved immediately.
The minister was speaking at a conference organised by the National Commission Persons with Disability on the occasion of the UN's International Day for Persons with Disability yesterday.
With the theme Access For Everyone, Success For Everyone, it was one of the activities during the week dedicated to persons with a disability. The conference was funded by the EU and the national commission has managed to secure another €200,000 for next year for awareness campaigns, Mr Dalli said. It has also secured €2 million from the EU for the construction of its Centre for an Independent Life in Ħal Far, for the training of the personnel required for the project and for the necessary equipment.
A sum of €1.3 million is also likely to be secured to improve the quality of day care services on offer at the Sapport agency, Mr Dalli added.
He focused on the concept of "universal design", the way forward when it came to accessibility for all. This concept was defined by the UN convention as the design of products, environments, programmes and services for everyone's use, without the need to change, or for specialisation, which would entail further costs and an inferior result that did not really cater for all.
"We need to start thinking of including everyone, persons with disability and not, from the design stage of anything and not do the job first and try and arrange it after," Mr Dalli said.