If people with a disability were elected to Parliament, politicians would no longer do what they thought benefit disabled people as disabled people themselves would be making the decisions, according to Oliver Scicluna.

“Policies and legislation would foresee the rights of people with a disability from inception,” the Commissioner for People with a Disability told the Times of Malta. 

“However, the most important change would be that society would be able to see that people with a disability can also be leaders. My wish is to see people with intellectual disability also working actively in politics, with the help and support of their teams,” Mr Scicluna added.

But is the Maltese electorate willing to elect people with a disability?

Mr Scicluna pointed out that a small number of people with a disability already occupied elected positions in local councils and, in the past, there was also a representative in Parliament.

“So the Maltese electorate has, in fact, already elected people with a disability, although the general representation is still lacking,” he said, adding that voters needed the opportunity to recognise the abilities of people with a disability and, hence, the need for their increased participation. 

Accessibility is a major issue

Inaccessible apartments, patronising attitudes

This week, Mr Scicluna met with disabled candidates who will be running for election in their local communities. He said Malta required more politicians with a disability because they were best placed to understand the challenges faced by people like them. 

Some of the candidates spoke about obstacles they faced when running their political campaigns, including inaccessible premises and apartments, patronising attitudes and higher expenses.

Mr Scicluna suggested setting up a fund to offset some of the extra expenses, enabling electoral candidates with disabilities to compete on a more level playing field. The fund could, for example, cover the costs of a person who does sign language interpretation.

Some disabled people might need to resort to advertising on social media, particularly if they were mobility impaired and could not do house visits while blind people needed someone to drive them around.

Accessibility is a major issue, with most candidates who spoke to the commissioner pointing out that even local council premises were often out of bounds for them.

Mr Scicluna noted there were at least 18,000 people registered with the commission, however, this was not reflected in the country’s political representation, creating a gap in the representation of diversity at community level.