“On issues of education, professional integration, accessibility, we are behind,” regrets the Defender of Rights.

“We’re late” on the “questions of schooling, places in medical-social units, professional integration, accessibility of places and digital accessibility” for people with disabilities, deplores Claire Hédon, the Defender of Rights, on France Inter on Friday August 30. She believes that France is not currently “an egalitarian society”.

Claire Hédon notes that there are gaps between “what the law says and the reality of its application”. She cites for example the law imposing “the obligation of schooling for all children” which in fact encounters many difficulties. She gives other examples demonstrating “inequality of treatment between able-bodied people and people with disabilities” : “A young person who cannot attend a concert in the pit” or even the number “insufficient” metro stations accessible to people with disabilities in Paris, she lists.

The Defender of Rights notes that “Public services are struggling to adapt” to disability issues. For example, she is sorry to see “that for the moment we are asking young people and families to adapt” at school, while she judges “essential” whatever it is “the school that adapts to young people with disabilities”. Claire Hédon therefore claims “accurate statistics” in particular on the number of hours during which the “440 000 young people with disabilities are educated” but also more AESH “to support these young people when necessary.”

To carry out this “inclusion revolution” and have “real inclusion”Claire Hédon finally calls for “listening to people with disabilities”. “Those concerned have things to say”she says.