Emmanuel Macron calls on "all French people to mobilize" on disability

Text by: RFI Follow

Fifteen years after the entry into force of the handicap law in France, President Emmanuel Macron announced new measures at the time of the national conference of the Handicap Tuesday, February 11, in particular on education, accessibility, employment and dignity. If he also asks the French to mobilize, officials deplore promises for the moment without acts.

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" The French must all mobilize " to improve the lives of 12 million people with disabilities , said Tuesday February 11, Emmanuel Macron. He announced a series of measures on education, access to rights or employment.

Organized at mid-term, this event brought together 500 people at the Élysée to draw up a " first assessment " of the measures decided since the start of the five-year period and to take others " that we still have time to implement " d '' here in 2022, according to the Élysée Palace.

" What I would like to launch today is truly a call for national mobilization ," said Emmanuel Macron. " Disability does not just affect 12 million French people, " but " each of us may face it at some point in our lives, " said the president, concluding the National Disability Conference (CNH).

" No more children without schooling solution at the start of the school year "

Emmanuel Macron, accompanied by his wife Brigitte, thus declined a series of decisions, without however detailing their financing.

He thus set the objective that " no more disabled children " be left " without schooling solution at the start of the new school year in September ". Their number has already been halved between 2018 and 2019 , from 15,000 to 8,000.

Another objective: that these children who have become adults are not left alone in the search for a solution.

Currently each year nearly 500 families leave France to go into exile in Belgium, due to the lack of places in suitable accommodation centers in France. For Emmanuel Macron, these forced departures are no longer necessary, to meet these needs, 6,000 additional places will be created by January.

But " the real subject is that there is a lack of carers " to help these children at school: To remedy this, 11,500 additional caregiver positions will be created by 2022, adding to the 66,000 planned for the end of the year, he said.

President Macron announces his goal "that no child without a schooling solution can exist in September"

Single call number and extended PCH

Another announcement: the simplification of administrative procedures, as well as the establishment of a single call number (360) to respond to the anxiety of families, as well as the creation of 1,000 additional places in specialized establishments.

The Head of State also responded to associations' concerns about the future of the allowance for disabled adults (AAH), paid to 1.2 million people. This service will " never be transformed, diluted or eliminated " for the benefit of the future universal income from activity (RUA). He has to merge several allowances, he said.

Emmanuel Macron has also announced that the disability compensation benefit (PCH), which makes it possible to finance aid, will be extended next year so as to cover household aid, but also the assistance provided by a third to a disabled parent to care for their young child.

The President also stressed that the question of the right to the sexual life of these people should " not be taboo in society ".

reactions

Aurélien Pradié, LR deputy specialist in the issue of disability, deplores promises without action

APF France Handicap president Alain Rochon has called for " sanctions " against establishments open to the public who are reluctant to do any work to make their premises accessible to the disabled.

Alain Rochon, President of APF France Handicap, says he is "satisfied", but expects "actions and funding"

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• France
• Emmanuel Macron
• French politics
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