Hungarian minister: We are working for a society where disabled people find their place

“We are working for a society in which both people with disabilities and able-bodied people can find their place,” prime ministerial commissioner for social policy Zsolt Nyitrai said in a telephone interview with MTI on Saturday, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Nyitrai said the government has been working with the organisations representing people with disabilities as strategic partners for many years, always consulting them on issues affecting people with disabilities and trying to take their comments into account when making decisions.

He noted that there were more than 600,000 Hungarians with disabilities and including family members, the number of people affected was more than one million.

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Support for organisations of persons with disabilities has tripled in the past twelve years, he said. The government supports the employment of around 33,000 people with disabilities at about 1,100 sites across the country, and their employment rate has increased to 44 percent from 18 percent in 2010, he added.

The government has introduced payment to parents taking care of their disabled children at home (GYOD), new rehabilitation centres have been set up to help visually impaired people, and ICT services providing assistance to people with disabilities are constantly being developed, he said.