The Cabildo of Lanzarote, through the Area of Social Welfare and Inclusion led by Marci Acuña, is advancing in the development of the Island Strategy for Accessibility and Inclusion, a roadmap with more than 400 transversal actions to turn Lanzarote and La Graciosa into fully accessible islands. Among the strategic pillars of this document is the improvement of the 112 Canarias Accesible service, a priority that has been addressed in the latest working tables held with the groups that represent people with disabilities on the island.
“Equal access to the emergency system is a vital necessity to guarantee the autonomy and safety of all people, especially those living with a disability,” said Marci Acuña, who conveyed to the groups the Cabildo's commitment to promote this measure decisively.
During these meetings, collaborative work has been carried out in the identification of barriers and in the proposal of improvements that facilitate communication and care for people with hearing, visual, physical or intellectual disabilities when they need to resort to 112. This work is aligned with the Island Strategy and responds to the regulatory requirements established by Law 11/2023 on accessibility, which transposes the European Directive (EU) 2019/882, known as the European Accessibility Act.
Acuña confirmed that steps are already being taken to collect technical information and transfer the proposals resulting from these working tables to those responsible for the 112 Canarias service. “We want the accessibility of 112 to be a palpable reality in Lanzarote and La Graciosa. We start by improving what depends on us and we will do it hand in hand with the associative fabric of the island,” he added.
The Canary Islands is the second autonomous community with the highest rate of people with disabilities, exceeding the average of 9.5% in Spain. For its part, Lanzarote has 17,000 people who have some disability and more than 20,000 older people, who represent more than 13% of the total population, so the Cabildo is working on the challenge of designing policies that put people at the center of management.