TEHRAN – Some 160,000 housing units will be provided to people with disabilities over the next three years, the head of the Welfare Organization has said.

Currently, 160,000 people with disabilities in the country cannot afford a residential unit, so the provision of housing for this community is on agenda, IRNA quoted Ali-Mohammad Ghaderi as saying on Saturday.

The Welfare Organization had previously announced that a memorandum of understanding for the construction of 4,000 housing units for a family with two disabled children had been signed with Mostazafan Foundation.

According to Ghaderi, 2,500 housing units out of a total of 14,300 have so far been completed, and 3,300 others will also be completed in the near future.

According to the statistics of the Welfare Organization, there are 1,710,475 disabled people in Iran.

President Ebrahim Raisi urged all institutions to support persons with disabilities in the commemoration ceremony of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which was held on Friday in Tehran.

Law on rights of persons with disabilities

Majlis [the Iranian parliament] approved both general outlines and details of a bill on the rights of persons with disabilities in January 2018. Development of disability-friendly cities, free transportation, health insurance, free education, job creation, housing loans, and fewer working hours are some of the articles of the law.

Since the approval of the law, education for students with disabilities has been provided in Azad universities, subsidies for patients with spinal cord injury as well as disability care centers have been increased, in addition to residential units for families having members with disabilities.

Asghar Shirzadi, chairman of the board of the Iranian association of the disabled, said in December 2020 that it still seems that the related organizations are not very willing to implement the law.

According to the national document on improving accessibility in cities for persons with disabilities, fifty-five cities, five villages, and three metropolitan areas should be considered as pilots until the Iranian calendar year 1402 (March 2023-March 2024).

The national document includes a five-year action plan which analyzes the country’s weaknesses and strengths in being accessible for the people physically challenged, with the participation of representatives of the country's responsible bodies and NGOs.

The document describes strategies and plans to construct all buildings accessible to people with disabilities, and the country's headquarters for increasing the cities’ accessibilities will follow up the strategies and regulations.

FB/MG