Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Switzerland proposes strengthening rights of people with disabilities

Federal Council wants to strengthen the rights of people with disabilities
The Swiss government is proposing new legislative measures in response to an initiative by disability organisations to ensure equality for people with disabilities in all areas of life. Keystone-SDA

More affordable barrier-free housing, higher disability assistance contributions, and recognition of sign language: the Swiss government is proposing a package of new legislative measures to promote inclusion.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The Swiss government took four decisions on equal opportunities for people with disabilities at its last meeting of the year on December 20, it revealed on Monday.

The background to the package of measures is the so-called “inclusion initiative” submitted by disability organisations. This initiative aims to ensure equality for people with disabilities in all areas of life and across all levels of legislation.

+ Initiative calls for real equality for people with disabilities

Although the Federal Council (executive body) recommends rejecting the petition for a referendum on the initiative, it shares its core concerns. The government says it wants to achieve rapid improvements for people with disabilities by means of legislation rather than through a constitutional process.

Translated from German with DeepL/gw

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR