More than 200 reports of illegal parking sent by citizens have been published on the site Be responsible.me since June, and the number of those applications is ahead of all others. Among the reports, there is also a large number of those where drivers park their cars in places marked for parking for persons with disabilities (PWD).
The creation of a similar public database is one of the initiatives that followed Sunday's tweeting by Marina Vujačić, executive director of the Association of Disabled Youth of Montenegro (UMHCG), who @cgtvituje led a discussion on the topic of equal opportunities, within the project "Montenegro on Twitter - get involved in the changes".
Illegal parking is just one of a series of topics that Marina opened up during her week of tweeting and the week that marked the Day of Persons with Disabilities, December 3. In addition to illegal parking, said Vujačić, citizens park their cars on the lowered curb or on the ramp used by wheelchairs.
Marina says that there are still many topics related to the life of this population that people don't want to talk about, and many topics are even taboo.
Height is not only a problem when Marina goes to the dentist or gynecologist. "Do you know how I pay bills at the bank, post office, talk to any counter worker, when the counter is at a height of 1.40 to 1.60 meters? Do you know how wheelchair users, people of short stature, enter facilities with sensor doors, whose lower and middle sensors do not work", are just some of the questions that Marina asked Twitter users in the week of tweeting about equal opportunities
Last week, it was announced that women with disabilities can only go for a gynecological examination in Pljevlja, since only in that city there is an adapted gynecological table. Vujacic says that the health of PWDs is a special story, because "most doctors did not accept that disability is not a disease and that it cannot be cured, so everything that happens or most of it is associated with disability, not acting in the most adequate way and ignoring the actual situation".
"It is even more specific for women with disabilities, they are still ashamed to go to a gynecologist and do not have adequate support," says Marina.
Considering that only in Pljevlja there is an adapted gynecological table, do all women with disabilities go to that city for examination from other places?
"I believe that it is difficult for them to go to Pljevlja, because, since there is no public transport accessible to them, that trip would be much more expensive than paying someone in their city to help them go to inaccessible places and perform an examination on tables that are not adapted. My every trip to the gynecologist, dentist or anywhere where the examination is done using a table or bed is like that, because everything is at an inadequate height", said Vujacic.
And height is not only a problem when Marina goes to the dentist or gynecologist.
"Do you know how I pay bills at the bank, post office, talk to any counter worker, when the counter is at a height of 1.40 to 1.60 meters? Do you know how wheelchair users, people of short stature, enter facilities with sensor doors, whose lower and middle sensors do not work", are just some of the questions that Marina asked Twitter users in the week of tweeting about equal opportunities.
Entering public transport? Marina says that she is not aware of anyone using a wheelchair being transported that way.
"A few years ago, it happened that they didn't want to let a UMHCG member on the bus, because they had to pack his stroller as luggage, but they refused."
UMHCG transports people with disabilities in Podgorica in their van, and they often do this outside the capital, even in Montenegro.
"A few years ago, it happened that they didn't want to let a UMHCG member on the bus, because they had to pack his stroller as luggage, but they refused"
For her, a particularly inspiring and inexhaustible topic is the right to life for people with disabilities, or more clearly the right to have children with disabilities.
The Law on Conditions and Procedures for Termination of Pregnancy prescribes the possibility of abortion up to the 20th week from the day of conception if "on the basis of medical indications, it can be expected that the child will be born with severe physical or mental defects, and if "the conception occurred in connection with the of a criminal act". However, according to Vujačić, according to the same law, it is possible to terminate a pregnancy after 20 and up to the 32nd week in case the birth of a child with physical or mental defects can be expected, but not if the fetus was conceived by rape.
"So, the killing of a living child is made possible! I wrote about that topic on Twitter and caused a discussion, however, especially women were divided, because they think about themselves, not about a new life. "People are not ready to accept that children with disabilities are born, that it is a natural process and that it should not be avoided when possible," said Marina.
In the sea of problems faced by people with disabilities, it is difficult to single out the biggest ones. According to the executive director of UMHCG, this depends on a number of circumstances, even the problems faced by PWDs differ from one part of Montenegro to another. A lot of it, explains Vujačić, depends on the place of living, level of education, standard of living, gender and finally - the type of disability.
Although the state offers incentives to companies when employing PWDs, according to her, only seven people with disabilities work in state institutions.
"Montenegro on Twitter - join the changes" is a project of the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) and the Office of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Montenegro, which aims to strengthen social activism through the network. Through the project Montenegro on Twitter - get involved in the changes and through the official account @cgtvituje during six months, Twitter users and the general public will have the opportunity to get to know Montenegro in the way established experts from different fields see it. Every seven days, another participant in the project tweets from the official account @cgtvituje, who will communicate his views from the field he knows to the public.
He will be tweeting until December 13 Aleksandar Perovic, director of the ecological movement "Ozone". His posts can be followed on the hashtag #ecologycg.
Lawyers to defend their rights
Among persons with disabilities in Montenegro today, there are the most educated lawyers. According to Vujacic, the majority decision of PWDs to study law may be caused by violated and threatened rights, as well as by the desire to improve this society.
The employment of PWDs also depends on the method and type of education and on the person with disabilities themselves - whether they will actively look for a job or "wait" for someone to find them and hire them, says Marina.
Although the state offers incentives to companies when employing PWDs, according to her, only seven people with disabilities work in state institutions.
"Mostly all of them are oriented towards NGOs, namely organizations of people with disabilities, because they got an opportunity there, and they had no choice."
How to get to the Assembly
The most inaccessible place for PWDs, given their increasing involvement, has recently been the Parliament. Recently, Nataša Borović from the Association of Paraplegics of Montenegro said that this building should be an example to others of how laws are respected.
Marina Vujacic also raised the issue of the number of accessible toilets, citing the example of the Government building where there is one such toilet, but it is locked and turned into a storage room.
"A colleague recently went to the toilet, in the Government building, and barely found it, and then he was faced with the fact that the toilet had been turned into a storage room," says Vujacic.
Even if they have not been converted into storerooms, the adapted toilets are not adequately marked, so even the employees of the institutions where they exist, says Marina, do not know where they are.
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