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Notes for People with Disabilities in Costa Calida

Overview of where to go and what to do if you are mobility, sight or hearing impaired - a wheelchair or cane user - and living on or visiting the Costa Calida. Information on the Spanish organisations and facilities that exist for you.

Information for people with disabilities and application forms for the Disabled Person's Card, are available from the local Town Hall (ayuntamiento).
Note: You must be a Spanish resident to qualify for the card.

Most larger towns have suppliers of mobility aids and other equipment for the disabled which can be bought or rented: wheelchairs (silla de ruedas), mini-lifts, mobility scooters, walkers and general orthopaedic equipment. Ask at an English-speaking pharmacy or look in the Spanish yellow pages under the heading "discapacitado" or "minusválido".

Town Halls do make sure that most beaches have areas adapted for the disabled. Good examples are the Calpe beaches, which also offer specially adapted chairs for use in the water. Some beaches are equipped with wheelchair accessible board walks and toilets.

Spanish Associations for the Disabled and Mobility Reduced

Organización Nacional de Discapacitados (National Organisation for the Disabled)
At: Covadonga, 5 - 1º E, Oviedo 33002 Asturias
APSA: Asociaciones de Discapacitados (Disabled Association)
At: Zarandieta, 7 03005 Alicante
COCEMFE: Association for the disabled for their integration in the work place.
ONCE Spanish organisation for the blind (website in English)

Organisations for the disabled on the Costa Cálida

Help Murcia Mar Menor is a registered charity operating in the Mar Menor area on the Costa Cálida and also on the Costa Blanca. Volunteers
provide an emergency and care service to residents and visitors in the area. The service includes loaning medical and mobility equipment to those in
need of it.

Help Murcia Mar Menor
At: Calle Penélope 11, Urbanización Oasis, Los Narejos, 30710, Los Alcázares, Murcia
Tel: 968 570 059
Tel (after hours answer phone): 968 570 059
Emergency: 654 632 077
Website

Spanish International Airports

The European Parliament passed a regulation which will facilitate air flights for people with reduced mobility. This should be put into practice in 2008. The regulations establish that people with reduced mobility should have free, special assistance when needed in airplanes, airports, baggage check in and with flight connections.

Responsibility has been passed to the airports to accommodate the needs of the disabled traveller. Air companies will still be at liberty to provide services to people with reduced mobility.

Vehicles adapted with ramps are available from local companies for transport to and from international airports.

Disabled Parking

Cars parked in disabled spaces must display the disabled sticker or blue badge in the window. A Spanish resident may request a disabled sticker from their local Town Hall.

The blue badge is a standardised European Community disabled person's parking permit which provides parking entitlements to badge holders in all complying European countries - a blue badge from one country is valid in another. A person coming to Spain from another EU country can apply in their home country for this universal badge which allows the use of reserved parking.

However, it is important to note that disabled parking concessions are not standardised across Europe - only the Blue Badge is. Carrying a Blue Badge issued in another EU country gives a disabled person the same rights, while in Spain, as the holder of a Spanish Blue Badge. It is important to note that these may be different to the rights accorded in the issuing country.

Rulings are set at a local level; the following apply in Spain:

Disabled spaces in car parks reserved for disabled people are marked with a wheelchair symbol
Do not park if the space is marked with a vehicle registration number
Some car parks allow vehicles displaying a disabled parking sign to park free of charge
There are no concessions for disabled drivers on roadside parking

Driver's with a blue badge from another European country may display this Spanish translation beside a badge written in another language (text from the UK Automobile Association):

Tarjeta de aparcamiento para minusválidos.

La persona que muestra esta

tarjeta de aparcamiento es un

visitante minusválido procedente de

otro pais europeo, y tiene derecho a

los mismos privilegios de

aparcamiento que un minusválido

residente en su pais.

Modelo de la Comunidad Europea

Other Associations

Calibre Audio Books: UK charity, Calibre, supplies audio books in English on cassette or disk to visually impaired and disabled people. The free service is available to members (registration can be made via the website). Free postal service is available to anywhere in Europe.