On Monday, 20.3.23, State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman took part in a conference marking 25 years of the Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities Law. In his speech, the Comptroller surveyed the extensive activity of the Office of the State Comptroller for the sake of persons with disabilities and said: "The Government and all the public bodies must make the public space accessible to persons with disabilities and strive to fully integrate them in society and in particular in the labor market".
In the Comptroller's opinion: "The main role of the State audit is to be a mouth and ear for populations whose voice is not always heard in Israeli society. There are many strong populations in the State of Israel who know how to stand for themselves; to petition, to demand, to go to court and fight for their rights. It is important to also relate to those populations whose voice is not necessarily heard and to place emphasis on exercising the rights of persons with disabilities, the gaps between the periphery and the center and the low socioeconomic sectors.
The test of a society is its ability to look after all its members, including its obligation to look after the populations worthy of advancement and to strive to realize equal rights for all its elements. Looking after the weak is important not only on account of its contribution to the individual, but also due to its contribution to society as a whole, both from the ethical-moral aspect and from the economic aspect. This is the test of a society's moral backbone, which is the foundation stone of its existence.
My approach is, as expressed both in the audit reports and in the Ombudsman's decisions, that the State authorities must take practical measures in order to realize the rights of persons with disabilities! The State audit shall continue to closely observe and ascertain that the public sector is accessible to the public of persons with disabilities.
In accordance with my policy, the State audit has placed special emphasis on matters dealing with the advancement of the rights of persons with disabilities.
In the audit area, several reports have been published which dealt directly and indirectly with the field of advancing the rights of persons with disabilities.
Thus, for example, the report on the representation of various populations in government-defense companies found that the rate of employment of persons with disabilities in Israel Aerospace Industries and in Rafael (2.3% and 0.58%) is lower than the target set in the Extension Order (3%). Likewise, the conditions determining who is a person with disabilities have not been defined.
The report on making public transport accessible to persons with disabilities found that approximately 33% of persons with disabilities travel on municipal buses every day, as opposed to 15% who travel on inter-city lines; it also found that the Equal Rights Law had not stipulated an obligation to make the inter-city buses physically accessible. Regarding the accessibility of the Israel Railways, the report found that a person with disabilities is required to coordinate his journey two hours in advance and the number of people who could travel at the same time is restricted according to the number of coordinations and the type of disability. It also found that the station platforms and the carriages were not on the same level.
The report concerning consumer protection issues found difficulty in filing complaints by persons with disabilities on the websites of the Consumer Protection Authority and the Israel Consumer Council.
The report concerning the exhaustion of tax benefits found that a person who had been granted tax benefits, such as a person with a 100% disability or a blind person, cannot make a tax coordination on the internet, but only through the Regional Assessment Office.
The report concerning preferential hiring of a variety of populations in the Civil Service found that since 2017 there has been an annual decrease in the representation of employees with disabilities in the Civil Service (representation of 5% in 2017 versus representation of 3.8% in 2019). 86% of the large government bodies (64 out of 81) did not comply with the target for appropriate representation of persons with disabilities".
The Comptroller stressed the importance of the Office of the Ombudsman in assisting persons with disabilities: "Since the day of its establishment, the Office of the Ombudsman has been working to protect the rights of the complainants applying to it. Every year we receive at the Office many and varied complaints concerning persons with disabilities in the different fields of life - welfare, education, accessibility, housing and eligibility for benefits.
Thus, for example: a complainant living in a sheltered housing complex in Haifa complained that whoever enters the complex from the entrance located next to the nearest bus stop must climb 12 steps. She claims that this makes it very difficult for the tenants of the housing complex, most of whom are elderly, over the age of 80 - and some even use a walking frame.
Following the Ombudsman's intervention, a ramp was built, to the tenants' satisfaction.
Another complaint concerning transportation for students eligible for special education services claimed that in the ultra-Orthodox sector the academic year is fixed according to the Hebrew calendar and consequently in this sector the school year starts during the last two weeks of August. Following the differences between the different study periods between the general sector and the ultra-Orthodox sector, there were hitches in exercising the ultra-Orthodox students' right to transportation. Following an investigation of the complaints received at the Office of the Ombudsman, the Ministry of Education determined a procedure whereby the local authorities were under an obligation to transport the students according to the date of "Bein Hazmanim" vacation.