MOSCOW, October 29 (RAPSI) – Over 1,600 complaints have been submitted to Russia’s High Commissioner for Human Righs by people with disabilities from January 2019 to August 2020, Tatiana Moskalkova has reported.

Mostly, the applications contained requests to assist in the protection of rights of disabled persons (314 claims). Others concerned barrier free environment for physically challenged people (224), TV close caption (188), medical aid barriers and bad quality of healthcare assistance (120), rehabilitation equipment’s provision (49), according to the Ombudsman’s report read.

Other issues were also touched in the complaints; among them are social support (299), housing rights (207), pension (106), sanatorium-resort therapy (64), employment (26), educational rights violations (17), the document reads. 

As of January 1, 2020, there are about 11.8 million people with disabilities in Russia, including 5.2 million men and 6.6 million women.