Disabled in Croatia?

While researching information about disabled in Croatia, we came across this photo on an article about being disabled - some children pushing their prams carefully and haphazardly down the cobbled stones of Rovinj. The author, writing from a disabled viewpoint, made us realise that one man's quaint cobbled Croatian stone town is another man's nightmare, and so we decided to do a section on Croatia for the disabled. This section assumes slightly more urgency in that when we started researching, what we found was almost nothing. So please help to build this section so that we can give quality information about disabled access in Croatia.

There are two excellent travelogues you can read about wheelchair access tips and more from this camping holiday through Croatia - much more info on their site, www.wheelgotravelling.info, and an account of the Rovinj Orthopedic and Rehabilition Centreby by www.apparelyzed.com.

Some information about public access for the disabled in Zagreb has been submitted here (thanks Gav).

And a question on wheelchair hire in Istria - any ideas?

Probably the best English language resource is http://www.hupt.hr, which includes information on beaches with wheelchair access (http://www.hupt.hr/tourist-e-02.html) and accommodation (http://www.hupt.hr/tourist-e-01.html) and a wealth of other information. According to it's site HUPT, along with its regular activities involving committees and bodies of the state administration participation where HUPT's members actively promote human rights for people with disability, social model of disability and structural changes in a relation of the society toward persons with disability – HUPT cooperates with number of institutions and nongovernmental organizations (Croatian Academy and Research Network, Open University Zagreb, Organization Imagine, Association of Organisations of Disabled Persons in Croatia, Croatian Guide Dog and Mobility Association, Croatian Society for Adult Education, Croatian Helsinki Committee, MAP, Centre for Peace Studies, Croatian Political Science Association, etc.).

An interesting study about life for the disabled in Croatia has been conducted at http://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=43240&lang=en - some information below.

In this paper we look at the disabled persons in Croatia and their employment. The first part takes note of the importance of their employment as emphasized in various international documents and legislation.

The authors observe the actual employment of the disabled people in the Republic of Croatia and their position in the world of employment. The authors use some recent research on the employment issues and the employers’ attitude towards the disabled persons. Subsequently, the paper analyses the position of disabled persons in Croatia based on the research “Disabled persons and the life quality of their families” in which 468 persons from all over Croatia were surveyed. Data were gathered using a semi-structured questionnaire. Indexes used in the analysis included working status, self-evaluation of the financial situation, housing conditions, the scale which evaluated emotions and life satisfaction of disabled persons.

In order to analyse statistically significant differences we especially considered employed and unemployed disabled persons on the sample of 206 persons. There were 60 employed and 146 unemployed people among them. The other 252 persons were retired or users of some other resources.

There is also an interesting American programme for community and social building: Creating Places of Nurture for Disabled Children in Croatia - more info can be found at http://larch.be.washington.edu/features/design_build/croatia/croatia.php

More info on the 1300 wheelchairs delivered to Croatia at www.wheelchairfoundation.org

The Croatian Union of Physically Disabled Persons Associations (www.hsuti.hr) is doing some great advocacy work at grass roots level - more information about its initiatives and successes on the website. It is an independent, voluntary, nongovernmental, nonprofit organization. It was founded at the Sisters of Mercy Hospital in 1970, on the initiative of several physicians and patients with spinal impairments. CUPDPA operates on the national level as a union of associations.

It provides informational, educational and technical support to its members on the local level in their efforts to protect the rights and improve the quality of life of persons with physical disabilities. CUPDPA assembles 71 local associations of disabled persons from almost all major cities in Croatia, with a total of 13,537 members. Although each local member association is independent, their joint activities through CUPDPA produce better results in protecting and furthering human rights of persons with physical disabilities as well as in systematic development of the civil society in Croatia. CUPDPA is intensively working on improving its networking organization.

Its activities to the benefit of persons with physical disabilities have made CUPDPA recognizable in public and have contributed to its expansion – many new associations have applied for membership. Two sections initiated and developed within CUPDPA, the Mine Victims Section and the Section of Students with Disabilities, have now become autonomous associations.

No mention of disability in Croatia would be complete without reference to the war veterans who make up a sizable part of the disabled in Croatia. According to Wikipedia, the Croatian Disabled Homeland War Veterans Association (Croatian: Udruga hrvatskih vojnih invalida iz domovinskog rata, HVIDRA) is an association of disabled Croatian war veterans who fought in the Croatian Homeland War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The association currently has about 33000 members in Croatia.

The association is organized locally throughout Croatia, where it comprises mostly former members of the Croatian Army, and through many parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina where it comprises former members of the Croatian Defence Council. There are also two national umbrella organizations.

The Croatian Ministry of Family Affairs, War Veterans and Intergenerational Solidarity grants former soldiers the official status of disabled veterans if they suffered over 20% disability in the war. HVIDRA is one of the most vocal veteran associations in Croatia, frequently weighing in on the nation's politics.

One final useful website (in Croatian only) is http://www.paraplegia-hr.com

This page is by no means complete (or well organised!) but it is a start. As more content is submitted, some of the info above will break off into individual pages.

Help build the best info resource for disabled people in Croatia

There is very little information in English about being disabled in Croatia. We have made a start, but all contributions welcome!

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