TEHRAN – Some 30,000 residential units have been provided to Iranian families with two or more members with disabilities over the past two years, the Welfare Organization director has said.

“Today, 1,943 housing units were handed over to people with disabilities throughout the country, and the construction of 20,000 units has also begun,” Vahid Ghobadi-Dana said.

Since the establishment of the welfare organization, 130,000 housing units have been constructed, of which 104,000 provided to people with disabled members, he stated.

Over 1.3m persons with disabilities live in Iran

Pirouz Hanachi the mayor of Tehran said in December 2019 that over 1.3 million people suffering from disabilities live in the country and the figure rises by 50,000 every year.

Majlis [the Iranian parliament] approved both general outlines and details of a bill on the rights of persons with disabilities in January 2018. Development of disability-friendly cities, free transportation, health insurance, free education, job creation, housing loans, and fewer working hours are some of the articles of the law.

Since the approval of the law, education for students with disabilities have been provided in Azad universities, subsidies for patients with spinal cord injury as well as disability care centers have been increased, in addition to residential units to families having members with disabilities.

Asghar Shirzadi, chairman of the board of the Iranian association of the disabled, said on Saturday that it still seems that the related organizations are not very willing to implement the law; more attention is required.

Disability prevalence worldwide

About 15 percent of the world's population lives with some form of disability, of whom 2-4 percent experience significant difficulties in functioning.

The global disability prevalence is higher than previous WHO estimates, which date from the 1970s and suggested a figure of around 10 percent. This global estimate for disability is on the rise due to population aging and the rapid spread of chronic diseases, as well as improvements in the methodologies used to measure disability.

FB/MG