The Spanish State has no specific policy to regulate the matter of the ICT with respect to the elderly and/or disabled. However, regulations provided in the country report contain points concerning the universality of the access of all citizens to the ICT as follows:
In a period of 10 years, the maturity and extension of ICT in the Spanish state is expected to match the rest of the European countries, especially concerning the use of these technologies by the elderly. However, for the moment, the elderly in Spain are faced with two fundamental barriers to their access to ICT. On the one hand, there are economic limitations, and on the other, limitations of a cultural or generations nature. Concrete measures include the introduction of a tax measure concerning social policies and the elderly, and development of a program of global accessibility.
There are few organised lobby groups in the Spanish State to channel the demands of the elderly. There are some official advisory bodies of the general State administration, ascribed to the Ministry of Employment and Social Concerns. They bring together over 20 organisations of the elderly.
In comparison with the remaining countries of the EU, the Spanish State shows ratios of coverage for the elderly that are clearly lower than the European mean. The discourse on the fostering of independence has yet to be developed properly on the political level. A service such as the Home Help System only managed to cover 100,000 in the whole of the country in 1998, and this is the service in most demand by the elderly collective. The tendency in all these types of services is to standardise basic rules for the whole State that establish requirements, forms of access and contents.
In accordance with article 149 of the Spanish Constitution, the competence for social services lies with the autonomous communities, which will develop it through their respective Statutes of Autonomy. In 2001 not all 17 autonomous communities have full competence in this field.
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