A parking sign on Bofarull Street, 38, in Barcelona’s Navas neighbourhood still uses the banned term “minusvàlid” for people with disabilities. The sign was seen on 22 May 2026, years after legal changes in Spain and Catalonia pushed public bodies towards inclusive language.

Spanish law changed in February 2024, when Article 49 of the Constitution was updated to use “person with a disability”. The Generalitat stopped using the term in official administration in 2013. Catalan rules, including the amendment to Book Four of the Catalan Civil Code in 2019 and the Law on Equal Treatment and Non-Discrimination in 2020, also use “people with disabilities”.

The Barcelona City Council said the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, approved in 2006 and in force in Spain since 2008, also uses “persons with disabilities”. The convention has shaped later legal changes, according to municipal sources. Even so, the sign in Navas has been there for years.

Junts councillor Neus Munté, a former Catalan welfare minister, said the word is “inadmissible” in Barcelona today and called for the sign to be changed quickly. ERC councillor Eva Baró said it was hard to believe the city could still be so careless in public spaces when it comes to functional diversity.

The issue is not isolated. Three years ago, Toni Sanz, a local police officer in Molins de Rei and a judicial expert, already flagged the same sign on LinkedIn. He told Tot Barcelona that public administrations often talk about equality and inclusion, but do not always act on it. The Municipal Institute for People with Disabilities (IMPD) says the City Council should work from a human rights approach and apply universal accessibility criteria.

This comes after Tot Barcelona also reported that the City Council had breached Catalan accessibility rules over disability parking card validity periods. For more Barcelona coverage, see our community stories and sport updates. You can also join our Barcelona English Speakers community on WhatsApp.

Originally published by Tot Barcelona. Read the original article.