Spain amends its constitution to replace term ‘handicapped’ with ‘persons with a disability’

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s Parliament has voted to amend the country’s constitution for the third time, removing the term “handicapped” and replacing it with “persons with a disability.” The change has long been a demanded by Spain’s community of people with disabilities. The two biggest parties in the country, the ruling Socialists and the conservative opposition Popular Party, agreed to make the change in a rare moment of consensus. They’ve been extremely wary about amending the Constitution for fear that smaller parties could use the process to make deeper changes to the constitutional monarchy or help the separatist aspirations of the Catalonia and Basque Country regions.