María Fernanda Castro Maya

María Fernanda Castro Maya (Mexico, c. 1993) is a Mexican disability rights activist. Castro Maya has an intellectual disability. For this reason, she became part of an activist group for the rights of disabled people. This group is called "Confederación Mexicana de Organizaciones en Favor de la Persona con Discapacidad Intelectual", which translates as "Mexican confederation of Organizations in favor of intellectually challenged people". This organisation also has the support of Human Rights Watch. The organisation asks that all political parties also help people with intellectual disabilities and learning difficulties. 

She also asks that documents about political decisions should be written in language that is easy to understand. This has been called linguistic accessibility. People who are intellectually challenged should also be included in political parties, and election events.

Castro Maya was part of the Mexican delegation that presented a report to the United Nations about disability rights, and since 2020 she is the regional representative of Empower Us, a group which is part of the global network . Castro also organized the online consultation about political participation of people with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities, and moderated a panel discussion at the Inclusion International World Congress.

She even made a proposal to the 2022 Parliament of People with Disabilities to make an amendment in the Mexico City Civil Code to abolish the requirement that disabled adults still have a legal guardian. The proposal was sent to the  and still hasn't been answered.

In 2022, she was included in the BBC 100 Women list for upholding disability rights in Mexico and fighting for their political participation.

 References 

Category:Disability activists
Category:BBC 100 Women
Category:Mexican activists
Category:1993 births
Category:People with disabilities