THERE is no mistaking the enthusiasm in Derrick Palmer’s voice or the animation on his face as he talks about the thrill he gets from helping others. Social work is a career to which he has committed himself for more than two decades and which has allowed him to touch the lives of numerous people – many of them disabled.

“I think that social work was a good choice for me. It is so wide, and it opens up a lot of avenues. It broadens your vista on life. It takes in such a wide purview of life,” said Palmer, who is currently executive director for the Disabled People’s Organisation of the Caribbean.

“One of the good things is that you work with people and help them to develop and prosper – people who had difficulties seeing a way out. That’s it. Those are the things that make you feel so good. It’s not the money because nuh money nuh in deh,” he added.

Palmer, who lost his sight completely at the age of 13 to a form of congenital eye disease, has never allowed his disability to deter his efforts at personal and professional success.

“One thing I knew was that I had to go to university. One of the things we (as disabled people in the 1970s) were convinced about was that the way forward for persons with disabilities is integration into the society,” he said. “And for that, tertiary education is a major vehicle. And through the Jamaica Society for the Blind, which we really were in charge of, we decided we had to get blind people educated at the highest level. And I and others were going to lead the way by starting.”

Before he became involved in social work, Palmer worked as an audio typist, having completed study at the Salvation Army School for the Blind. Education, he decided, was key to achieving bigger and better things.

“I realised that the way out was further education. So I worked as a typist to pay the bills, and started out doing some university courses. I registered at the extra-mural centre (now University of the West Indies School of Continuing Studies). I did evening courses,” he said.

“I did a diploma in family life education; in social psychology; business; and industrial psychology. It was still a search for where I wanted to settle so I did them. That was one of the ways that helped me to qualify for the University (of the West Indies).”

But when Palmer turned up on registration day, he found himself challenging the university’s policy as well as a group of people, who either could not or would not see beyond his disability to the man willing to work to achieve his dreams of higher education and a fulfilling career in social worker.

“I was told they wouldn’t register me because no hall would accept a totally blind person because they said they couldn’t cope, and that the university is not built for that,” he said.

“But I said to them, ‘I am here to be registered. I was accepted by the university and I am not leaving until I am registered so let us see what can be done’.”

Several years and a BSc degree in Social Work later, Palmer is still not satisfied with what he described as the “superior” attitude displayed towards the disabled by institutions of higher learning and members of the public.

“Rather than sitting down with you and asking, ‘what are your needs?’ they make decisions for you. That is a problem in Jamaica right now. This is part of the whole ‘dissing’ process in Jamaica, where people feel they are superior and you are inferior. They have to have somebody who they can pity in order for them to have their purpose on earth,” he told the Sunday Observer.

Continuing his story, Palmer recalled that around the time he was scheduled to begin classes at UWI he got word that he was the recipient of a scholarship to the Israeli university, Haifa. Never one to let an opportunity pass him by, he took up the offer – having worked out an arrangement to begin his education locally on his return from Israel. It all paid off. He holds a BSc degree from UWI and a diploma in community development from Haifa.

But even as he pursued his education, Palmer – now a married father of three – was engaged in advocacy for the disabled.

“It was about work and development of the disability movement, and the whole advocacy. We started negotiating with the government for different things, taking over the Jamaica Society for the Blind,” said the former president of the Progressive Blind Association, which prepared a 10-point document for the first disability policy adopted by the Jamaican government.

Palmer was also the first blind chairman of the Jamaica Society for the Blind, having worked as an assistant social worker with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security at the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities. He also started the weekly 15-minute programme Awareness on JBC, now TVJ.

“I wrote, produced and hosted the programme. It dealt with blindness and the issues confronting blind people, the achievements and so on. I introduced others who could do it, and it continued for several years until JBC closed down,” he noted proudly.

He was also among the founding members of the Combined Disabilities Association, and was involved in lobbying for income tax concessions for the disabled. A former vice-president of the Caribbean Council for the Blind and director of the now defunct Deeds Industries Limited, Palmer also served as regional director for Disabled People’s International, North America and the Caribbean region.

“It was quite good, but it was tiring,” he said of his time with DPI. “A lot of it was travel. I finished a whole passport in three years. Possibly my family might not have seen me a lot, but frankly I think learned from it and am a better person for all that experience.”

He dreams of the day when the disabled are treated with respect and when social work is recognised as a profession.

“It (social work) has been confused and diluted with welfare stuff to the point that every governor’s wife, every politician’s wife is a social worker, which is a complete misnomer. That, I think, helped to impact on the profession in many ways. But we are getting there. People are beginning to recognise it,” said Palmer.

Until that day comes, he will continue to be his vocal self, engaged in advocacy for the disabled.

“I am bold and outspoken. But, in politics, in administration, a lot of people not comfortable with me. They are a bunch of cover-ups. I am not a yes man. So people don’t love me, but they respect me. But the only time I have a problem is when I go through my gate and people inside there don’t want mi there.”

Those to whom he has served as motivator are many, including head of telephone exchange in the department of information and communication at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), Mary Mitchell-Coombs.

“He is one of my motivators. I became visually impaired at a very challenging age – 22. It was really terrible and Mr Palmer was one of those persons (at that time a social worker with the Jamaica Council for Persons Disabilities) who helped me,” she told the Sunday Observer.

“He didn’t tell me ‘oh, I am sorry for you’. He told me ‘sister, yuh can’t sorry for yourself; life goes on’.

I rerouted my life from there and now here I am. He is the sort of person who doesn’t feel sorry for you. He gives you a line to fish,” added Mitchell-Coombs, who is also information officer for Disabled People International.

She said Palmer was one who could be counted on in a pinch and noted that there was no questioning his commitment to the disabled.

“He will call a spade a spade. And one thing I can tell you is that he is committed to the disability movement. He is also not afraid to come out and speak on issues,” she said.

In the years since she lost vision in her “good eye” (the other having been affected by cataract), she has come to call Palmer a friend.

“It was with his help, his motivation that I was re-elected in 2002 (as regional chairperson for Disabled People International, having served an initial four-year term),” Mitchell-Coombs said. “He gave me guidance along the way, told me when to advocate, etc. You could learn from him and not in a destructive way. I can always go to him as a resource person to speak.”

Palmer’s wife of 22 years, Danette is proud of him.

“When I first met him, I was impressed with how he seemed very independent. Many people feel it is sympathy why you want to be with this person, but if I didn’t like this person I wouldn’t be with him at all,” said Danette, who works as a teacher with the Randolph Lopez School of Hope.

“I was impressed with his level of independence and his general knowledge. At home as a husband he is very helpful. I usually think of my father as a measuring stick and apart from the fact that he is blind, he is the chief cook at home.”

She notes that they have been better for all the challenges life has meted out to them.

“We have our times of ups and downs still, but I can appreciate him as a person. As a social worker, he is very helpful to people. He keeps himself very well,” she said.

“One of the things I have to put up with as a wife is his reading. He always tells me that his reading is his first wife. In some cases, we kind of balance off each other – there are times when I will say something and he finishes it off,” she added, the sound of laughter in her voice.

Career social worker Beverly Clarke is inspired by him, although she does not know him personally.

“I couldn’t speak specifically to his contribution, but no doubt the fact that he has risen to the level of regional manager means that he must have made a number of achievements and has been making some mark,” said, Clarke, also president of the Jamaica Association of Social Workers.

She added that Palmer’s continued work with the disabled was invaluable.

“The fact that you opted for this profession, suggests that you are here to help whatever target group you represent. It is important to have multiple areas represented in the social work network.

Like all guidance counsellors, you will find in schools and doctors in hospitals, you have social workers in all aspect of life,” she said.