KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — The Universal Service Fund (USF) continues to give assistance to the disabled community by including a deaf mute in their summer employee cohort.

Chief Executive Officer at the USF, Suzette Buchanan, said that the agency has given a great deal of support to the disabled community over the years, and “we are now stepping up and answering to that responsibility, as the Telecommunications Act speaks to the USF paying special attention to those who are disabled”.

Buchanan said that sometimes people who are born disabled are “stigmatised and forgotten about”.  However, working with them, she can attest to the fact that they are just as normal as everyone else, which is why the USF has decided to employ the summer worker who is able to function in a normal way.

She said that as part of the thrust earlier this year, the Minister of Science, Energy and Technology, Andrew Wheatley, through the initiative of the USF, took members of the disabled community to lunch and presented them with devices as well as modems.

The CEO said that they wanted to support the community, as she believes that people born with the inability to communicate conventionally would greatly benefit from the use of technological devices such as tablets.

“We are talking about technology and communication, bridging the information gap, and Internet access for everyone,” she explained.

Over the years, the USF has given millions of dollars in support to the disabled community, including the Jamaica Association for the Deaf, Abilities Foundation, Jamaica Society for Persons with Disabilities, Salvation Army School for the Blind, St Christopher’s School for the Deaf, Sir John Golding Rehabilitation Centre, and the University of the West Indies Centre for Disability Studies.

The USF is an agency under the Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology mandated to ensure access to information and communication tools to facilitate development islandwide.