AN inclusion and diversity summit to discuss Kingston’s development into an inclusive city for persons with disabilities is scheduled for today at The University of Technology, Jamaica in St Andrew.

The summit is being put on by the British Council — the United Kingdom’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.

Yesterday, country director at the British Council Olayinka Jacobs-Bonnick told editors and reporters at the Jamaica Observer that Kingston, as a global city, needs to be an inclusive one.

“By inclusion, we’re not only speaking about inclusion for persons with disabilities, [but] inclusion [is] about other persons who are a part of their lives — persons who may not currently identify as currently disabled. So, equality, inclusion and diversity for all are really the [aim],” Jacobs-Bonnick said.

This summit, she said, is the first leg of a three-part intervention that will be undertaken with Government ministers and ministries and the Hope Educational Estate Partnership.

Jacobs-Bonnick explained that the discussion will explore why Kingston needs to be an inclusive city and how it can happen.

“Equality, diversity and inclusion are central to all of our global implementation. So our aim is to mainstream equality, diversity and inclusion through our programming. We do this in many different ways, but in Jamaica we decided as a team that we wanted equality, diversity and inclusion work to be quite distinct from any other areas of work,” she said.

“So in addition to working on arts, education, social enterprises, and schools, we thought that it was an important opportunity to not only mainstream equality, diversity and inclusion through our key portfolios, but also through areas of work…,” she added.

Jacobs-Bonnick also noted that the output of this intervention will be a road map that will be presented at a public forum later this year. She said that once public feedback and input are given, the road map will be handed over to the ministries and to the mayor of Kingston. A programme that would support the implementation of the road map would then be designed.

This is the British Council’s third intervention this year, with the first being its boys in education week and the other, the Salvation Army School for the Blind and Royal National Institute for the Blind from the United Kingdom.

The summit, the first of its kind, is scheduled to begin at 9:30 am and should end at 3:00 pm.

— Kimone Francis