PROJECTS and resource co-ordinator at the British Council in Jamaica, George Young, is calling on policymakers to pay more attention to the accessibility of transportation and health care for people with disabilities across the island.

“One main concern for me is transportation, as transportation seems to be centred in a particular area only in Kingston in terms of the JUTC buses,” Young, who is wheelchair bound, told the Jamaica Observer during a meeting at the newspaper’s headquarters in Kingston on Tuesday.

“I am fortunate to have a strong support group,” said Young, adding that he can call on family members, colleagues and even members in his community of Fletcher’s Land in Kingston when he needs to get around.

However, he pointed that other people may not be as fortunate.

“I think we need to look at transportation in a more in-depth manner [as] we need to ensure that all public transportation in this country has a lift,” he argued.

A 2001 census by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica revealed that 160,000 Jamaicans were living with disabilities.

Young pointed out, too, that access to health care is also an issue that needs to be addressed for the disabled community.

“Unfortunately persons (in the health system) who you thought would’ve known better, don’t. So you have a doctor who has their private practice upstairs; how does someone access health care in a wheelchair then?”

He noted that members of the blind community are at risk with their reproductive health because there are no condoms with labels written in braille. “So that person can’t tell the expiration date, that person is not empowered to decide when it is that I want to have a child.”

Young further noted that packaging in supermarkets were not braille friendly either.

“[And] not many entities in Jamaica has a human resource policy that speaks specifically to disability employment, and often when entities try to accommodate persons with disabilities they look at the built environment only.

“Accessibility includes and goes way beyond that; it’s how you interact with that person, strategies that you put in place to ensure that they could even work from home for work life balance,” said Young.

“In getting more (disabled) persons employed it is important that a human resource policy is in place that not only guides the employer but also provides a discourse whenever that person with disability feels like they have been discriminated against,” he added.

“Many persons with disabilities may be apprehensive in speaking to someone as to how they can best accommodate them and that again will come because of the attitude as I may reveal to you my limitations and then you may use it against me. This is a discussion that need to be looked at meticulously and it needs to be entrenched in our society,” said Young.

Also speaking at the meeting was diversity and inclusion expert and former Head of City Liaison and London Organising Committee for Olympic and Paralympic games, Haqeeq Bostan, who pointed out that 15 per cent of the world’s population is disabled.

“Only four per cent of wheelchair users are disabled people, so we are looking at different kinds of amends,” said Bostan, adding that only 17 per cent of disabled people are born with their impairment.”

“So most people acquire their impairment, I could quite easily go around this room and say at some point somebody would acquire an impairment. If we are discriminating and not including certain people, then we are not including ourselves, our families or our friends,” he told Observer reporters and editors.

Bostan has also called for greater measures to change attitudes and infrastructure in Jamaica to support persons with disabilities.