JAMAICA has a long way to go in terms of improving the treatment and care of the disabled population according to Dr Mindi Fitz-Henley, president of the Jamaica Medical Doctors’ Association.

As at 2019, the disabled population in Jamaica was estimated between 410,000 to 540,000 people.

In an interview with the Jamaica Observer, Dr Fitz Henley said despite the passage of the Disabilities Act (2014) in February, many places are still in breach of the provisions set out in the document.

“If we are honest, although we just passed The Disabilities Act, many, many buildings still do not have access for persons with disabilities to even get inside. Many of the sidewalks are unable to facilitate persons in a wheelchair or persons of other mobility aids. To get into government buildings, most times, you are unable to get inside,” Fitz-Henley lamented.

“Even hospitals do not always have functioning elevators or ramps for persons to get inside so how do these persons get there? I’ve seen other patients who are in a wheelchair, or some other aid, and they are unable to get inside [hospitals] to even go to physiotherapy,” she went on.

The Disabilities Act (2014) took effect on February 14, 2022. The Act was passed in Parliament in October 2014 and the Regulations were later affirmed in both Houses of Parliament in October 2021.

In a February 2022 release, Labour and Social Security Minister Karl Samuda said The Disabilities Act coming into effect puts the Government one step closer to reducing discrimination against persons with disabilities and to ensuring their rights to education, employment, health, access to public passenger vehicles, housing and premises and to participation in political office and public life.

But Fitz-Henley, who has been exposed first-hand to the heartbreaking realities of people with disabilities, argued that more needs to be done. Fitz-Henley highlighted something as simple as a living situation that could prove to be a struggle for said people.

“How does somebody who lives on a four-storey building walk up? How do they get inside when they are now in a wheelchair? It is impossible — and you know it is not an easy thing to get a wheelchair or a lift added to somewhere,” she told the Observer.

“Thankfully, the Jamaica Council of Persons with Disabilities [JCPD] has worked very closely with the National Housing Trust [NHT] to have grants they can offer people, for those who own their homes — but not everyone owns their home.”

The core functions of the JCPD are assisting with finding employment for persons with disabilities, advocating for them to both Government and private sector, and providing access to financial support and employment.

The JCPD also provides a certificate of registration for people with disabilities, which can be used to prove that someone is registered as a person with a disability and thus allows that person access to certain benefits. People with disabilities can also access concessionary bus fares in the Kingston Metropolitan Area and St Catherine with this certificate.

Zantaye Thomas, founder of Sign Clubs of Jamaica, a youth organisation that serves as an interconnection of sign language clubs across high schools in Jamaica, reiterated that a disability isn’t solely physical.

“I’ve been seeing recently that Jamaica has been making strides to becoming more inclusive of the deaf community than in the past. However, it’s definitely not enough for the deaf to function effectively in the Jamaican society. For instance, in the health sector, many deaf persons avoid going to medical facilities as there is often a communication barrier between doctors and deaf patients, and this creates complications,” Thomas told the Observer.

“The deaf are also most times sidelined in the media as there are generally no subtitles or interpretation for general news stories,” she outlined.

In May, education officials were dismayed with a report from the deaf community that students from this group had still escaped notice, despite the $103-million ‘Yard to Yard Find the Child’ initiative, which began in January and lasted three months to locate children who had not attended virtual or face-to-face classes over the pandemic years. That disclosure came during the ‘National Policy Dialogue on Ending Violence Against Children’ forum held in the Corporate Area.

However, Thomas commended the Jamaica Association for the Deaf (JAD) and other deaf organisations for, “ardently advocating for the deaf community. And I am so honoured that my association gets to collaborate with JAD, and that the various sign language clubs were able to donate toiletries and money for the JAD’s Sponsorship Programme for deaf students.

Thomas said it must also be noted that the deaf community does not like considering their deafness as a disability, as they are capable of doing everything despite thir lack of hearing.

“And so I encourage everyone, especially those in the public and private sectors that may have to interact with deaf Jamaicans regularly, to learn Jamaican Sign Language in order to close the language gap.”