The Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) wooed members of the disabled community on Thursday with its plans for them, should it form the Government after the upcoming general election.

At a meeting in St Andrew called ‘A Conversation’ for persons with disabilities (PWDs) and stakeholders, PNP president and Opposition Leader Mark Golding outlined how the $1-billion Disability Fund he has promised if his party returns to power, will be spent.

According to Golding, the fund, which will start with $1 billion, will be spent as follows:

• assist organisations that support and advocate for the disabled;

• support individuals who need assistive devices and aids including wheelchairs, hearing aids and prostheses;

• assist individuals with repairs to prostheses; and

• undertake repairs to sidewalks to make them accessible by wheelchairs users.

Golding committed to placing more persons with disabilities on State boards so that their voices can be heard where decisions are being taken that affect them. To this end, the municipal corporations will be encouraged to establish consultative councils with PWDs in their jurisdictions. This is to ensure that the issues affecting them are constantly ventilated and addressed.

As it relates to housing, Golding said a future PNP Government will not only make them more affordable, but steps will be taken to design and allocate some units that will be set aside in National Housing Trust (NHT) schemes exclusively for PWDs.

“We want to make housing affordable for the people, and we want persons with disabilities to have the best possible chance of participating,” he said.

Regarding the Government’s policy of reserving five per cent of public sector jobs for persons with disabilities Golding said, “It’s one thing to have that requirement on paper, but it’s another thing to actually make it happen. If you don’t monitor and if you don’t measure, it doesn’t get done, so it’s important that we actually audit right across the public sector to see to what extent the different ministries, departments, and agencies are actually employing persons with disabilities, and how they stack up against that target of five per cent. To the extent that they are achieving it, they should be rewarded for that, and to the extent that they fall short, they should be encouraged to look at ways that they can get close to that target.”

For his part, Opposition spokesman on education Damion Crawford said the PNP will expand testing (screening) across all seven education regions. Presently, there are just two testing sites in the country, but Crawford said this should be extended to all 14 parishes.

“We must ensure that there’s ample testing so that we can diagnose the issue early and start early intervention,” he said.

He lamented that with just two screening centres, families are faced with waiting periods of up to four years “which is one-third of the period of time that you’re likely to be in school”.

Crawford noted that the child to be tested in grade one is often not tested until grade five. “And then they only have another seven years in school so that is an unacceptable situation.”

He said the PNP will look at engaging some of Jamaica’s international partners “because some of the skills set for testing are not here in the abundance necessary to utilise”.

Additionally, Crawford said the PNP will look to expand the number of shadows working with children with disabilities and to aggressively expand physical access through ramps and the installation of disabled-specific bathrooms.

The panellists, including Golding, Crawford, Julian Robinson, Professor Floyd Morris and Denise Daley, heard from members of the audience about the challenges they face trying to access Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) and NHT benefits, or to get their children screened for a disability in a timely manner.

Golding, at one point, stressed that the meeting was not a vote-gathering exercise. “It’s really part of preparing ourselves for Government… We obviously would welcome your support at the polls, but we’re really here to ensure that some of the burning issues that have come out today, that we’re aware of them from the get go so that we can try and make a difference as quickly as possible to address some of these terrible situations that we’re hearing about,” he said.

With the World Health Organization estimating that up to 15 per cent of a country’s population experience some form of a disability, this is a significant voting bloc.

And, the attendees gave their hosts an earful.

Camille Weller, a visually-impaired peanut vendor, opined that the private sector discriminates against PWDs, especially those over age 35. She shared that during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, she sought employment as a janitor, passed the interview, but was not called back.

In this video grab Camille Weller, a visually-imparied penut vendor, talks about her difficulties getting a job during Thursday’s meeting for persons with disabilities hosted by the People’s National Party.

She said that in March this year she went to the Electoral Office in St Catherine South Eastern after being told they were recruiting for one-day police personnel, presumably to work during the upcoming general election.

“I was made to understand that they start calling one-day police, [but] Camille PetaGay Weller has not received a call until this day. If you’re saying inclusion, please include visually-impaired persons. We might can’t do the book work because the print is fine, but the one-day police is not difficult. All we need is crowd control training and all these things,” she said.

A mother, Tracy, told the panellists that her 12-year-old son has cerebral palsy (CP); she is also a shadow. She lamented that she is unable to get a NHT benefit as the trust keeps giving her the runaround.

“I believe we have been treated unjustly because there is no way we can get anything from NHT, even though we are being paid every month and the deductions are being paid over,” she said, adding that she was not afraid to speak out publicly as she has to advocate for her son and keep a roof over his head.

She said her child was not given a diagnosis but he was not born with cerebral palsy. He was born with jaundice, which resulted in CP. There was no form of compensation, but I [take care of him] because of the love for my child,” she said.

A bad case of jaundice left untreated can lead to cerebral palsy. In the case of Tracy’s son, all four limbs are affected. She said he spent seven years at a school for the deaf before he was moved to a facility that can better care for his needs. She also said the $6,300 she receives every other month cannot cover the cost of the diapers and supplements that her child needs daily. She said she would like to acquire, through NHT, the house she currently lives in.

Robinson said he would take up the issue with NHT on her behalf.

One father said he had to give up his job to take care of his two disabled children and an adult relative who was terminally ill.

“To get them on the PATH programme is hell,” he said, adding that his daughter was diagnosed with a disability at age three but after four years of back and forth he was unable to get her on PATH. He said his son was diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and he was also struggling to get him on PATH.

“I had a stepfather who was dying so I had three under one roof; I had to stop work just to take care of the three of them,” he said.

Fighting back tears, he said he was now struggling to send his children to school and was on the verge of losing his house because he had to quit work to attend to the needs of his family.

He had a question for the people who administer PATH: “Why is it that I have three disabled persons in my home [and can’t get any help]?”