KINGSTON, Jamaica — Gloria Goffe, executive director of the Combined Disabilities Association, has expressed concern surrounding the snail’s pace at which the Government is moving to retrofit courthouses and other public spaces to accommodate persons with disabilities.

“We know for a fact of some of our members who have gone to courtrooms, and the courts have to come downstairs for them, and that is one indication that the courtroom is not accessible, and persons who have to go there in wheelchairs, especially, and on crutches, have had this experience. I have no doubt that courthouses are not accessible, and I think the statement from the Government that we are doing it, and that we still have somewhere to go, is evidence that we are still not there,” she said.

Her concern follows a recent court case at the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court, where proceedings had to be moved downstairs to accommodate an individual in a wheelchair.

While acknowledging the Government’s commitment to retrofit courthouses to improve accessibility for persons with disabilities, Goffe noted that implementation has been too slow and inconsistent.

Gloria Goffe

“The pace of retrofitting or building accessible public areas, public buildings and public facilities is going slower, much slower than we would like. We know that there has been some improvement, but it’s really incremental sometimes. It’s really incremental. We needed to speed up some more, especially now that we have to conform with the Disabilities Act and with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which we speak about access for all and the need for state parties, governments of different countries, and the need for them to ensure that as much as possible, the access is provided for all persons with disabilities,” Goffe said.

“We’re definitely not comfortable with the pace, and more so even within the towns; outside of the courts, you know, while some progress has been made, it is still slow, and if it is slow in the Kingston and metropolitan region, it is slower still in the rural parts and the rural parishes,” she added.

Goffe also pointed out that accessibility goes beyond ramps and elevators; it includes features for persons who are blind and the elderly—such as proper railings, adequate stair design and elevators that accommodate motorised wheelchairs.

“We also have to keep in mind that physical access in a courtroom is not just for persons who are users of wheelchairs or crutches or that kind of mobility device. It’s also for persons who are blind. So, therefore, the stairs have to be considered. Not that persons who are blind cannot use staircases, but they must have the relevant rails on both sides where we have to go upstairs. So, that has to be taken into consideration even if we are going to continue with stairs. Because depending on the level or the size of the courtroom, if it’s not an elevator, which it should be to go upstairs, there, if we are going to use staircases along with ramps, then we have to also ensure that the staircases are constructed in such a way that it doesn’t pose a danger for persons who have other types of disability and the elderly. Remember, you are talking also about senior citizens who have challenges,” Goffe said.

Goffe is now calling for a comprehensive accessibility assessment of all court facilities.

“I think in time, though, an assessment of the courtrooms will be done to ascertain the level of compliance of these courtrooms and to also indicate to the population the level of accessibility within these courtrooms. Because sometimes, even when they are ramped, they are not to the specification. And even with the elevators, they, too, have to have a particular specification to accommodate persons who are going to be using wheelchairs and especially larger wheelchairs because keep in mind that not everybody uses a manual wheelchair,” she said.

Gharri Lewis, manager of access, compliance and investigation at the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities (JCPD)

Gharri Lewis, manager of access, compliance and investigation at the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities (JCPD), told Observer Online that the council has been conducting assessments of some of the country’s Government ministries, and plans are also underway to conduct an accessibility assessment at the island’s courts.

“I have a pending assessment to actually complete at the Supreme Court. So I’ve actually started to canvas within the judiciary system as well. I have completed an assessment by the Ministry of Justice before. So work is currently being done on it. However, in terms of how accessible they are, I wouldn’t be able to say precisely, like a compliance rate, as I would be able to do after a finish a report,” Lewis said.

He added that these assessments are based on the JCPD’s Accessibility Checklist, which is designed to identify architectural and communication barriers encountered by persons with disabilities in private and public facilities.

“It is of utmost importance to ensure that persons with disabilities are able to gain access to everything that they need to make their lives prosperous and make their lives one that is full of potential. It is currently being worked on islandwide. However, we are a little bit behind where accessibility is concerned, admittedly, and it is for us as a nation, not just for the JCPD, to work on, but for us as individuals to also think about accessibility and think about those of our brothers and sisters with disabilities, as they are no different from you or I. They are the same. They vote. They do every single thing that we do. They go to bars. They go to church. They go to school. So we are all one, and we’re trying to push that idea as well; it will be done at parish courts,” Lewis said.

Minister of Justice Delroy Chuck

Minister of Justice Delroy Chuck acknowledged that while there have been ongoing efforts to renovate and upgrade courthouses across Jamaica, progress in making them fully accessible for individuals with disabilities has been slower than desired.

“Over the last few years, we have started to renovate our courts, to upgrade them, but also to ensure that they have either elevators or the opportunity to lifts that can take persons who are in wheelchairs into the courts, many of which are on the first floor and not the ground floor. The other possibility, which the judges have also used, is to have cases involving disabled persons tried on the ground floor but this is not always possible, because especially in the parish courts, or the courts in the various communities, they are on top of the police stations, and therefore, you know, to renovate those courts involves major adjustments, not only to the courts, but sometimes to the police stations. So this is an ongoing project, but I will admit it is not moving as fast as it should to make it accessible to all the disabled persons who need to use the courts,” he said.

Chuck noted that the Supreme Court and parish courts such as Spanish Town, Clarendon, Hanover, and Montego Bay are equipped with elevators and other accessibility features for persons with physical disability. However, he noted that rural outstations have largely not been retrofitted.

Chuck admitted that procurement delays have hampered implementation but emphasised that funding is available and efforts are underway to address the gaps, with plans to retrofit at least one or two more courts in the current fiscal year.

“There are major plans, and fortunately, in the last few years, funds have been identified. But due to procurement, we have not been able to implement the retrofitting, because procurement frequently stands in the way. But I know that we would like one or two parish courts that have not been fully retrofitted to have these contracts implemented, and that will be done hopefully in this fiscal year,” Chuck said.

As an interim measure, Chuck noted that judges sometimes move hearings to ground floors for accessibility. He also acknowledged that in some cases, families assist by carrying individuals upstairs but admitted there is no standard protocol for this, and practices are inconsistent and ad hoc across different parishes.