Abilities Foundation Removing Barriers

Many Jamaicans go about their daily activities without sparing a thought for the less fortunate disabled persons, but the Government, through the Abilities Foundation, is breaking barriers to make a difference to their lives.
Manager, Grace Taylor, says she cares less about the nature of the disability and more about removing the societal barriers that impede their full integration into their communities.
The Abilities Foundation provides quality vocational education for persons with disabilities, to enable them to function as creative and productive citizens. As of this year, there are over 40,000 registered disabled persons in Jamaica.
A disability can range from an inability to talk, see, hear or reason, to any one of several physical deformities, that prevent a person from carrying out normal physical tasks or activities.
“There is a social definition that speaks to the way the lives of disabled persons are affected by the barriers society imposes on them. So, irrespective of how we might define disability, or how one becomes disabled, society has a responsibility to see to it that these persons are treated properly,” Miss Taylor asserts.
“Persons with disabilities are among some of the most socially and economically disadvantaged in the Jamaican society and the Abilities Foundation is the only institution that seeks to enable them to develop their potential,” she adds.
Located at 191 Constant Spring Road, the Foundation was founded in October 1992. It is a registered voluntary organisation and a community-based training institution with HEART Trust/NTA.
In keeping with its objective of increasing the employability of persons with disabilities, the 16 year-old institution is teaching young adults with disabilities good work ethics and facilitating their social and emotional re-adjustment, to ensure effective integration into the wider society.
The Foundation offers five two-year programmes of specialisation, some of which are HEART Trust/NTA certified and are designed to lead to National Vocational and Qualification of Jamaica (NVQ-J) Level 1.
The programmes offered are: Garment Construction, Furniture Making, Data Operations, House Keeping, Ornamental Horticulture and Landscaping.
“Persons who want to be trained must be at or above the grade nine level of competence,” Miss Taylor tells JIS News.
“Applicants must be at least 17 years of age and must have a disability that is physical, mental, hearing/sight or speech impaired or be a slow learner. The person must also be registered at the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities,” she adds.
The criteria, according to Miss Taylor, enable many disabled persons to qualify, disclosing that the Foundation caters to approximately 94 students, of which 90 per cent are literate or are at the Grade 9 level.
“We have a programme that we call HEART Therapy, that is designed for the persons who have more severe disabilities. It is for those persons who are not functional enough to manage the HEART-based training. This requires a Grade 9 level qualification and approximately 90 per cent of our students reach this level,” she notes.
Miss Taylor says the Foundation is working closely with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, in helping to secure jobs for the trainees.
She informs JIS News that recently, Minister of State in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Andrew Gallimore, announced that he had written to Permanent Secretaries about the allocation of jobs for the disabled.
“Although on completion, trainees find it quite hard to obtain jobs, participation in the programme offers a number of benefits, including counselling support, peer support and work experience,” she points out.
She is calling on the Government and private sector not to look at persons with disabilities as persons who need help or handout.
“Opportunity is not charity. Persons with disabilities don’t need pity, what they need is an opportunity,” Miss Taylor emphasises, and called on the Government and private sector “to help us establish an institution that will offer training of high quality and will also become more self sufficient, because we are training in skill areas and all we need is the right equipment and resources.”
A trainee at the institution, Laurel Matthews, endorses comments made by Miss Taylor. She recalls becoming visually impaired a few years ago, after suffering from an eye disease.
Today, after 17 years as a social worker, Miss Matthews finds herself unemployed, after losing her job due to the impairment. She feels that more needs to be done to cater to the needs of disabled persons.
Now 52 years old, she is calling on the Government, “to be more considerate and quickly create an environment that will allow for persons with disability to develop and utilise their skills.”
“I am asking the administrators of the system to be more alert and sensitive to the needs of persons with disabilities, because there is a great deal of insensitivity towards persons who are not able to function as adequately as the regular persons,” she says.
Miss Matthews is encouraging her colleagues and other disabled persons to be positive, irrespective of the situations they have been through or are now facing.
“I am saying to you all, do not give up on yourself, because of what you have been through or what you are now going through. What we, the disabled, need to do, is to find a way to allow the society to see that they are messing up and they need to look at us in a different perspective,” she tells JIS News.