Gov’t Continues to Implement Policies and Programmes for Persons with Disabilities

The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that an estimated 1.3 billion people globally, representing 16 per cent of the world’s population, experience significant disability.

Jamaica has on record about 46,000 persons who have started the process to register as having a disability, of which some 15,000 have completed the process of becoming registered members of the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities (JCPD).

The Government continues to implement policies and programmes to ensure that one of Jamaica’s most vulnerable groups – Persons with Disabilities, who are affected by physical, mental, intellectual, and sensory challenges – can live, thrive and feel included.

On February 14, 2022, the Disabilities Act was passed in Parliament.

It defines a disabled person as one who has partial or complete loss of function in their body, due to illness, accident or from birth, that is permanent.

This loss or difference in how the typical brain works is described as an impairment.

When the impairment affects and renders you unable to operate effectively in your environment because of the physical or social conditions, it becomes a disability.

The impairments that often lead to disabilities can be physical, like the loss of a limb, or they can be mental, developmental, intellectual, or sensory (hearing or sight).

The Government, through the (JCPD), has been championing the cause and working to increase the level of inclusivity for members of the disabled community.

Executive Director of the JCPD, Dr. Christine Hendricks, tells JIS News that the community of disabled persons are those persons who have physical, mental, intellectual and sensory impairment that inhibits their participation in society on equal bases with others.

In explaining different kinds of disabilities, Dr. Hendricks points out that mental disability ranges from persons with varying learning disabilities to those with psychosocial disabilities such as schizophrenia, major depression, and other psychosomatic disorders.

Intellectual disability is defined as having an IQ below what is considered the norm (50 per cent). This is manifested in learning challenges, learning at a different pace, and comprehension level not being sharp, resulting in the individuals having to learn over time how to operate in social spaces.

Meanwhile, physical disability may range from losing a number of digits (fingers or toes) to losing limbs, or spinal cord injury.

Persons with cerebral palsy also fall in the category of having a physical disability although they may also have other categories depending on how the disability is manifested.

Dr. Hendricks discloses that persons living with disabilities can access benefits through the JCPD once they are registered with the Council.

She, therefore, encourages disabled persons and/or their caregivers to make every effort to ensure they are registered.

The registration process starts with an assessment/medical conducted by a professional, such as a clinical psychologist, for persons with intellectual disabilities, and the varying professional psychiatrists for persons with mental disorders or psychosocial disabilities.

Meanwhile, someone with a physical disability should be assessed by a general practitioner or an orthopedic specialist, depending on the type of disability, and this is due to the wide range of physical disabilities.

Once the medical professional completes the assessment, the required documentation, along with biographic information, a passport-size picture verified by a Justice of the Peace, Minister of Religion or any other individual indicated by the JCPD, is submitted to the Council.

According to Dr. Hendricks, after it is confirmed that the applicant has a disability, the individual becomes part of the registered database and is assigned a registration number.

Benefits members may access include start-up business grants for economic empowerment; access to assisted devices such as canes, crutches, glasses, hearing aids, prostheses or wheelchairs; and parking stickers for those who drive or are being driven.

Persons who are employed can apply for income tax exemptions under the Income Tax Act.

Meanwhile, under the National Housing Trust (NHT), a disabled person earning a weekly income of $42,000.99 or less can access a loan at zero per cent interest rate.

For individuals earning $42,001.00 or more, the interest rate is two per cent, and they can also access a grant to retrofit their homes.

Back-to-school educational assistance, ranging from school fees, school supplies, and scholarships (for tertiary students), is available.

The Ministry of Education and Youth’s Special Education Unit assigns personal assistants (shadows) to provide support to a disabled students in the classroom.

Through the Digicel Foundation, persons who are blind, visually impaired, hard of hearing or deaf and are registered with the JCPD can access benefits when they purchase data or credit for their phones.

Identification (ID) cards are also available to registered individuals at a cost.

When this ID is presented on taking public transportation, they pay a concessionary bus fare.

Dr. Hendricks discloses that through the National Identification System (NIDS) ‘Operation Birthright’ Project, launched in 2022, persons with disabilities can access a copy of their birth certificate from the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) free of cost.

Persons registering under the NIDS programme can now have the international access symbol on their IDs.

This will enable them to be identified easier and gain benefits without having to provide numerous documents to prove they are disabled. She says she is encouraged by the response of society and various institutions since the passing of the Disabilities Act.

Information regarding the retrofitting of premises to accommodate the disabled, how to garner training for staff and how to interact with the disabled are some of the requests being made.

Representatives of the JCPD are also being invited by organisations to make presentations and conduct sensitisation sessions, forge partnerships to assist to build out their infrastructure or facilitate service delivery to persons with disabilities.

Dr. Hendricks points out that the Council has also adopted an accessibility checklist through partnership with other disability organisations in the United States (US).

This checklist has been vetted by the Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ) to ensure it meets the country’s standard, which is align to international standards.

According to Dr, Henricks, this list helps entities to check off, in terms of infrastructural access.

It asks questions, provides information in terms of measurement, how signage gives instructions, for example, to persons with visual impairment, or how to make your website accessible.

“This checklist provides a wide range of information to help companies ensure that their space is more accessible to persons with disabilities and the wider public,” Dr. Hendricks says.

“Persons with disabilities are just that, people who have a disability. But they are no less of a citizen of this country and they, too, should be accorded all the privileges, all the basic fundamental human rights as any other citizen. They are no less, and once we understand and take that away, everything else falls into place,” she says.

Persons with Disabilities are protected under the Disabilities Act, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the National Policy for Persons with Disabilities.