Olive Nelson | Is Disabilities Act a sham?

The Disabilities Act (2014) came into effect in February 2022 after languishing in limbo for eight years pending parliamentary approval of the regulations, which finally took place in October 2021.

It was hailed as a historic feat, and in a media release dated February 11, the Minister of Labour and Social Security, Karl Samuda, encouraged “all Jamaicans to join in celebrating the historic milestone”. The legislation, he continued, “promotes and protects the fundamental rights of persons with disabilities (PwD) in all areas of development” as enshrined in the Constitution. For his part, the Leader of the Opposition, Mark Golding, hailed the act as “one of the most significant pieces of legislation to be passed in Jamaica in this millennium”. The PwD community could, therefore, be forgiven for believing that they could now do more than merely rely on the goodwill of caring citizens and organisations.

On the face of it, the act indeed promises much for PwDs the “same fundamental rights as for any other persons”, among them the right to education, employment, access to healthcare facilities, premises, and housing. Except that the Disabilities Rights Tribunal provided for under Section 15 of the act to hear and resolve complaints of aggrieved parties has yet to be established. This, of course, could take another eight years before compliance could be enforced.

In the meantime, the unspeakable misery being experienced by the members of this community and their caregivers will continue to testify to our hypocrisy. The treacherous and re-purposed sidewalks will remain life -threatening challenges for the PwD pedestrian. Most important, access to public or commercial premises – a fundamental provision of the act – will remain largely ignored, making nonsense of the other rights that, ultimately hinge on it. Hardly anything worth celebrating here.

READILY ACCESSIBLE

Sections 36 and 37 of the act provide that new premises so categorised should be so constructed as to render them readily accessible and usable by PwDs and that the owners/agents of buildings already existing at the time of passage of the act “shall make alterations thereto” to the same end. In a country where developers are often known to flout construction-approval conditionalities with impunity, and with the construction activity currently at an all-time high, who is ensuring that new buildings are being constructed in compliance with the newly promulgated regulations?

The hall on my church premises is an upstairs building. The congregants have been trying for years to amass enough funds to finance the installation of some sort of wheelchair lift for the benefit of our constituency of wheelchair-bound and mobility compromised members. At our last check, the cost of installing a chair lift was quoted as $6 million - $7 million. This, we were told, could be supplied at much less cost had it not been for the significant import duty component. What’s more, none of the leading elevator companies contacted had any alternative suggestions as to how the required access could be achieved without the expensive imported content. My church, therefore, will have to resign itself to manually lifting its disabled constituents to our hall events.

But what of our classrooms and the stated right to education and training? Many of our classrooms are to be found on second-level floors much like my church hall, and for many of them, universal accessibility will remain equally elusive. The executive director of the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities (JCPD), speaking at the launch of Disabilities Week on December 3, expressed concern that “some schools are refusing to accept students with special needs contrary to sections of the Disabilities Act” ( The Gleaner, December 4). However, what choices do they have? How many of these institutions have the wherewithal to install multimillion-dollar chair lifts, among other things, to accommodate students with mobility issues?

REASONABLE ARRANGEMENTS

According to the act, it is the responsibility of the minister of education to provide reasonable arrangements within the education system to facilitate the process. But under the present tight financial budgetary constraints, this is, on the one hand, little more than “basket to carry water”, and on the other, “a promise to a fool”.

Then there there are the families whose ordered lives have been upended trying to cope with the mental and physical disabilities of members. The pain being suffered by a host of PwDs and their parents (usually their mother) who virtually put their lives on hold in the service of their loved one is not likely to change on the mere passing of an unenforceable act. The story of Alethia Buckley, which appeared in the Observer of December 11, is one of a doting mother of five caring for her 19 -year-old son who is ”unable to walk, talk, eat, or pass his stool independently”. She and her other children have had to surrender some of their rights in the interest of a loved one. It is a disturbing account of the challenges faced by parents unable to afford the special-education needs or treatment required by their disabled children and is only the most recent of similar stories existing islandwide, a few of which make it to headlines from time to time.

There were at least three of these appearing in The Gleaner on February 15 – “Disabled folks are not nobodies, says frustrated mom”; July 28 – “Mother sacrifices job for autistic son”; September 19 – “Mother appeals for help with son with cerebral palsy”. To date, there is no indication that anything will change soon for these citizens. The passing of an act will not ensure the provision of all the required relief in just one year, but there should be some indication that its provisions are being taken seriously. The following, if instituted, would give some assurance that the Government has some intention of paying more than lip service to the act:

• The immediate establishment of the Disabilities Rights Tribunal;

• Open a competition to encourage the Jamaican invention of affordable single-floor chair lifts;

• Ensure that new buildings are monitored to ensure there is adequate accessibility provision

• Repair sidewalks, starting with those abutting the Old Hope Road premises of the Jamaica Society for the Blind

• Expand the capacity and resources of the Early Stimulation Unit

• Create in the Ministry of Health and Wellness a unit to see to the needs of persons with severe disabilities.

Until the PwDs and their caregivers begin to reap some tangible benefit from the passing of the Disabilities Act, any further reference to it by the relevant authorities must be seen as merely clanging cymbals. The Government and its agency, the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities, must get their act together and ensure that the act works for our PwDs who deserve better and deserve it now.

n Olive Nelson is a chartered accountant. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com or olivescottn@gmail.com.