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JAM | Dec 3, 2022

Jamaica commemorates International Day of Persons with Disabilities

/ Our Today

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Between 80% and 90% of persons with disabilities in the Caribbean are unemployed

Opposition Senator Dr Floyd Morris. (Photo: JIS)

Every year, on December 3, the Jamaica and the rest of the world recognise International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The observation comes within the context of persons with disabilities being the world’s largest minority group and the fact that most of these individuals are marginalised in their society.

The United Nations and all its states’ parties have established this day to celebrate the talents and abilities of persons with disabilities, whilst highlighting the barriers in society that continues to marginalise these individuals. The theme for this year’s celebration is: ‘Transformative Solutions for Inclusive Development: The Role of Innovation in Fueling an accessible and equitable World’.

In a message commemorating the day, Opposition Senator Floyd Morris, who is blind, said this year’s theme, “recognises that for us to create an accessible and inclusive world, there must be the development of transformative solutions. Implicit in this theme is the appreciation that modern technologies have a preeminent role to play in building an accessible and inclusive society.”

Transformative development trajectory

He argued that, while there is this recognition that modern technologies must play a quintessential role in this transformative development trajectory of the region, there are some existential challenges. He pointed out that persons with disabilities throughout the region are unemployed with data from the 2017 Economic Commission of Latin America and the Caribbean suggesting that between 80 per cent and 90 per cent of the disabled population in the Caribbean are unemployed.

According to Morris, who spokes on the behalf of persons with disabilities in the Senate and the wider society, “this economic barrier has contributed to persons with disabilities in the region being among the poorest. Thus, most of these individuals cannot afford modern technologies to assist them in participating and being included in the mainstream of society”.

“One can… understand the major challenges that persons with disabilities are having with access to education, access to employment, access to public facilities and access to information, as modern technologies are paramount to these development indicators.”

Senator Floyd Morris

He contended that the issue is further problematised when one looks at the 2022 World Report on Assistive Technologies, published by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children Fund. Data from the report, he mentions is showing that up to 85 per cent of persons with disabilities in developed countries have access to some form of assistive technology.

Continuing, Morris made the point that, “conversely, in the developing countries, only between three per cent and 10 per cent have access to this innovation that seeks to bridge the interactions between persons with disabilities and those without. One can therefore understand the major challenges that persons with disabilities are having with access to education, access to employment, access to public facilities and access to information, as modern technologies are paramount to these development indicators”.

He contended that governments within the Caribbean and other stakeholders must therefore establish progressive policies that will facilitate transformative solutions such as modern technologies that will include persons with disabilities in the mainstream of Caribbean Society.

Morris is reminding the global community that disability does not equate to inability.

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