Floyd Morris | Integrate accessibility and inclusion for more resilient post-Melissa Jamaica

Jamaica has agreed to a number of international agreements that bind it to providing an accessible and inclusive environment for persons with disabilities. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) come readily to mind.

The UNCRPD in Article 9 mandates States Parties to create an accessible environment for persons with disabilities. Similarly, Article 19 requires that measures be put in place to facilitate the independent living of persons with disabilities in their communities. Notably, Goal 9 of the SDGs requires that countries build inclusive cities to accommodate persons with disabilities.

The local normative framework also makes provisions for an inclusive and accessible society. The Disabilities Act 2014 and the Building Act 2018 delineates such frameworks. Buildings, for example, must be made accessible for persons with disabilities under the Building Act. Additionally, the Disabilities Act makes it mandatory for the minister of transport to provide accessible transportation for persons with disabilities.

Research data has shown that most facilities in Jamaica are inaccessible to persons with disabilities. A study was done to determine the accessibility of Kingston in 2019 by this author, and the city was found wanting. Schools, parks, sidewalks, plazas, health facilities, and public transportation were featured in the study.

There is an opportunity to fix this problem and start the process of meaningful inclusion of persons with disabilities across Jamaica. Hurricane Melissa, while leaving a trail of devastation, presents some opportunities for us to build back with greater resilience and more accessible and inclusive structures for persons with disabilities.

Let the real transformation and fulfilment of our desires to build an inclusive Jamaica begin by making St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Hanover, St James, and Trelawny fully accessible for persons with disabilities. In doing so, schools, health facilities, housing, sidewalks, and commercial buildings must be given priority treatment.

KEY SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

Education is the key to social transformation for persons with disabilities. The UNCRPD, Sustainable Development Goals and Disabilities Act 2014 requires that priority treatment be given to the education of persons with disabilities. Therefore, schools must be built with the requisite accommodations for persons with disabilities. Ramps, accessible bathrooms, classrooms equipped with assistive technologies, trained teachers to relate to students with disabilities, and teaching aids to support students with disabilities are essential features that must be factored in rebuilding schools in the communities that have been decimated by Hurricane Melissa.

Failure to build back with these features will continue the isolation of a considerable number of Jamaicans living with a disability. This will also continue to expose the Government to major legal challenges since the Constitution of Jamaica guarantees the right to primary education for all children, including those with a disability, and the Disabilities Act frowning upon any form of discrimination against persons with disabilities in education, among other things.

Healthcare is foundational to the needs of persons with disabilities. Diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, glaucoma, cataract, measles, and others are major drivers of disabilities. Additionally, violence and motor vehicle accidents are significant contributors to disability in Jamaica. Thus, persons with disabilities are heavy users of healthcare facilities across the island.

In rebuilding the healthcare facilities in the hurricane-affected parishes, provisions must be made to accommodate these individuals. The health facilities must be built back with ramps, accessible bathrooms, proper signage in braille and easy-to-read language, trained staff to relate with persons with disabilities, and a mobile health facility to treat persons with disabilities who cannot move to the physical healthcare facilities.

HOUSING

There is an essentiality to housing for persons with disabilities. Fortunately, in the 1970s, the Government of Jamaica (GOJ) established a policy where five per cent of all houses built by the National Housing Trust (NHT) must be reserved for persons with disabilities. This policy has done extremely well for persons with disabilities who are contributors to the NHT. Such a policy needs to be broadened to include all housing developments that the GOJ is involved with. There is an urgency for this to be done in the post-Melissa era and specifically, in the parishes where significant housing construction will be taking place due to the devastation caused by the hurricane.

Mobility is crucial for persons with disabilities to participate efficaciously in society. As such, sidewalks must be accessible for persons with disabilities to move around independently. Government must make a concentrated effort to build accessible sidewalks in towns and communities in the post-Hurricane Melissa era.

Intrinsic to this is to remove all Jamaica Public Service Company (JPSCo) light-poles from the middle of the sidewalks and place them to the border of the roadway and private/government owned lands. Sidewalks must be cleared for persons with disabilities and others to move unimpeded in the society.

Accessibility for persons with disabilities is not confined just to government owned facilities. It involves private businesses

As well. commercial enterprises, in the post-Hurricane Melissa epoch, must be compelled to have their buildings fully compliant with the law. A zero-tolerance approach must be adopted in this regard as persons with disabilities must be able to access all businesses once they are offering a service to the public.

I have often stated that disability respects no one, so we must build the type of society that we would want to live in if we should develop a disabling condition. One is most likely to develop some disabling condition during the life cycle.

If one misses it in the youthful and productive years, it is likely to happen in the older years. The blurring of vision, arthritic pain, extreme difficulty lifting hands and feet and other such activities are disabling conditions. Think on these things.

Floyd Morris is a professor in disability studies and politics and the director of the UWI Centre for Disability Studies at The University of the West Indies, Mona. Send feedback to morrisfloyd@gmail.com and columns@gleanerjm.com.