Hoping for Disabilities legislation soon

3/10/2012

ACTING Director of the National Disabilities Unit (NDU), Lloyd Springer said that while none of the countries in the Caribbean currently have National Disabilities Legislation, Barbados is hoping in the not too distant future to have such legislation enacted here.

Speaking yesterday afternoon to students of the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, who are enrolled in the Community and Environmental Psychology Course, Springer said that Barbados is also a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, but is yet to fully ratify it, although he said efforts are moving ahead in this regard as well.

He said that this convention and the relevant legislation are needed to help move the country forward with respect to becoming friendlier towards persons with disabilities and to ensuring that they are able to access all the opportunities that are available to them. He also noted that while there is currently no act in place, there is a White Paper on Disabilities which helps to guide policy.

Springer noted that gone are the days where Barbadians were ashamed of persons with disabilities and the parents of such children hid them away from the public and this, he said, should be commended. The Acting Director suggested that this is in part due to the work of the NDU. However, he said that the Unit, which currently has three social workers, is in need additional assistance to help the differently-abled community. He said that those three officers are stretched somewhat thin across the three zones – South, North and St. Michael, that they have divided the country into.

With that in mind, the Acting Director said while they are currently making do with the staff and volunteers they have, they are in need of other specialist personnel, such as physiotherapists and occupational therapists, to assist in the delivery of their duties and care to the differently-abled population. (JRT)

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