The government is set to introduce strengthened legislation to protect the rights of disabled people and the elderly, with a focus on improving employment opportunities and access to education, Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Kirk Humphrey announced in the House of Assembly on Tuesday.
In debate on Tuesday, Humphrey highlighted “ridiculously high” unemployment rates among disabled citizens, suggesting that if had his way, employers would be mandated to hire more disabled workers.
The St Michael South MP conceded that such a move would also create its own set of challenges; but, he said much more had to be done to address joblessness among disabled people.
As he led the debate on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities Bill, Humphrey described as “absurd” the employment woes of people with disabilities, whom he said were also being discriminated against even when they were highly qualified and possessed the aptitude for the job.
Humphrey said: “Employers must make a deliberate attempt to hire persons with disabilities. I also believe that through transportation, as we have started doing in education, as we’ve been doing in health, we have to be able to make sure that a person who has a disability is healthy enough to be in school. Because if you’re missing school, you can’t learn.
“And if it is a problem related to health, and that has to be addressed, then we have to address the problem. We have to fix these problems at the core.”
Humphrey said it was unfair and shameful that people with disabilities were still not enjoying full access to all the educational services available in the country.
He said: “We spoke also of education, training, and lifelong learning because education . . . has been the reason that most of us have been able to stand here. That’s the truth. Most of us, born into regular circumstances in Barbados, would not be in this place if it were not for education. . . . Because we were able to be given the chance at education, there’s no justification on this God’s beautiful green earth why persons with disabilities should not have the same opportunity.
“When we engage in conversations and we ask persons to share their stories, as they have over the last few years when you hear these stories, these horror stories coming from the community of persons with disabilities, we do not ask people to share these stories for style or for entertainment, but in the hope that having heard these stories, they compel people to act otherwise.”
On the treatment of the elderly, Humphrey revealed that by March new legislation was coming with special protections for pensioners.
Noting that ministers had already approved the draft instructions, the Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs told the lower House “when we create that new Social Empowerment Agency, it must have legislation that guides the various entities, that is new and that is fit for purpose”. (IMC1)
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