Last night we told you about the passage of the Disabilities Bill in the House of Representatives.
Today, we got a deeper understanding of it from Marshall Nunez, the Disability Desk Coordinator who broke down key points of the bill:
Marshall Nunez, Disabilities Desk Coordinator, Women and Family Services Department of the Ministry of Human Development Family & Indigenous People Affairs "The nuts and bolts of the disability bill I think, the primary function is that it's going to establish a disability commission."
"The commission will be so empowered to advocate for and ensure that disability policy for the country is established and ensure that whatever is set forth in the policy is carried out. There will also be secretariat because as the commission as you may know is going to meet when it's necessary but the secretariat is going to be established so that people can come to the commission by way of the secretariat.Also established within the legislation there will be a national tribunal, so that people who believe that they are aggrieved by anything that is within this law have a way to express their grievances. The commission is very important to the legislation especially for ordinary people.The legislation will also set out or hope to set out the establishment of a national disability register."
"Now let us look at the meat of the legislation if you will. It will protect the rights and dignity of people living with disabilities in areas such as education,there has to be access to education for persons with disabilities, equal to those people who aren't living with disability and there should be no additional cost or pressure to people living with disability. As a matter of fact in the legislation there should be reasonable accommodation made for persons living with disability in the education system, in the health system. There should be social protection for people living with disability and in the future even social assistance. The bill also provides an incentive for employers to employ people living with disabilities and when they do employ people with disability they will be paid equal to people who are employed that are not living with disabilities."
Nunez says that universal access is paramount in the legislation, especially access to public buildings and transportation.
