Those in our communities who live with disabilities often find their voices are not properly heard, and accordingly their professional talents are not fully utilised in business and the workforce. Estimates vary across nations but the Latin American region collectively has some 85 million people who live with a disability. Globally, around 15% of the world’s population – around 1 billion people in all – has some form of disability, and this percentage is expected to grow as more people live to an older age.
So what issues are foremost in enabling economies to accommodate and empower those with disabilities? And what avenues must we pursue in order to make real progress?
Building a Blueprint for Integration
The estimation that 15% of the human race lives with a disability may sound surprisingly high, but the challenge here isn’t the percentage. The real problem is the low conversion rate between those who have a disability yet also the capacity to work, and their participation in the economy. Addressing this issue requires an understanding of how individuals with a disability live, in order to help them build their ideal life and career.
Chile has made strong inroads in this regard. Via the adoption of the Model Disability Survey devised by the World Health Organisation and the World Bank in 2011, in the past decade the Chilean government has developed a data resource through a national survey of those with a disability. This delivered new data surrounding how many Chileans found their disability severe (in contrast to mild or moderate); how many Chileans with a disability were working, and how other issues, like lack of access to public transport, inhibited their ability to participate in the workforce and wider society.
So once you have the data, in what ways do you implement it to assist those living with a disability?
Solutions from Saint Lucia
For Saint Lucia’s National Council of and for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD), enabling economies for people with disabilities requires recognition of multiple aspects that make up their landscape. This, in turn, informs our collective approach to problem solving and building bridges.
The NCPD has a strong record in this arena, not only serving as an advocacy organisation, but also maintaining a production component to its activities. The NCPD’s head office in Castries has a modern, prosthetic leg manufacturing centre where Saint Lucians can obtain durable, high quality prosthetic legs, and at much lower cost than if they had to travel overseas to purchase one. Being able to offer this to Saint Lucians on their home soil is a great point of pride for the NCPD.
The NCPD’s leadership, in serving as a voice for people with disabilities, is well-known, and the organisation is resolute about what steps need to be taken to drive positive change. Merphilus James, President of the NCPD, says that a contemporary key goal is “maintaining public awareness on the diversity of disability in Saint Lucia with emphasis on children and youth with disabilities, both intellectual and physical”. So too, the “engagement with policy makers and employers to ensure the greater employment of qualified persons with disabilities and their inclusion in the workforce in light of Saint Lucia’s recent ratification of the United Nations Convention on The Rights of Persons With Disabilities”.
While governmental leadership and innovation is welcome, the NCPD considers that progress will be most effective when pursued in a personal and communal way. “We want to see more implementation of programmes at the grass roots level which will empower persons with disabilities and their families and will enable PWDs to confidently seek employment,” said Mr James. He wants persons with a disability to “be self employed, to undertake climate resilient agricultural projects such as solar powered aquaponics systems and to be aware of their right to equality and equal access to all public spaces and services”.
Mr James also has an important message for all who support advances but wonder how critical it is to one’s own daily life, and those nearest and dearest, if nobody in your personal network has a disability. “At any moment, anyone anywhere can become a person with a disability through an accident, illness or violence. From the innocent baby to the elder with disabilities, this sector is so diverse and can be visible or invisible. No one is immune”.
Acknowledging the Past, Seizing the Future
This can be a challenging arena in which to achieve constant steady progress. The diversity of disabilities means that the capacity to create a job market or workplace where all possible accommodations are already available is a utopian idea.
It has been this way, in part, because of the failure by previous generations to properly understand and seek to effectively empower those with special needs. In this regard, the current effort of pursuing equality for people with disabilities is in a similar spirit to the work of generations prior in the economy and society, who sought to ensure equality of opportunity for all, regardless of race, gender, religion or other similar identifier. Where people with a disability have the capacity and the desire to work, we must act alongside them to break down outdated and unacceptable barriers.
With the global reach and technological capacity of this generation, advances are being made that can be easy to implement, but significant in impact. For example, wheelchair access to buildings can now be complemented by the installation of sensory LED lights. These are inexpensive and easy to install, but can be a great way to help employees with autism disorders deal with light sensitivity issues.
For those who have disabilities that limit their movement but not their enthusiasm and desire to work, the rise of remote work via the internet offers an opportunity to work at home, or at least free of the requirement to make a daily commute to the office, that could limit their capacity to participate.
Supporting changes big and small today won’t transform an economy overnight but, for someone with a disability who desires a job, it could mean the difference between being able to take it up, or not. That’s why any support for any measure of change in this area is worthwhile.
