Minister Acknowledges Past Mistakes Towards Disabled Community, Pushes for Change

The wrongs committed against members of the disabled community are being corrected, says Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Kirk Humphrey.

As he piloted a resolution to approve the National Policy For Improving The Lives Of Persons With Disabilities and the 2023 National Report of the National Advisory Committee, Humphrey apologised to members of that community while stating that the resolution is among the most important work that Parliament can do in Barbados.

“I apologise to the disabled community on behalf of every single Government that has led this country, because it would be fair to say that in a country that promises so much to ordinary people, members of the disabled community can legitimately say that they were denied the benefit from that promise. That kind of distorted development is not the kind of development that we wish for this country . . . .

“But we hope with the work that we are doing as a Government, it is clear that we are determined to rectify these wrongs.

“The life that should have been afforded to many of them has been denied, not by virtue of a disability, but by virtue of an inability of the society to recognise that they have tremendous potential and that we should have tapped on that potential a long, long time ago. That is the work that is now before this Parliament,” Humphrey said.

The debate commenced before specially invited members with disabilities and their supporters yesterday after an amendment to the resolution allowed for debate of the policy as well as the report from the committee which Humphrey said was colloquially known as the [Edmund] Hinkson Commission.

“Clearly, the policy presents some remedy to a number of wrongs that have been visited on persons with disabilities in this country. We also felt it important to debate the report of the advisory committee, because that was the foundation work for the policy and indeed that foundation work saw a level of consultation that I think is unprecedented through the history of Barbadian politics and

of Barbadian policy,” Humphrey said.

Horror experienced

Many members of the advisory committee, he pointed out, either have relatives with disabilities or children, or they themselves have disabilities and the report speaks in detail to the horror experienced by members of the community.

In thanking Hinkson, the minister said it was not about politicians glorifying politicians, because support came from both sides of Parliament throughout.

“I do believe that the work that the Member for St James North has been doing, whether he was a minister, a member of the Government, or an opposition member, or even in his own private capacity, is nothing less than outstanding. I would have asked him to lead this debate if the circumstances in this Parliament had allowed us so to do,” he stated.

The Government, he said, was putting its money where its mouth was, evidenced by the number of things being put in place to accommodate the disabled.

Hinkson, who has been championing the rights of the disabled for more than 30 years, told the House: “This is a day that the community of people with disabilities and their caretakers have been looking forward to with tremendous expectations for a very long time. It can only be surpassed when the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill comes to Parliament.”

Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne also expressed support for the resolution. He appealed to all Barbadians to work at dismantling the physical, attitudinal and linguistic barriers that hinder people with disabilities. ( AC)