Disabled access - we must do more

SOCIAL Services Minister Frankie Campbell.

As of Thursday, May 23, 2019

By Khrisna Russell

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

SOCIAL Services Minister Frankie Campbell said yesterday that too many commercial and publicly used buildings remain only partially accessible to people with disabilities despite a long-passed deadline for them to be in compliance with the law. The deadline passed on December 31, 2017.

However, the minister gave no indication of what the government intended to do to force full accessibility throughout the country, only telling the House of Assembly yesterday that the parliamentary secretary in his ministry, Michael Foulkes, will review the relevant law with the view to ensuring regulations are in place by the end of this calendar year.

He spoke to the issue while congratulating author Kevin Cartwright on publishing his new book “Revelations of a Silent Heart”. Mr Cartwright is blind and has long been a part of efforts to bring the country on par with international disabilities guidelines.

“Members would be aware that matters related to persons with disabilities are included in the portfolio of the Ministry of Social Services and Urban Development,” Mr Campbell said yesterday.

“Since assuming this office I have had the opportunity to meet with many members of the community of persons with disabilities as well as their families, NGOs and other stakeholders.

“These individuals are working assiduously along with my ministry toward the further advancement of the Persons with Disabilities Equal Opportunity Act.

“Since its enactment, it has been noted that too many commercial or publicly used buildings remain partially accessible or only partially retrofitted with regard to the accommodation of persons with disabilities and too many services remain limited with regard to the extent that they fully meet the needs of this community.”

He continued: “We in the Ministry of Social Services and Urban Development are committed to the ongoing promotion and support of the likes of persons with disabilities.

“This commitment is further demonstrated by the priority that Parliamentary Secretary Michel Foulkes has given to reviewing the act with the view to ensuring that regulations are in place by the end of this calendar year and in so doing we also seek to raise public awareness throughout our communities on this subject.”

Mr Campbell made an appeal for more non-governmental organisations to assist with initiatives to advance the cause of those in the community.

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Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 5 months ago

This arse, Campell, should be less concerned about the disabled and more concerned about addressing the very serious problems associated with the delapidated condition of many of our over-crowded public schools. While we all feel for the disabled, we are not a country with unlimited resources and our future well-being as a lower-crime society is much more dependent on our public school facilities than it is on wheel chair ramps being built everywhere by cronies of government in the construction industry. Get the construction cronies to properly fix up the crumbling public school infrastructure first, as a matter of great priority.

Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 5 months ago

Instead of being disingenuously focused on the disabled, Frankie Campbell should be tasked with making his creole brothers both here in the Bahamas and in Haiti understand and appreciate that the Bahamas Government and Bahamian taxpayers are no longer prepared to incentivize Haitians to come to our shores illegally.

It's the fact that we treat illegal Haitian aliens too well that has even more of them coming to our shores illegally. These illegal aliens are treated better then Bahamians who end up serving time for non-violent crimes behind bars in Her Majesty's Hell Hole. We need much tougher new or changed laws that do not give these illegal aliens access to our our financial system and public education system.

We now have many Bahamians who are being treated inhumanely by their own government as a result of the toll taken by the Haitian invasion on our country's limited financial resources, especially in the areas of public education and healthcare.

We need to break off all diplomatic ties with the government of Haiti because it now views these illegal aliens as an important source of hard currency for Haiti and therefore has a policy of encouraging rather than stopping Haitians who choose to come to the Bahamas illegally. From a policy perspective, It makes more economic's cheaper for us to build new detention centres and get the word out that illegal Haitians will no longer be able to live and freely roam among Bahamian taxpayers who can no longer afford to make ends meet themselves as a result of the Haitian invasion.

The Bahamian people have done enough and its high time the human rights groups take the government of Haiti to task for not looking after the interests of their own people. Our government should be billing the government of Haiti for all costs Bahamian taxpayers incur in expanding, building and operating detention centres where the illegal aliens can be held until the human rights groups are able to persuade the government of Haiti to do the humane thing and take their own people back where they belong. Enough is enough!