Newly elected President of the Dominica Association of Persons Living with Disabilities (DAPD) Michael Murphy said among challenges the association is facing currently relates to disabled persons’ accessibility to institutions and businesses.
Murphy, who is the husband of former President Nathalie Murphy, was elected when the Association held its Annual General Meeting recently.
Murphy said while the association is always concerned about the snails’ paste at which the Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is being implemented, there are “immediate concerns that must be addressed”.
Chief among those concerns, according to Murphy, is the failure of a number of businesses to cater for people with disabilities. In fact he said, “Something went wrong in the design of Roseau.”
“It was worst before than now, but we have advocated a lot of the past 26 years for improvement in the standard of living and the acceptance by the national population that everyone should be treated equally. If you go into town, a person who is visually impaired has some serious problems navigating into Roseau because there are not proper sidewalks in Roseau,” he said.
Murphy said in terms of health and education services, many disabled persons are still isolated here.
“We have only one blind student who has been able to make his way through the secondary school system. That does not mean that we have only one blind child in Dominica. Where are the others? They are possibly in hiding; their parents themselves are not prepared to take the stand which will ensure that their disabled children have a proper education,” he said.
– DNO Correspondent
We certainly need to do something for the disabled. Businesses ought to be given a deadline to conform with requirements to make their business more accessible to people with disabilities. Roseau was built for some good many years but it can still be improved if the government play its part and take care of the sidewalks issue. They find funds for everything else.
I think it is about time the authorities start incorporating access for disabled individuals….at the airport, in town etc.
I quite agree with Mr. Murphy…it is time that the Roseau City Council and the Government Officials responsible for such things put measures in place to cater for those with physical disabilities. Everywhere else in the world have made the effort yet here all these so-called cash injections into the economy doesn’t seem to be catering for the basic needs of the tax paying citizens of this country.