SIX JAMAICANS are now in New York on a citizen exchange programme that could allow Jamaicans with disabilities access to careers and jobs they might now find out of their reach.
According to a release from the United States Embassy in Kingston, the group, including four persons with disabilities, will get vocational training that they can later pass on to other Jamaicans through the Abilities Foundation and the Jamaica Society for the Blind.
They will be learning to create disabled-accessible web sites using the popular HTML programming language as well as how to use software that enables the visually-impaired to 'surf the Internet.' In addition, they will be learning ways to improve disability training at local centres, including those provided by HEART vocational schools.
Wilbert Williams, the visually-impaired managing director of the Abilities Foundation and Virginia Woods, executive director of the Jamaica Society for the Blind, who is also visually-impaired, are leading the delegation. Other members of the team are Barbara Warren of Churches Co-operative Credit Union; teachers Mitzie Bernard-Mills and Jasmin Lewis of the Abilities Foundation; Barbara Stevens, teacher/supervisor at the Jamaica Society for the Deaf; and Therese Braham, administrative assistant for the Abilities Foundation, who is wheelchair-bound.
The group will visit American groups working to promote rights of the disabled to learn ways to get more persons with disabilities into the mainstream of Jamaican life and how to strengthen community organisations run by and for Jamaicans with disabilities. They also plan to examine the Americans with Disabilities Act to see what legislation would be needed in Jamaica to permit sidewalks, wheelchair access ramps and special doors where possible to allow the disabled easier access to buildings and to the streets.
The project results from a collaboration between the Abilities Foundation in Jamaica, the Western New York-Jamaica Partners of the Americas, and the Western New York Independent Living Project (WNYLIP). Six representatives of the WNYLIP travelled to Jamaica in March to meet with Jamaican counterparts and participate in the first phase of the programme. The group is scheduled to return to Jamaica on June 15.
