New strategic plan for persons with disabilities to be ready by mid-February

The National Commission on Disability (NCD) is currently in the process of formulating its strategic plan for 2025 to 2029 which should be ready by mid-February.

At a consultation session on Tuesday at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, Georgetown, Executive Secretary of the NCD Beverly Pile told the News Room that the new plan will reflect more measures to ensure that persons with disabilities (PWDs) have access to the justice system.

Further, the commission wants to see that individuals are employed with the right access in the workforce, and that they be furnished with adequate information, especially digitally.

“Continuing education in the form of information being given to the disability arena…we want to ensure that this happens. We are in the realm of technology now so we want to get digital stuff for persons with disabilities. We also want to continue doing surveys to ensure our data is intact; to make sure it is accurate and current,” Pile explained.

Participants at the session from Regions Three, Four, Five, Six, and 10, joined Consultant/Advisor of Catalyst Plus Canada, Derrick Norton, who is guiding them through the process of completing the plan.

A team from NCD will also be holding talks with persons in Region Two to garner necessary information for the plan. Even persons in the hinterland will be consulted via Zoom.

“So we are going to stretch across the 10 regions in this way in order to garner information,” Pile said.

Along with persons from the disability community, representatives from UN agencies and from the Ministries of Education, Health, Labour, Human Services, among others, are all helping to make the new plan a reality.

Currently, the team is reviewing the previous plan and outcomes so as to improve the new plan and complete whatever work could not be done under the last plan.

According to Pile, the most recent survey done reflects some 22,000 persons with disabilities on the database of the NCD.

She explained that the inaccurate figures of 40 – 50, 000 PWDs often float around because persons with multiple disabilities are counted as different persons. For example, someone with four different types of disabilities may be counted as four persons.

The NCD’s Strategic Plan 2015-2019 had general objectives and strategies of four programme components, namely: capacity building, advocacy for the rights of PWDs, monitoring and compliance with legislation, and the organisational strengthening of NCD.