Legislation may soon come for T&T's disabled community, thanks to international disability rights professionals who are aiding the policymaking process.
John Wodatch is one of these professionals. He is a pioneering disability rights attorney who worked for the US Justice Department. Wodatch wrote the first federal disability rights regulations in the 1970s, and played an important role drafting the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and its implementing rules, noted the Washington Post. Since then, he has devoted his career to enforcing the landmark civil rights law to ensure that those with disabilities have equality in a wide range of settings, the Post reported.
Wodatch visited T&T recently to help advance legislative reforms to improve disability inclusion in T&T. He met President Anthony Carmona and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, and visited several institutions to discuss recommendations on improving services for the disabled.
Wodatch is the second disability rights activist to visit T&T in the past few months. In December 2014, world-renowned human rights lawyer and expert on disability rights, Charlotte McClain-Nhlapo, visited T&T in honour of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. McClain-Nhlapo, who co-ordinates Disability and Inclusive Development for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), met with institutions working with the disabled during her earlier T&T visit, making recommendations on ways forward.
In an interview with the T&T Guardian at the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy in Port-of-Spain, John Wodatch outlined some of his own recommendations.
Identify the issues
He believes there should first of all be a national consultation with members of the disabled community, to identify the issues, concerns and needs important to them.
"An interesting thing about people with disabilities is that an inch at a kerb can seem as big as a wall. Sometimes it can be frustrating for people with disabilities, and for the service providers too, because when they try to provide, if they get just one little thing wrong, it becomes of little or no help," said Wodatch.
Wodatch has advised the Government to make haste and ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The convention has already been ratified by 154 countries across the globe. Wodatch said if the convention were ratified, it would get the ball rolling with legislation and implementation.
Accessible buildings
He also recommended developing a building code to require all buildings to be built with accessibility to accommodate the disabled (and not just for those who are wheelchair-bound); accessible restrooms in restaurants or public facilities; and accessible public transportation–especially buses.
Another issue is communicating with people with sensory impairment.
Wodatch would like to hear from blind people who use service dogs to aid innavigation: are they allowed into buildings with the dogs? Or is this a hassle for them?
"Since I got here, I have noticed there are some efforts being made to make buildings accessible to people with disabilities... The hotel I am staying in certainly has accessible features. I have seen some accessible parking spaces around town. I also see the difficulties of the existing environment in opening themselves up totally to people with disabilities," he said.
Need to lobby for changes
Kerb cuts on city streets and wide, roomy wheelchair-accessible sidewalks may take a while to achieve, he said, but with enough agitation, it can be done.
"There are other things that aren't going to be visible to me that I know are issues that we have in the US. Like: how do people who are hearing impaired, or blind, interact when they go to the grocery store? Who is helping them with their goods and services? Those are things you do not see. I won't expect all those things to be addressed at once, or even overnight, here in T&T, because it took us quite some time to get those provisions for the disabled in the US."
Wodatch said he felt encouraged by the warm nature of T&T people.
"Can I just say that people here are much nicer than those in the US. You are a welcoming, polite society where people go out of their way to speak to you and be helpful. That will help in terms of people being much more willing to assist the disabled. They may not know how to do it, but they will be willing to do it, much more so than people in the US," quipped Wodatch.
Paratransit services
He said in a meeting with the Ministry of the People and Social Development, he learned it had teamed up with the Ministry of Education to develop paratransit services to cater to those with disabilities. He said it was steps like these that will begin to move things along.
"Implementation is always hard, and it's a long process. My own personal philosophy is to set the goals very high, to say: this is a society where we want everybody to be able to do everything that everybody else does. But then to also be reasonable about it, and work steadily towards that goal," Wodatch concluded.