The Trinidad and To­ba­go Blind Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (TTB­WA) has called on Gov­ern­ment to en­act com­pre­hen­sive leg­is­la­tion to pro­tect the rights of per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties, as the coun­try marks its 63rd an­niver­sary of In­de­pen­dence.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion said true in­de­pen­dence would on­ly be achieved when every cit­i­zen, re­gard­less of abil­i­ty, can par­tic­i­pate ful­ly, equal­ly, and with dig­ni­ty in na­tion­al life.

In a re­lease, the TTB­WA urged full com­pli­ance with the Unit­ed Na­tions Con­ven­tion on the Rights of Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties (UN­CR­PD), stress­ing the need for stronger laws that en­sure ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty and ac­count­abil­i­ty.

The as­so­ci­a­tion out­lined sev­er­al pri­or­i­ties, in­clud­ing the in­clu­sion of dis­abil­i­ty com­po­nents in all na­tion­al poli­cies, ser­vices de­signed with uni­ver­sal ac­cess in mind, and equal op­por­tu­ni­ties in ed­u­ca­tion, em­ploy­ment, health­care, trans­port, hous­ing, and cul­tur­al life. It al­so called for com­pli­ance mech­a­nisms to move be­yond in­tent to en­force ac­count­abil­i­ty.

Ref­er­enc­ing the na­tion’s watch­words, Dis­ci­pline, Tol­er­ance, and Pro­duc­tion, the group said these val­ues re­main rel­e­vant to­day, call­ing on the pub­lic and lead­ers to up­hold jus­tice, em­brace di­ver­si­ty, and en­sure all cit­i­zens con­tribute to na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

It al­so point­ed to the na­tion­al mot­to, “To­geth­er We As­pire, To­geth­er We Achieve,” say­ing as­pi­ra­tion with­out in­clu­sion was in­com­plete and achieve­ment with­out ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty left too many be­hind.

TTB­WA ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer Ken­neth Suratt said, “As we cel­e­brate 63 years of In­de­pen­dence, let us com­mit to a vi­sion of a na­tion where in­de­pen­dence is re­al for every cit­i­zen. Pro­tect­ing the rights of per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties is not op­tion­al, it is a con­sti­tu­tion­al, moral, and in­ter­na­tion­al oblig­a­tion. Ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty, eq­ui­ty, and in­clu­sion must be­come the pil­lars of our na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment strat­e­gy if Trinidad and To­ba­go is to be tru­ly free, just, and sus­tain­able.”

The as­so­ci­a­tion said it stood ready to part­ner with Gov­ern­ment, civ­il so­ci­ety, and the pri­vate sec­tor to build a na­tion root­ed in di­ver­si­ty, eq­ui­ty, in­clu­sion, ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty, and sus­tain­abil­i­ty.