Morris: Church-run facilities must accommodate disabled

WESTERN BUREAU:

Opposition Senator Dr Floyd Morris, who was recently elected to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, wants Jamaica’s church community to ensure that it supports the passage of the Disabilities Act and that church-run facilities have accommodations in place for disabled persons.

Morris, who is visually impaired, made the call on Sunday while addressing a Zoom webinar for the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s (SDA) fifth annual Adventist Possibility Ministries’ Annual Possibilities Rendezvous, which focuses on acts of outreach ministry for the disabled community and persons with special needs.

“In order for that legislation to come into effect, the Government has decided that codes of practice have to be put in place to ensure that individuals have a guide to prevent discrimination against persons with disabilities. Once these codes of practice have been completed, the church as a community has to make sure that all the services it provides and its institutions are accessible and equipped with the requisite facilities to accommodate persons with disabilities,” said Morris.

“The church has to play an active role in that implementation because the church has a duty to protect the most vulnerable and the dispossessed within the society. We have a duty as a church to ensure we accelerate the pace of bringing these individuals into the mainstream of society.”

Morris recounted incidents where he has noted able-bodied persons taking advantage of parking spaces for disabled persons at churches, an issue which the upcoming legislation will address.

“I go to different churches from time to time, and the churches are very much equipped with parking spaces for accommodating persons with disabilities, but when you go there, there are individuals who are fully abled and who park in these parking spaces. They have no stickers to indicate they have a disability, and that is something that the regulation is going to address,” said Morris.

The Disabilities Act was passed in 2014 and is expected to come into effect during the 2020-2021 fiscal year. The bill will promote and ensure full and equal employment of persons with disabilities, as well as equal privileges, benefits, and treatment similar to able-bodied persons.

In the meantime, Dr Samuel Telemaque, the director of the Sabbath School and Possibilities Ministries Department for the SDA Church’s Inter-American Division, commended the Jamaica Union of SDA Churches for its ongoing outreach to the disabled community.

“There is a major paradigm shift from focusing on just one ministry or one disability, to become all-inclusive and focus on all the different disabilities we have in Jamaica so that all can recognise their value in the eyes of God. Together, we find our wholeness in ministering to each other,” said Telemaque.