Better transportation for the disabled coming soon

COMMUNITY Development Minister Joan Yuille-Williams has revealed that differently-abled persons may soon benefit from a nationwide transportation system. Addressing the Annual General Meeting of the National Centre for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD) at San Fernando City Hall on Thursday evening, Yuille-Williams noted her Government was also considering the establishment of a “Disability Assistance Fund” to provide “a wider range of assistance to the disabled.” She said that while Government increased its contributions to the differently-abled through a number of budgetary allocations, she observed calls to tailor the national transportation system to conform to the needs of disabled persons had not gone unheeded.

“Even as we speak government is considering the introduction of a massive transport arrangement in partnership with NGOs and private sector organisations that should cater for the inland mobility of the disabled in our country,” she said. Yuille-Williams said that a new scheme, in conjunction with NP, was being considered as one option to encourage taxi drivers to pick up disabled passengers. She said that government had also noted the need for improved training opportunities for persons with disabilities. “The disabled community itself is telling us that their training needs to be significantly and radically upgraded to allow them to meet the requirements of the modern work environment,” Yuille-Williams said.

Also addressing the AGM was NCPD CEO Beverly Beckles, who observed that the Centre continued to excel at a number of sporting disciplines in spite of not having an “in house transport facility to support our training programme.” “Despite these difficulties, the Centre was pleased that six of its trainees were selected to the national team that participated in the Special Olympics in Ireland,” Beckles said.