President Richards pleads for the disabled

THE DISABLED in Trinidad and Tobago have found a champion in President George Maxwell Richards. He wants the government to pass relevant legislation to assist them. This special legislation, he added, could be along the lines of the United Kingdom Disabled persons Act “suitably adapted to improve the context in which these too often forgotten citizens live and work.” President Richards said on Saturday night that for the short time he has been in office, he has had the opportunity to meet some  disabled persons and some of their representative organisations. “They have spoken with dignity, but in complaint.  They share a feeling of  being on the margins of society by virtue of their disabilities, but even more so, by the relative indifference they sense from the rest of the society,” he observed. With all this in mind, President Richards said: “We must raise our voices in reinforcement of their complaint that the disabled are too often the forgotten and, the neglected as well.” The President spoke at the Rotary Club of Maraval’s tenth anniversary function held on Saturday night. He agreed that it does take resources to provide services. “But it takes only awareness and compassion, and a proper sense of obligation for us to reach out to the disabled in many of the ways they regard as important,” he stressed.