RIGHTS OF DISABLED

Disabled workers, who are capable of adequately performing the functions of any posts for which they have qualified themselves, yet have been denied promotion because of their disabilities, have found support for their right to access these jobs in a decision handed down by Justice Carlton Best in the San Fernando High Court on Tuesday. Justice Best issued a formal order on Tuesday that the Public Services Commission promote disabled Prison Officer, Graeme Lewis, to Supervisor of Prisons [Warrants], after wheelchair bound Lewis had sued the State for discriminating against him. Prison Officer Lewis had become a paraplegic after he had been shot while on his way home from work in February of 1990.

In 2002, although he had been advised by the Prisons Commissioner he was being considered for promotion to Prisons Supervisor, Lewis was later told by then Prisons Commissioner, Leo Abraham that the position would  have been too demanding and onerous for him because he was confined to a wheel chair. A constitutional motion filed on his behalf had contended that the failure of the Commission to inform Lewis in writing of its reasons, as well as the grounds for his complaint had breached his constitutional rights. However unintentional, the known reason advanced for Lewis being denied promotion and the procedure employed to advise him  of it had been clumsy. Justice Best’s formal order should be seen as highlighting  the right of access by the physically challenged to jobs for which they are not only qualified but able to discharge and efficiently as well. 

Too often in the past there has been a dismissive attitude toward those who are physically challenged and a suggestion that they could never perform as well as others not challenged even though their qualifications and ability to do the jobs, plus their attitude to work, may be far superior to others better circumstanced physically. Meanwhile, at issue is that the laws and customs of Trinidad and Tobago addressing the rights of disabled persons, in the market place or otherwise, have been and continue to be clearly inadequate. Specifically, however, Justice Best’s judgment on Tuesday will benefit not simply Graeme Lewis and by extension the community of the physically challenged but the entire country as well.  For to deny the Graeme Lewises of Trinidad and Tobago, albeit inadvertently, the right to make the fullest possible contribution to the development of the country is, in turn, to deny the country the right to their expertise and commitment. 

The question should be asked: What informed the decision, conveyed to Lewis by then Prisons Commissioner that the post of Supervisor of Prisons [Warrants], a largely sedentary one, would have been too demanding of him as he was wheelchair bound?  What difference would there have been in Lewis’ performance of his duties from a wheelchair from his perfeormance if it were from an ordinary chair? Who determined that there would have been a fundamental difference, and what was the rationale used? There is need for a conscious rethink of attitudes, long outdated, patronising and discriminatory, which are more confining and restrictive than even the wheelchair of soon to be  promoted Supervisor of Prisons [Warrants], Graeme Lewis!