Visually impaired persons want laws for disabled enforced

Jun 25, 2012 News

The Guyana Association for the Visually impaired (GAVI) has called for more to be done by the relevant authorities to enforce legislation which protects the rights of the disabled.
Andrew Green, GAVI planning committee member, noted that there is a need for a level playing field for persons with disabilities.
His comments were made during a presentation ceremony for winners of a quiz competition sponsored by Edward B. Beharry and Company and the Guyana Chronicle.

“Winners of the quiz competition.”

The competition was held during April, which was designated Blind Awareness Month.
He said the government and those in prominent positions in society need to put better systems in place so that a person with a disability such as visual impairment would be treated properly.
Green said that the public is not sensitized to the issue thus disabled persons are usually treated as second class citizens. He added that more needs to be done by the Ministry of Human Services to raise awareness about people’s legal responsibility to the disabled.
Green said that even though the Disability Act of 2010 is in place more can be done to enforce its content.
He explained that job accessibility is one challenge faced by disabled persons. Green claimed that he is exceptionally computer literate but that he cannot access a job because people see his disability as a liability, even before they consider hiring him.
He said that whatever a sighted person can do, the blind can also do.
“We are quite useful; we clean, we dress ourselves and we cook without burning down houses.”
He added that the challenges they face cause them to be time conservative. The man said that GAVI can better fulfill its mandate if the visually impaired are given a building to house their operation.
He said the organization has been trying to get a government subvention for a long time now. “We would usually get funding through fund raising activities, non-governmental
organizations and a few public sympathizers.”
The first prize winner of the quiz competition, Farida Mahatoo, said that she was grateful for the opportunity to promote such a worthy cause. Mahatoo stated that she knows that life must be most challenging for those who are visually impaired and that she hopes that the company will continue to support the association and that the event will be an annual feature.
Mahatoo received a laptop computer as her prize while the two other winners, John Massay and Boodmatti Mahabali, received a microwave oven and a food hamper as their respective prizes.