UDC sensitising employees on how to deal with the disabled

Urban Development Commission employees have been exposed to the challenges confronting persons living with disabilities.

And today, the Barbados Council for the Disabled held a workshop at their headquarters, Harambe House, the Garrison, St. Michael, for employees of the UDC to sensitise them to the peculiar challenges which confront persons living with disabilities.

Giving the background to today’s workshop, Operations Manager of the Council of the Disabled, Rosanna Tudor said: “We are all getting older and we are an ageing society. So many of us are living longer and so many of us are acquiring disabilities [after] not being born with them.

“We have many people who are getting into accidents, many people are becoming deaf because of the excessive noise in the society and there is the problem of diabetes. Diabetes exposes us to amputations and also blindness. So you see how disabilities are being acquired?

“And you see we have to prepare for the ageing society, people in mid-life and the baby boomers who were born after the Second World War. We are trying to sensitise persons who interact with persons with disabilities. This is our way to sensitise the service providers on how to recognise disabilities and how to react.”

She disclosed that the disability unit operates three buses, but one is used exclusively to transport school children with disabilities and it is full to capacity everyday.