The Caribbean Coun­cil for the Blind (CCB) is urg­ing re­gion­al gov­ern­ments to re­mem­ber those in their pop­u­la­tions with spe­cials needs, even as they craft poli­cies and reg­u­la­tions to com­bat the cur­rent COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

In the Au­gust 2020 bul­letin is­sued by its COVID-19 Emer­gency Re­sponse Team, the CCB points out that the pan­dem­ic, cou­pled with the fact that the re­gion has en­tered the trop­i­cal hur­ri­cane sea­son, pos­es a se­ri­ous threat to peo­ple with spe­cials needs and oth­er vul­ner­a­ble pop­u­la­tions.

The bul­letin is the re­sult of a se­ries of Zoom-based meet­ings first con­vened on Fri­day 3rd Ju­ly 2020, along with sev­er­al writ­ten sub­mis­sions, in­clud­ing COVID re­lat­ed ac­tions ad­vanced by the World Blind Union.

The meet­ings were chaired by CCB Pres­i­dent Ker­ryann Ifill (of Bar­ba­dos). In at­ten­dance were Eye Health and Blind­ness ser­vices rep­re­sen­ta­tives from: An­tigua-Bar­bu­da; Bar­ba­dos; Com­mon­wealth of the Ba­hamas; the Re­pub­lic of Guyana; Ja­maica; St Lu­cia; and Trinidad-To­ba­go.

The bul­letin notes that while some spe­cial needs peo­ple have been in­clud­ed in emer­gency re­lief projects, many are not re­ceiv­ing such ben­e­fits, and their fam­i­lies and friends con­tin­ue to sup­port them, a re­al­i­ty the CCB says must be ad­dressed, be­cause of the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty of this seg­ment of the pop­u­la­tion.

“In the Eng­lish-speak­ing CARI­COM, at least four in every one-thou­sand chil­dren of school age are vi­su­al­ly im­paired, and need spe­cial ed­u­ca­tion ser­vices,” the CCB ex­plains. “Four per­cent or about 240,000 adults are vi­su­al­ly im­paired, as well. They are un­able to use sight-spe­cif­ic ac­tiv­i­ties such as read­ing, writ­ing, dri­ving, lo­cat­ing farm an­i­mals, and even rec­og­niz­ing fa­cial fea­tures.”

It adds: “Of­ten, peo­ple liv­ing with spe­cial needs in our re­gion are in dire sit­u­a­tions. They now face tremen­dous chal­lenges in­her­ent in the com­bi­na­tion of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and an ac­tive hur­ri­cane sea­son. The im­pact on this vul­ner­a­ble pop­u­la­tion can be cat­a­stroph­ic.”

The CCB bul­letin short­lists a se­ries of rec­om­men­da­tions for re­gion­al Gov­ern­ment, which it be­lieves will en­sure that the needs of those liv­ing with dis­abil­i­ties are met, and their rights are re­spect­ed.

Ac­cord­ing to the CCB Emer­gency Re­sponse Team, its de­lib­er­a­tions on these is­sues “are in­dexed against tar­gets ar­tic­u­lat­ed in the Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment goals, the UN’s Con­ven­tion on the Rights of Peo­ple with Dis­abil­i­ties, and oth­er rel­e­vant con­ven­tions and pro­to­cols”.

Rec­om­men­da­tions for re­gion­al Gov­ern­ments

■ Dis­con­tin­ue re­strict­ing spe­cial­ist health clin­ics in the fight against COVID-19. This prac­tice ex­pos­es peo­ple with co-mor­bidi­ties, and there is noth­ing to gain by in­creas­ing death and dis­abil­i­ty, in an at­tempt to con­trol COVID-19.

■ In­clu­sive Ed­u­ca­tion. Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istries must put in place ac­ces­si­ble on­line ed­u­ca­tion sys­tems and fa­cil­i­tate ac­cess by chil­dren with spe­cial needs.

■ Na­tion­al gov­ern­ments must en­sure that peo­ple with spe­cial needs are ad­e­quate­ly rep­re­sent­ed in de­ci­sion-mak­ing re­lat­ing to COVID-19 and oth­er emer­gency re­spons­es, by:

a) Guar­an­tee­ing that all of­fi­cial in­for­ma­tion is pro­vid­ed in a for­mat ac­ces­si­ble to spe­cial needs peo­ple;

b) Es­tab­lish­ment of a hot­line—manned by suit­ably trained spe­cial needs peo­ple—to an­swer ques­tions and pro­vide tac­ti­cal and strate­gic in­for­ma­tion to per­sons who are blind or have oth­er spe­cial needs, as a mat­ter of pri­or­i­ty.

■ Ac­ces­si­ble ser­vice de­liv­ery sys­tems.

a) Gov­ern­ments, and all re­lief agen­cies to en­sure that emer­gency re­sponse pack­ages—in­clud­ing fi­nan­cial aid pro­grams, reg­is­tra­tion process­es, ap­pli­ca­tion forms for emer­gency re­lief sup­port, and trav­el apps—are ful­ly ac­ces­si­ble to per­sons who are blind or liv­ing with oth­er spe­cial needs. Where pos­si­ble, this should in­clude geo-map­ping and sim­i­lar IT and web-based so­lu­tions.

b) Sup­pli­ers of goods and ser­vices are urged to pro­vide such in an ac­ces­si­ble en­vi­ron­ment.

■ Em­ploy­ment. The Emer­gency Re­sponse Team urges lo­cal and na­tion­al gov­ern­ments to pro­vide fis­cal in­cen­tives and statu­to­ry mech­a­nisms which prod em­ploy­ers to re­tain em­ploy­ees, es­pe­cial­ly per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties, who are at a high­er risk of los­ing jobs.