Errington Pellington | More analysis needed for efficient Disabilities Act

In 2019, the disabled population in Jamaica was estimated between 410,000 and 540,000 people and the Disabilities Act came into effect on February 14, 2022. The act makes provisions to safeguard and enhance the welfare of persons with disabilities across Jamaica. Which bring me to highlight these 21 different types of disabilities.

1. Blindness – defined as the state of being sightless. A blind individual is unable to see. In a strict sense, the word blindness denotes the condition of total blackness of vision with the inability of a person to distinguish darkness from bright light in either eye.

2. Low-vision means a condition where a person has any of the following conditions, namely: visual acuity not exceeding 6/18 or less than 20/60 up to 3/60 or up to 10/200 (Snellen) in the better eye with best possible corrections; or limitation of the field of vision subtending an angle of less than 40 degree up to 10 degree.

3. Cured Persons Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease (HD), is a chronic infectious disease caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium leprae. The disease mainly affects the skin, the peripheral nerves, mucosal surfaces of the upper respiratory tract and the eyes. Leprosy is known to occur at all ages ranging from early infancy to very old age. About 95 per cent of people who contract M. Leprea do not develop the disease.

4. Hearing Impairment. Hearing impairment is a partial or total inability to hear. It is a disability which is subdivided in two categories of deaf and hard of hearing. Deaf means persons having 70 dB hearing loss in speech frequencies in both ears. Hard of hearing means person having 60 dB to 70 dB hearing loss in speech frequencies in both ears.

5. Locomotor disability – problem in moving from one place to another – i.e., disability in legs. But, in general, it is taken as a disability related with bones, joints and muscles. It causes problems in person’s movements (like walking, picking or holding things in hand, etc.)

6. Dwarfism – a growth disorder characterised by shorter than average body height.

7. Intellectual Disability, also known as general learning disability and mental retardation, is a condition characterised by significant limitation both in intellectual functioning (reasoning, learning, problem-solving) and in adaptive behaviour which covers a range of everyday, social and practical skills.

8. Mental illness or mental disorder refers to a substantial disorder of thinking, mood, perception, orientation or memory that grossly impairs judgement, behaviour, and capacity to recognise reality or ability to meet the ordinary demands of life. But it does not include retardation, which is a condition of arrested or incomplete development of mind of a person, specially characterised by sub-normality of intelligence.

9. Autism Spectrum Disorder – a neurological and developmental disorder which affects communication and behaviour. Autism can be diagnosed at any age. But still it is called a “developmental disorder” because symptoms generally appear in the first two years of life. Autism affects the overall cognitive, emotional, social and physical health of the affected individual.

10. Cerebral Palsy is a physical condition in which muscle coordination is impaired due to damage to the brain. It occurs at or before childbirth. It is not a progressive condition – it does not get worse with time. However, muscle disuse could increase the extent of disability over the period of time. At present, there is no cure available for this condition. Cerebral Palsy is incurable and lifelong condition, at present.

11. Muscular Dystrophy Muscular Dystrophy (MD) is a group of neuromuscular genetic disorders that cause muscle weakness and overall loss of muscle mass. MD is a progressive condition; meaning that it gets worse with the passage of time.

12. Chronic neurological conditions:

• Alzheimer’s disease and dementia

• Parkinson’s disease

• Dystonia

• ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease)

• Huntington’s disease

• Neuromuscular disease

• Multiple sclerosis

• Epilepsy

• Stroke

13. Specific Learning Disabilities is a group of disabling conditions that hampers a person’s ability to listen, think, speak, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations. One or more of these abilities may be hampered.

14. Multiple Sclerosis (MS), where the immune system of body attacks the central nervous system, which includes brain and spinal cord. As a result of MS, the myelin sheath covering on neurons gets damaged. This exposes the nerve fibre and causes problems in the information flow through nerves. With time, MS can lead to the permanent damage to nerves.

15. Speech and language disability that arises out of conditions such as laryngectomy or aphasia affecting one or more components of speech and language due to organic or neurological causes.

16. Thalassemia is a genetically inherited blood disorder which is characterised by the production of less or abnormal haemoglobin. Haemoglobin is responsible for carrying oxygen around in the body. Thalassemia results in large numbers of red blood cells being destroyed, which leads to anaemia. As a result of anaemia, person affected with Thalassemia will have pale skin, fatigue and dark coloration of urine.

17. Haemophilia is a blood disorder characterised by the lack of blood clotting proteins. In the absence of these proteins, bleeding goes on for a longer time than normal. Haemophilia almost always occurs in males and they get it from their mothers. Females are rarely affected with haemophilia.

18. Sickle Cell Disease is a group of blood disorders that causes red blood cells (RBCs) to become sickle shaped, misshapen and break down. The oxygen-carrying capacity of such misshapen RBCs reduces significantly. It is a genetically transferred disease. Red Blood Cells contain a protein called haemoglobin. This is the protein that binds oxygen and carries it to all the parts of the body.

19. Multiple Disabilities, including deaf-blindness, multiple disabilities are simultaneous occurrence of two or more disabling conditions that affect learning or other important life functions. These disabilities could be a combination of both motor and sensory nature.

20. An acid attack victim means a person disfigured due to violent assaults by throwing of acid or similar corrosive substance.

21. Parkinson’s disease is central nervous system disorder which affects movement. Parkinson’s disease is characterised by tremors and stiffness. It is a progressive disease, which means that it worsens with time. There is no cure available at present.

All these conditions may have been identified as similar but not all are the same set of disabilities. It is critical for a more comprehensive study for people with disabilities to get effective disability benefits.

Errington Pellington is an advocate for persons with disabilities, send feedback to erringtonpellington@gmail.com