Report: Disabled, professional and Jamaican

Finding employment is often hard for persons with disabilities (PWDs) in Jamaica because of the public’s perception of their inability. According to the 2016 “Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions”, more than 80 per cent of PWDs in Jamaica were unemployed in 2014.

The year 2014 was also when the Jamaican government passed the Disabilities Act, which was meant to be a way of protecting the rights of PWDs, including the right to employment. However, for most qualified PWDs, employment is still a dream.

After a car accident, vlogger Deana-Rae Clayton became physically disabled and suffered brain damage that changed her Jamaican accent to a British one. With her unexpected new British accent, Clayton hoped to become a voice actor, but it hasn’t been easy to make this happen. “My neurologist can give me a letter which states that my brain damage will not affect my day-to-day work,” Clayton explains, “[but] I’ve been told, based on my series of disabilities, if a company hires me, … I’ll always be a liability, because they are taking a chance on me.”

The Disabilities Act, which officially came into effect in 2022, promises a legal framework for the formal employment of PWDs in Jamaica. However, old infrastructure as well as social and economic deficiencies make it difficult to realize this goal. In 2018, UNICEF recommended a national apprenticeship or internship programme in Jamaican companies to increase public confidence in the potential of qualified PWDs.

Damion Rose is a blind sound engineer. He hosts two internet radio programmes and co-owns a music production house, but he’s also had challenges on the job market. “The last time I applied for a job in Jamaica was 2013,” Rose says. “It wasn’t a pleasant experience. I was asked: ‘How will you function around the computer?’ Even though I explained that we use screen readers, it was like breaking down a brick wall.”

Change, it seems, can happen only by fighting discrimination head-on. The executive director of the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities (JCPD), Dr Christine Hendricks, said: “Culture and behaviour take time, [but] when the mechanisms of the JCPD start rolling, those who would have been hard-hearted would have to go as far as a tribunal to settle those matters.” Through clear legal policy and education, it is hoped that the situation of Jamaican PWDs will improve.