By IPS Correspondents
KINGSTON, May 27 1998 (IPS)

These days all that seem to be occupying the minds of Jamaicans is the economic situation in which the country now finds itself.

The financial sector is crumbling. More than 50 financial institutions have either been closed or taken over by the government in the last two years as they have become insolvent. Manufacturing is on the decline, export earnings are down and the list goes on and on.

But there are some persons who, amid all the gloom, feel that they are the hardest hit in this northern Caribbean island, population, 2.5 million.

This group comprises persons with disabilities. They complain that as the harsh economic times take their toll their employment opportunities seem to be getting slimmer and slimmer.

Just under two percent of the population suffer from some form of disability.

With the economic crisis affecting the country, the first persons to be laid off are the persons with disabilities, they say.

The government’s claim that two percent of jobs should be reserved for the disabled, is a joke, some argue.

“Persons with disabilities find it more difficult to get a job than their able-bodied counterparts. It costs the disabled person three times more to survive than the able-bodied person. We are really feeling the crunch of the economic pressure,” says Trevorton Larmond, General Manager of DEEDS Industries.

DEEDS Industries (Diversified Economic Enterprise for Disabled and Self-Help Industries) is a local manufacturer of wooden craft items. Sixty percent of its staff are persons with some form of disability. But now even this company seems to be on the brink of closure.

Between 1997 and the first quarter of 1998 the factory laid off 35 of its 60 workers, 15 of the 35 workers who were laid off were disabled. The workers have not had an increase in wages for the past three years, because earnings have fallen by 70 percent while operation costs have increased by 50 percent.

“The economic crisis is affecting our business severely… We just cannot see our way out. Everything is at a standstill. There is hardly any money coming in to pay our workers, and our disabled workers are the ones who are hardest hit,” says Larmond.

Valerie Spence, chairperson of the Combined Disabilities Association (CDA) an agency dedicated to pursuing the rights of the disabled, says that with the current economic crisis facing the country, there are several companies that are laying off workers and the persons with disabilities are the first ones to be made redundant.

With this development the disabled persons in the society are losing their economic independence, some say.

“There is no doubt that the crisis taking place in the national economy is impacting negatively on the lives of the disabled. Factories and companies are closing or laying off workers and disabled persons cannot go around freely to find jobs when this crisis is taking place,” says Spence.

Fifty year-old Herman Thompson is unable to walk. He has been working at DEEDS Industries since 1983. He assembles craft items. During the early days of his employment, he enjoyed his job and was able to support his six children.

Today his job no longer offers any satisfaction. The uncertainty as to whether or not he will have a job to go to each day is too stressful. He can hardly survive on the 25 dollars he earns each week. And on top of that some weeks he cannot be sure that he will, in fact, receive a salary.

“There is no doubt that the economic condition that is effecting the country is having severe effect on the lives of many disabled persons. I can hardly meet my monthly bills. What I am now getting can hardly pay my rent. We have not received an increase in wages for the past three years. I don’t know how I manage economically,” says Thompson.

Jonathan Walker, a 52 year-old employee at Deeds Industries, is in a similar situation.

“I am employed at Deeds for the past 10 years and I am finding things to be very difficult. It is the first time I see things at the factory in such a bad condition. I have three children to take care of at the moment. Sometimes the children cannot go to school because there is no money to give them. This is getting very bad with us as disabled persons,” says Walker.

Walker says that his expenditure far exceeds his income, and to be in a more comfortable economic position he would have to be earning at least 111 dollars each week. At present, he too earns 25 dollars per week.

If the situation continues I don’t know how some of us are going to survive,” says Solomon Scott, production manager at DEEDS.

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