The month of May, which was designated as the Federation’s third Annual Disabilities Awareness Month, featured a number of events highlighting the challenges faced by disabled persons living in St. Kitts and Nevis.

The culmination of the month’s activities came together in a panel discussion on physically challenged persons, which was broadcast live from a ZIZ television studio on May 27. Anthony Mills, president of the St. Kitts-Nevis Association of Persons with Disabilities (SKNAPD), Rockcliffe Bowen, head of the St. Kitts Society for the Blind, and SKNAPD member Sally Norman were the panelists.

A primary focus of the local leaders involved in the fight for more societal inclusion for disabled persons is the possible legislative mandatory enforcement of the provision in the country’s building codes that deals with accessibility features, in addition to the eventual inclusion of the Federation within the family of nations that have signed the United Nations-sponsored Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Convention was adopted by the UN on December 13, 2006, for the purpose of promoting, protecting, and ensuring the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to encourage respect for their inherent dignity.

To date, there have been 144 signatories and 87 ratifications of the Convention, among them nine countries from the region: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. To have St. Kitts and Nevis added to the growing list by the end of this year is a goal set by Mills.

In an interview with The Observer, the president of SKNAPD stressed the importance of becoming a Convention signatory.

“It is wide-ranging, and addresses a lot of issues of importance to persons with disabilities,” he said. “Once a country signs and ratifies the Convention, it becomes part of the law of the land.

“We would like to see the Convention at least signed. We know it’s going to take a while to ratify it, but it has to be signed before being ratified.”

Mills enjoined the public to petition their representatives to get behind the initiative.

“We’re just trying to get our government to catch up, because they’re lagging behind,” he said.

On the issue of the St. Kitts and Nevis building codes, Mills pointed to the section in the Means of Egress area, 603, which reads: “The design of accessways and means of egress in buildings required to be accessible by people with disabilities shall comply with Appendix F [Accessibility Guidelines for Disabled Persons] of this Code.

“We are making small steps,” said Mills, referencing the modest successes of his group, such as the inclusion of access ramps at the downtown Basseterre Post Office.

He posited that the accessibility provisions in Appendix F should be mandatory, rather than optional.

“That shouldn’t be a hard thing, we feel. Its just a matter of getting it to the Cabinet and having them take Appendix F and say, ‘These set of rules are no longer optional, you have to comply with them if you’re constructing a public building,’ ” he said.

According to Mills, this would include any building to which the public needs to have access, including doctor’s offices, businesses, libraries, schools, and lecture halls.

Lastly, he highlighted the link between providing more accessible buildings and the vital tourism industry.

“Families with members who are disabled will not book a cruise to come here, if they know that when they arrive, a member will have to stay on board.”

“The approach to disability in the Federation has got to change,” he continued. “We need the same opportunities as everybody else. If you don’t give us the same opportunities, what is going to happen is that you create a set of dependent people who will put a burden on the resources of the state; but it is an avoidable burden.”