Give disabled persons a chance

Employers in Barbados must not shy away from hiring persons with disabilities.

This is the view of Ros Jackson, Managing Director of Caribbean Catalyst Inc., who conceptualised the Kregg Nurse Memorial Scholarship Award, which is now in its 15th year. The award is given to an individual with a disability who has successfully completed at least one year of post-secondary school education in any field, and who is continuing his/her formal education at a recognised tertiary educational institution.

At the offices of Caribbean Catalyst, located in River Road, St. Michael, Ros Jackson sat with Dionna Browne-Findlay, who was diagnosed with systemic lupus and who won the award back in 2010. She was chosen to present this year’s award to the 2019 winner, Tyrell McCollin and first runner up Nikkolai Clarke-Herbert, earlier this month.

Dionna is now an attorney-at-law, having been called to the Bar in October 2018, and Ros Jackson decided to interview her to get a better understanding of the challenges that disabled persons face when seeking employment.

It was during that interview that Jackson pointed out the need for disabled persons to have greater opportunities to obtain meaningful employment, which is critical if they are to be genuinely integrated into society.

“I think what we need to help the market understand, is that hiring a person with a disability is not something that you need to shy away from. In fact, why I am so involved in the Kregg Nurse Scholarship with Catalyst is that I was instrumental in hiring Kregg when I was at Ernst and Young and I would like to share that when we were doing that, I got some opposition from some of the traditional thinkers in the team. But anybody who knows me, knows that opposition would just make me more determined. And the accommodations we had to make for Kregg were minuscule compared to the contrition that Kregg made to the organisation,” she pointed out, noting that the late Kregg Nurse worked in the field of accounting, assisting offshore clients.

Acknowledging that a number of local companies such as the Massy Group and Barbados Light and Power Company have been leaders in terms of hiring persons with disabilities who are well qualified to do the jobs which they have signed up for, Jackson is meanwhile calling on other local companies to become flexible and open minded in taking on those who are differently abled, who are willing to go the extra mile, but just need the opportunity to show their capabilities.

Pointing out that the contribution of a person with a disability who wants to succeed in mainstream society is a boost to any corporate environment, Jackson stressed that differently-abled persons are not looking for pity, but simply want empathy in their quest to excel in the working world.

“I hope all employees will understand that nobody within an organisation with a disability wants to be patronised or have some sort of special treatment. You need to take the time to understand the nature of the disability and then agree with the person how best can we accommodate you, and you would be surprised that it is not any major investment you have to make. Once it is done for the right reason and done well, you would be also pleasantly surprised at how it brings out within your culture empathy and compassion, that will build your team in to a much stronger team,” Jackson asserted.