WHEN HE WAS A MERE SIX MONTHS OLD, Elvis Maloney fell from his bed and struck the back of his head, causing him to lose sight in his right eye.
Then at 14, he waved goodbye to seeing anything more of this world. He lost sight in the other eye through another accident.
Today, Maloney keeps working around the clock that he might “see” the day when Barbadians with disabilities are treated as equals.
During an interview with the DAILY NATION at the Centre For The Deaf And Blind last week, Maloney said when he became disabled he “had to continue living his life” because he did not have the time to feel sorry for himself.
“At first it was a little difficult for me to adapt. But I was fortunate in that when I came here [the centre] to learn Braille, I met a blind woman who was very active. She would go to tea parties, garden parties and fairs, and she would always invite me.
“I never really had a lot of time to feel sorry for myself. I comfortably made the transition from being visually-impaired to being totally blind,” he recalled.
“I [also] felt there was a need to offer myself for service if people were desirous of having me. I felt that the Barbados Association For The Blind And Deaf had come to a point where it needed to move forward, and the move forward required vision,” said Maloney as he explained why he volunteered to become president of the association.
While the 52-year-old president thanked those who donated items and money towards the development of the organisation last week, he expressed concern that blind and deaf individuals in Barbados faced numerous challenges daily.
“When I look around at my school days and even my efforts at tertiary level education, there were challenges. Reading material is not readily available to you as a blind person. If you are in a studying environment and you have to have materials either put in Braille, on tape or even reproduced in large print, it takes some time.
“So by the time you get the material, you are behind the class. I would like to see institutions make reading material for study more accessible to blind or visually-impaired people,” he stated.
Maloney also said he would like “normal” Barbadians to change their attitudes towards those with disabilities. According to him, “at the end of the day, it does not take a lot for anybody to acquire a disability. It can happen to anybody, at any time, any age, any race, sex or religion”.
Though he admitted there had been some change in attitude, Maloney said an even greater effort on the part of Barbadians was needed.
“People may see me somewhere and may want to [know] what I want or where I want to go. Instead of asking me, they would ask someone who is with me.
“People think that the most we can do is handicraft . . . . This is a myth – because of the perception society holds,” said the father of two, who noted that in the last two years he had seen no fewer than half-dozen young people join the association because they had become blind.
“These people are sent home from their jobs . . . without anything to do. I would like to encourage Government to seriously look at a subvention to this organisation, with the view that we could sit down and seriously look at how we can do more to encourage [disabled] young people who are in the prime of their productive life,” Maloney said.
“We must continue the struggle and we must continue to push for change. Change will not come unless we are a part of that process and unless we are interested in making change a part of the future.
“If we take a backward step from what is happening now, persons will not be truly in touch with the difficulties we face . . . . The ones who are in a good position to advocate for change are the ones who are affected,” he said.
