A GOVERNMENT Senator, who leads the Barbados Council For The Disabled, is supporting appeals for an affirmative action policy to ensure more people with disabilities are employed.
Failing that, Senator Kerryann Ifill has suggested the administration should at least come up with an approach that gives disabled Barbadians a better chance in their job hunt.
With about 90 per cent of people with physical disabilities believed to be either unemployed or underemployed, Barbados National Organization For The Disabled (BARNOD) president Perro Holloway has joined Ifill in her call, saying that “a door has to be opened or be forced open”.
In an interview with the SUNDAY SUN, Ifill said the pros outweighed the cons of implementing such a quota system.
“I am firmly of the belief that affirmative action would help. It would at least start getting some people employed which is what we want . . . even if perhaps it is implemented with a specific life cycle. I’m not saying to put it there and leave it, but use it as a phase one of an ongoing process of education, legislation, and putting the proper support mechanisms in place,” she said.
Full story in the SUNDAY SUN
