THE development strategy of the differently-able people bill must permit the material and cultural condition of all disabled people to improve simultaneously.

Both ethical and practical considerations require that this should be so. Since all disabled people contribute to the development process, simple justice requires that as the benefits of their work accrue to the nation, they should see their own situation improving along with others. If they perceive that, despite their own efforts, only some categories of people or some part of the country are reaping the benefits of help of transportation, etc.

It is unlikely that they will continue to work with the Ministry of Health and the Guyana Council of Organisations for Persons with Disabilities. Development is likely to be more rapid and more stable if the conditions of all disabled people improved equally at the same time and all Regions benefit from the bill. For this to happen there must be, among other things, a programme for the systemic imparting of skills to the unskilled and upgrading of skills possessed by the semi-skilled.

The continuous multiplication of skills in the society will act as a catalyst for the continuous and dynamic improvement of the disabled and their environment. It must be a matter of conscious policy to discriminate selectively in favour of the disadvantaged to endow them with these skills that are vital to their self-development and the development of the country.

The disabled people voted at periodical elections but, for the rest, they seem to look on from the outside. They may criticise their employer and governmental action for casting them aside without being re-employed after an accident, but they do so as spectators. They do not do so through any acknowledged right to be considered as part of the daily decision making processes of the long awaited disability bill. Hence, their contributions are not as constructive as they should be.
MOHAMED KHAN
Accident victim and disabled