The Trinidad and Tobago Blind Welfare Association is advocating for a change in the perception and treatment of disabilities, beginning with language.
This, from Executive Officer Kenneth Suratt, as he spoke at a Disabilities Workshop for parents and caregivers on Saturday.
The aim of the workshop was to transform how the special needs community interacts with the wider society.
One special needs parent, Shanda Deo-Bickaroo, who is the Founder of Tiny Fingers Daycare Preparatory Centre, is using her journey to empower others.
After 22 years of navigating the challenges of raising a special needs child, she hosted a workshop aimed at supporting parents and caregivers of children with special needs, focusing on their struggles, victories, and the importance of self-care.
“My son, Aiden, he has multiple disabilities. When I had him at the age of 22, the disabilities that was known back then was blind, deaf, and cerebral palsy. Now there are so many other disabilities like my son has visual impairment. He has autism. He has global delay development.”
Reflecting on her early struggles and lack of resources, Mrs. Deo-Bickaroo emphasised the need for a strong community and networks to provide support and practical advice tailored to individual needs.
“I have been in this for 22 years, and some of the challenges that I faced back then, parents are still facing it, and the only way that we can make a change is the special needs community themselves, because we always say we want inclusion, but we don’t put ourselves out there to be included. So this is my way of saying, okay, so here’s what, let’s see if we can, I know it’s difficult for special needs to come out and interact with the typical, let’s see if we can interact with the special needs.”
With this in mind, Executive Officer at the Trinidad and Tobago Blind Welfare Association, Kenneth Suratt, emphasised the importance of eliminating phrases like “suffering from blindness” or “suffering from cerebral palsy.”
“I don’t think people suffer from the disability. People live with the disabilities. So we need to start changing the language. And it starts with your own mindset, where you need to change your ideas how you see disabilities, and you need to stop seeing it as something that we suffer from. We live with disability, and we have fun doing it.”
He also shared how the use of the language can be offensive.
“You’re ‘crippling’ the economy, or you use words that refer to person with disabilities, like ‘blind.’ You know, ‘the blind leading the blind,’ and people are using language in a negative connotation, and it impacts negatively on the blind community or the community of persons with disabilities.”
Mr. Suratt highlighted that the workshop serves as a crucial moment for reflection and action. However, he observed a recurring issue: slow progress.
“Most of the time, the workshops you attend, you almost repeating the same issues over and over. So we need to use workshops to anchor us, or to give us an opportunity to reflect on where we are and where we need to go. So we need, as a nation, we need to go faster. Because when I observe persons who are blind in United States, I always use the United States as the gold standard. And we, yes, we are moving, yes, we are improving, but we need to do it a bit faster.”
Mr. Suratt said there is also a need to reframe challenges as opportunities for the community to come together to strengthen their voice.