Health Care Advocate Joe Issa Renews Call for Greater Access to Public Buildings by the Disabled

Joe Issa, who was once temporarily bound to a wheelchair following a knee operation, has welcomed the donation of wheelchairs to elderly and disabled persons in Jamaica, while reiterating his call for them to have greater access to public buildings.

“I commend the contributors and at the same time reiterate my earlier call for more public buildings to be modified to enable access by disabled persons so that they can go on with their life, paying their bills, doing their banking, and accessing services,” says Issa, who is executive chairman of Cool Corporation.Issa was reacting to a Gleaner article in which over 500 wheelchairs were said to have been donated to elderly and disabled persons in Jamaica.

“As one who was once bound to a wheelchair, albeit for a short time, I came to realize what it could be like to be stigmatized as a disabled person; so I welcome the additional wheelchairs, and to state that more are needed to enable greater mobility,” Issa says.

Last year, in welcoming Disabilities Awareness Week To Ocho Rios, St. Ann which is home of the Cool Group of companies, Issa hailed the theme: ‘Inclusion Matters: Access and Empowerment of All People of All Abilities’, said he felt the plight of disabled persons trying to gain access to public buildings to do business.

Recognizing, at the time of his disability, how big the problem of access to public buildings was to people who couldn’t walk, see or hear, Issa shared his concern in a July 20, 2014 article in PRWeb, titled “Wheelchair-bound Experience Found Access to Business Places Wanting �" Joe Issa” at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/07/prweb12055086.htm.

Stating in the article that he experienced a lot of problems trying to get into public buildings in Kingston to do his business, Issa said that “greater access to business places is needed for disabled customers, including the availability of a wheelchair.”

“Recently, I had a rough time in Kingston trying to get to my meetings to conduct business, and for the first time I realized the plight of the large disabled community, many of whom do substantial business on a daily basis, with the level of endurance that requires, as there are no ramps, lifts, or wheelchairs to assist their access to business places,” Issa laments in the article.

It noted a recent unscientific survey which showed that most public buildings did not have a wheelchair to assist persons with physical disabilities. Some of these buildings included Tinson Pen Aerodrome in Kingston, Ian Fleming International Airport in St. Mary, NCB’s Knutsford Boulevard and Half Way Tree branches, the Towers on Dominica Drive and its tenants, such as the Visa Application Department of the UK Embassy.

Issa’s statements were said to have been timely, as it came when an Opposition Member of Parliament was chiding the government for wanting to “pass a Bill requiring that all public buildings provide easy access for physically disabled persons, yet the Parliament building (Gordon House) in which we sit has no such access.”

Jamaica’s National Development Plan �" Vision 2030 Jamaica �" has recognized that only 10% of all public buildings had access for disabled persons.