Over 11,000 persons living with disabilities in Guyana

A survey conducted by the National Commission on Disability has revealed that 11,713 persons are living with a disability in Guyana. The survey was conducted in Regions Two, Three, Five, and Ten, while a pilot was done in Region Six in 2016.
Region Three had the highest number of persons with disabilities, followed by Region Six.

Disabilities were categorised as: physical/mobility disability, visual/seeing disability, hearing/speech disability, learning/cognitive disability, mental health and medical/other disability.
In Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), there were 1,249 recorded cases of which 40.1 per cent of persons had physical disabilities, 20.6 per cent had hearing or speech impediments, 7 per cent had learning disabilities, 23.1 per cent had visual disabilities, 7.4 per cent had mental health disabilities, and 1.8 per cent had other types of disability.
In Region Three (Essequibo Islands – West Demerara), there were 3,896 cases of which 33.7 per cent had physical disabilities, 16.9 per cent had hearing disabilities, 11.7 per cent had learning disabilities, 29.2 per cent had visual disabilities, 5.4 per cent had mental health disabilities, and 3.2 per cent had another type of disability.
For Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), there were 1,588 cases of which 38.7 per cent of the persons had a physical disability, 20.2 per cent had a hearing disability, 8.6 per cent had a learning disability, 18.6 per cent had a visual disability, 10.5 per cent had a mental health disability, and 3.3 per cent had another form of disability.

In Region Ten (Upper Demerara-Berbice), there were 1,718 cases of which 31.5 per cent were physical, 16.4 per cent were hearing, 14.3 per cent were learning, 28.5 per cent were visual, 6.9 per cent were mental, and 2.4 per cent were other.
Avonel Corrica, an advocate and Communications Officer attached to the National Commission on Disability, explained that the data becomes useful for policy makers.
She stated it can be used when Government prepares a budget or plans the construction of new facilities.
Also, to cater for the hearing and speech impaired, public institutions and buildings will be expected to have persons specialising in sign language in place to help with communication.
“We want to ensure that we have figures to place to issues when it comes to disability in the Regions because we don’t want to assume that there is a certain number of persons with disabilities in the Region and there is nothing to actually validate. So, we did this survey to ascertain their needs their capacities, what assistive devices they might need as well as some services they are entitled to for instance education relating to the disability act,” she stated.
This survey has also highlighted to the commission the number of unregistered persons with disabilities currently residing in the country. Corrica noted that with this information, the Guyana Society for the Blind had already tapped into the Commission’s database to reach this demographic.