Discrimination will not be tolerated. This was the message from the University of the West Indies as it welcomed 27 new students with disabilities to its campus. There was also a call to future employers of these students. Alicia Boucher has a report from the special orientation held by UWI.
00:00The University of the West Indies has been holding a special orientation for students with disabilities for the past 11 years.
00:07According to UWE, the 2025 cohort is bigger than usual, 27 students to be exact.
00:13Manager of the Student Life and Development Department, Dr. Jacqueline Huggins, said UWE has also formed strategic partnerships with corporate entities,
00:22enabling students who leave the campus to get internships and even find jobs.
00:27However, she believes more work is needed when it comes to the wider society and how it views people with disabilities,
00:34and she called on students to embrace themselves.
00:37Lecturers and other people on this campus, we have a policy, and that policy says this is how we do it.
00:46This is how we embrace our persons with disabilities, no discrimination.
00:51And any time you feel it of discrimination, you come to SLDD.
00:57Dr. Huggins said the aim is to empower students to tackle the corporate world.
01:02So I want you to be able to handle your stories when you're out there.
01:07I want you to be able to say to an employer, I need a particular kind of chair.
01:13I need a particular whatever.
01:15So this is what we are here to do, to empower our students with disabilities to go out there and to blaze the trail.
01:24Principal of the UWE St. Augustine campus, Professor Rosemary Bell Antwine, through a pre-recorded message,
01:31urged students to access the various services that the university has to offer.
01:35She highlighted that for many of them, UWE may be their first tertiary education experience.
01:42We have had many successful graduates with disabilities, right up to PhD level.
01:48So you can do it.
01:50Professor Antwine said discrimination is very much alive in the workplace, and she had a word for employers.
01:56I urge you to consider diversity in your hiring practices, not to simply check a box,
02:04but because it will benefit you to have your staff truly reflect our world with all of its differences and traits.
02:13This can only go well for you in the long run.
02:16Shamla Maharaj, a UWE graduate, is now a payroll specialist at Scotiabank,
02:21working in client experience for personal banking in the English-speaking Caribbean.
02:27According to her, it came after being scrutinized and even facing toxic work environments.
02:32You are very, very fortunate to be in these times, as opposed to my times.
02:38You are very, very fortunate.
02:40And persons outside there are pushing to become more inclusive and equitable.
02:45The SLDD was formed in 2006 based on an acknowledgement by UWE
02:50that students with disabilities require additional support.
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