Cultural Inclusion

The objective of Cultural Inclusion is to demonstrate that persons with disabilities have made (and continue to make) vital contributions to Jamaican culture. The central argument, therefore, that persons with disabilities have made a vital contribution to Jamaican culture fills a critical gap in disability studies, ethnomusicology, and other scholarly research programmes. A solid piece of work that represents a major scholarly achievement, Cultural Inclusion should be a starting point for other researchers to look at areas from the entertainment industry where persons with disabilities have made significant contributions. Importantly also, this pioneering work will provide real data and research analysis for policy makers and decision makers at both the public and private level. Cultural Inclusion will appeal to a diverse audience, as it provides short and lively biographies both known and less well-known Jamaican musicians.

Floyd E. Morris has a Ph.D. in Government with special focus on Political Communication. He is the Director of the University of the West Indies Centre for Disability Studies and has been involved in several research studies relating to persons with disabilities and political communication. He is a veteran parliamentarian, having served in the Parliament of Jamaica for approximately 20 years. In 2018, he was appointed Special Rapporteur on Disability by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Floyd Morris is also blind. He developed glaucoma in 1983 and became totally blind in 1989. Since then, he has been a passionate advocate for persons with disabilities. Additionally, he is/has been friends with some of the individuals who are featured in the case studies. It was for this reason that secondary data sources were included, thus ensuring validity of the central arguments presented in this work.