The Ability Foundation • Antigua and Barbuda
Disability should nevermean a lesser life.
The Ability Foundation exists to ensure that persons living with disabilities in Antigua and Barbuda are able to live with dignity, security, care, opportunity and the greatest degree of independence their circumstances permit.
We advocate for people. We support families. We investigate barriers. We develop policy. And where existing systems fail to meet legitimate human needs, we work to change those systems.
Advocacy • Casework • Policy Development • Research • Coordination • Partnerships
Our Starting Point
Ability is not all or nothing.
Disability is not a single human experience.
One person may use a wheelchair and remain fully capable of employment and independent living. Another may retain complete physical mobility while living with a psychological, cognitive or neurological condition that severely limits independent functioning.
Someone else may require assistance every hour of every day.
Treating all of these people as though their needs are identical does not create equality. It creates inequity.
The Ability Foundation advocates for a system in which support is determined by the realities of the individual: what a person can do, what that person cannot reasonably do, what barriers stand in the way, and what support is required for that person to live with dignity.
How We Work
An advocacy, casework, research and coordination organization.
- We support individuals.
- We strengthen families.
- We document barriers.
- We coordinate where appropriate.
- We develop policy.
- We build evidence.
- We mobilize resources.
- We work with others.
- We seek systemic change.
Direct financial and material support is a future part of our work and remains in development. We do not seek to replace existing disability organizations; we welcome collaboration without absorption.
Working Together with PartnersOur Two Pillars
Care and support
Care and support are not acts of pity. For many persons living with significant disabilities, they are the infrastructure that makes life possible.
Care
Care means ensuring that a person whose circumstances require assistance is not abandoned to manage needs they physically, psychologically or financially cannot meet alone.
It includes medical care, personal care, appropriate living conditions, caregiver support, safety, dignity and continuity of assistance.
Support
Support means giving people the resources necessary to participate in their own lives.
That may include income assistance, food, housing, utilities, transportation, assistive technology, medical equipment, workplace accommodation, education, advocacy and access to opportunity.
The objective is not merely survival. The objective is a good quality of life.
What We Do
From individual cases to national change
Advocacy & Casework
We help persons living with disabilities and their families understand systems, document problems, pursue services, challenge barriers and advocate for fair treatment.
Get Advocacy SupportDirect Assistance
The Foundation intends to mobilize grants, donations, partnerships and other resources to help address legitimate disability-related needs that existing systems fail to meet.
Explore Support ProgramsPublic Education
We work to replace stereotypes and assumptions with knowledge — helping the public understand disability, functional limitation, accessibility, accommodation and the lived realities of persons with disabilities.
Learn MoreResearch & Data
Good policy requires good information. The Foundation will gather ethical, consent-based information about disability needs, service gaps, living costs, accessibility and quality of life.
Research & DataPolicy & Reform
We develop evidence-based proposals, policy papers, legislative analysis and recommendations designed to improve the systems affecting persons with disabilities.
Policy & ResearchA Better Framework
The same label does not mean the same need.
A disability classification alone cannot tell us how much support a person requires.
Two people may both legally be considered persons with disabilities while having entirely different levels of independence, earning capacity, medical need, mobility, supervision and care requirements.
The Ability Foundation therefore approaches disability support through individual circumstances and functional need.
Category A
Living With Disability — Able to Work With Appropriate Support
These individuals may be capable of full-time, part-time, flexible or supported employment but may require accommodation, transportation, assistive technology, medical assistance, workplace adaptation or other support.
Category B
Living With Disability — Unable to Sustain Employment and Requiring Significant Care
These individuals may experience substantial limitations that prevent sustainable employment and may require extensive daily or continuous assistance. Their needs may include income support, food, housing, utilities, personal care, medical services, mobility equipment, transportation, assistive technology and caregiver support.
These categories are not medical diagnoses. They are an initial framework for understanding differences in functional and support requirements.
A person should not lose disability support simply because someone else in the household works.
The Ability Foundation believes disability-related assistance must begin with the needs of the person living with the disability.
A parent, spouse, sibling or relative should not automatically become the substitute for an adequate public support system merely because they share a household with someone who cannot work.
Where disability substantially restricts a person’s earning capacity, that individual still participates in a household. They eat. They consume electricity and water. They require housing. They require clothing. They may need medication, transportation, personal care, specialized equipment and additional services.
Supporting that person’s contribution toward the household is part of protecting dignity, independence and family stability.
Disability assistance should address disability-related need — not punish a family for remaining together.
An Overlooked Reality
Disability has a cost.
For many people, the cost of living with a disability extends far beyond medical treatment.
A person may require additional electricity because they cannot simply move outdoors when a room becomes unbearably hot. A bedridden person may require fans or air conditioning for prolonged periods, more frequent laundering, specialized bedding or pressure-relief equipment.
Another person may depend on electrically powered medical or mobility equipment. Others require transportation because public options are inaccessible.
These are not necessarily luxuries. They can be costs created or intensified by disability.
The Ability Foundation will research these realities and advocate for social-support policies that recognize them.
A Working Framework
Not just “what is your disability?”
A better question is: “What do you need in order to live?”
The Ability Foundation has developed the first operational version of the Ability Needs Index — a support-assessment framework designed to help us understand the functional and support requirements of persons living with disabilities.
Rather than relying only on a diagnosis or disability label, the assessment examines how a person’s circumstances affect everyday life, what assistance or accommodation is required, what support is already available and where important needs remain unmet.
The initial adult version is now available to registered Ability Members.
The framework remains under development and will continue to be reviewed and refined as the Foundation builds its research, advocacy and policy capacity.
- Mobility
- Personal care
- Independent living
- Communication
- Cognitive function
- Psychological and psychosocial functioning
- Employment and education
- Medical and health-related support
- Caregiving
- Transportation
- Housing accessibility
- Utilities and environmental dependency
- Assistive equipment
- Disability-related financial pressure
- Quality of life
- Current support
Important notice: The Ability Needs Index is an Ability Foundation support and policy-assessment framework under development.
Version 0.1 is currently available to registered adult Ability Members.
It is not a medical diagnosis.
It is not an official Government of Antigua and Barbuda disability assessment.
It does not automatically establish eligibility for government benefits, Foundation funding or other financial assistance.
Surviving is not the same as living.
Public assistance should not be judged only by whether a person remains alive. A meaningful disability policy must ask whether the person can live safely, participate in family life, obtain necessary healthcare, maintain adequate housing, afford essential utilities, access transportation, obtain appropriate equipment and exercise reasonable independence.
Our objective is not dependency.
Our objective is to provide the care and support necessary for people to exercise the greatest possible control over their own lives.
I need support
Are you living with a disability or caring for someone who is? The Ability Foundation operates a confidential advocacy and casework system through which registered members can request advocacy support, document barriers, complete an Ability Support Profile and follow their case through a private Ability Account.
Get HelpDirect financial and material assistance programs are still in development.
I want to help
A society reveals its values by how it treats people whose circumstances make independent survival more difficult. Individuals, professionals, businesses, donors and organizations can help us build a stronger disability-support system for Antigua and Barbuda.
Support the FoundationWhy The Ability Foundation Exists
“I did not arrive at the idea of the Ability Foundation from a distance. I understand personally what it means to live in a society where a disability can affect not only what your body allows you to do, but your access to income, services, utilities, transportation, independence and sometimes even the basic conditions necessary for a reasonable quality of life.”
“The Ability Foundation will advocate for a society in which persons living with disabilities are not expected merely to survive on whatever assistance happens to be available. Care and support must become pillars upon which a good quality of life can be constructed.”
— Asita BandeleFounder and First President, The Ability Foundation
Read the President’s MessageA disability may change what a person can do.It must never change what that person is worth.
Help us build an Antigua and Barbuda in which disability does not mean poverty, abandonment, exclusion or a diminished right to live well.