A computer engineer, sport performance psychologist and coach by training, Jaime Skeete is a person with a disability who is today, the sports organiser of the University of Guyana and who, in spite of his accomplishments, is often discriminated against by abled people who think the disability will affect his performance.
He has proven them wrong both academically and professionally holding a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and a master’s degree in sport science. Skeete, who is now in his 40s, was born with osteogenesis imperfecta or brittle bone disease, which causes the bones to break easily at a young age.
“It functions in opposition to what we know as osteoporosis where the bones get brittle as we get older. Osteogenesis imperfecta is a deficiency of calcium in the bone and the older one gets the bones start to get more calcified so the frequency of fractures diminishes. In recent years, I haven’t had those struggles. However, the challenges of having a disability have not escaped me. It continues. There are occasions where persons look at me and think because of my disability, there are things I cannot handle,” he told Stabroek Weekend in a recent interview.