A photography student with severe learning difficulties wants to raise awareness about disabilities in his home country.

Dexter McLean, 24, of Preston Hill, Harrow, is undertaking a university masters project, in which he hopes to travel to Jamaica to document the lives of people with disabilities.

He said: “I want to change the public perception of disability in Jamaica. I want to voice the struggles, and the strengths, of disabled people in Jamaica through photography.”

Dexter, who emigrated to the UK from Kingston, Jamaica in 2002, was born with cerebral palsy. He has learning difficulties and has been wheelchair-bound since the age of nine.

He studied media and photography at Harrow College in 2010 before completing a BA in photography at Middlesex University in 2017. He started his project in December last year and is raising money for it through GoFundMe.

Dexter said: “I hope to show through my work the need to improve the overall reputation of disabled people in the media, in the UK and the world at large.”

He said that while at school in Kingston, Jamaica, there were no facilities dedicated to disabled pupils. When he enrolled in school in the UK he was surprised to find modern facilities and an atmosphere "where disabled people can be encouraged and supported by others and each other".

The student hopes to raise £7,000, which will cover the cost of flights and accommodation for him and his support worker by September 2018.

Eva Vermandel, a visual arts lecturer at Middlesex University, said: "Dexter is a very talented photographer with incredible drive. His disability has never held him back - quite the opposite. I sincerely hope the GoFundMe appeal will be a success, so he can fulfil his photographic project.”

To sponsor Dexter, visit https://www.gofundme.com/photography-project-on-disability