Thursday, August 20 at 11:30 AM - 4 PM EDT
Infrastructure barriers, inequitable urban planning, and discriminatory bylaws and policies disproportionately impact and prevent marginalized communities, particularly those who are poor, disabled, or racialized, from fully participating in urban life. As a result, Ottawa is home to some of the most pressing social issues, including food scarcity, inaccessible transit, housing insecurity, police violence and surveillance, a poisoned drug supply, and more.
Monday, April 22, 2024 at 7 PM - 9 PM EDT
You're invited to DPC's annual celebration of disability rights, which has been renamed the John Winske Memorial Awards.
Wednesday, November 10, 2021 at 6 PM - 8 PM EST
The League of Women Voters of Arlington, in conjunction with the Endependence Center of Arlington invite you to the 2019 REV UP Voter Registration Event.
This will also be a celebratiion of the 29th anniversary celebration of the Americans with Disabilities Act.and an opportunity to register members of disabled community to vote.
We would be honored to have you join us for the festivities.
Thursday, July 18, 2019 at 1 PM - 3 PM EDT
Please join us in celebrating 29 Years of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Palisades Center
East Court, Level 1, Near H&M
Friday July 26, 2019 at the Palisades Shopping Center from 10:00 AM- 12 PM.
Light refeshments and coffee will be served.
Friday, July 26, 2019 at 10 AM - 12 PM EDT
“Approximately 15 per cent of British Columbians over 15 years old self-identify as having a disability. Our goal is to prevent and remove barriers so everyone can participate and feel included. This way, B.C. will be a better place to live, work and visit for everyone.” (Province of British Columbia, 2018)
According to the Province of BC website, we have committed ourselves to become a truly inclusive province by 2024 by implementing the following strategies:
- providing people of all abilities with the opportunity to fully participate in their communities
- challenging our attitudes and beliefs about disabilities
- recognizing the value and contributions that people with disabilities make to our workplaces, communities and economy
While these action items may support a stride towards an inclusive province over the next 6 years, I would ask, how will the Province of BC be held accountable to its commitments? What should people with disabilities do if these values of inclusivity are not upheld? I can say with confidence that, despite the good intentions of the Province, individuals with disabilities are often rendered voiceless in instances of discrimination. I would suggest that this is largely due to the arduous process involved in escalating a complaint to the BC Human Rights Tribunal.
The Province of Ontario has established an Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. This Act provides Ontarians provides citizens living with disabilities with the option to pursue legal action against their discriminators other than going through a Tribunal process.
I am hopeful that the British Columbia Accessibility Act drafted in May 2018 will give British Columbians the same option. It is difficult to comment on the current content of this Act given that there has been very little progress made. However, I anticipate that its intention is to offer an additional avenue of recourse to citizens living with disabilities who have experienced discrimination. Such an Act may also provide the citizens of BC a measure of autonomy in their pursuit for equity and an opportunity to address their complaint via litigation. Hopefully, this would alleviate the pressure related to the victim’s responsibility to prove and present their case to Tribunal decision makers and make way for case law to preside based on individual circumstances.
The Province acknowledges that there is a significant number of British Columbians living with disabilities and that we should be working towards being a truly inclusive province. Therefore, I hope we continue to find ways support equity and diversity and hold those who do not align with this goal accountable.
Additional Information:
https://accessontario.com/british-columbia-accessibility-act/
The three-year basic income pilot project, which cost $50 million annually, was designed by Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government with help from former PC senator Hugh Segal. It gave single participants just under $17,000 annually and couples just over $24,000 in hopes the money — about double standard welfare rates — would boost their odds of finding employment and improving their housing, health and nutrition.
It's now cancelled, contrary to election promises and despite strong opposition from the Green and Liberal parties and income security advocacy groups.
Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod said people taken off the pilot program will be treated “ethically and humanely.”
“If they are eligible for Ontario Works, for example, we’ll repatriate them on to that program” or help with the Ontario Student Assistance Program," she said.
Read the full story about the cancelled basic income program as reported by the Toronto Star.
In an August 21 letter to Premier Ford, CWDO expressed appreciation for naming a minister responsible for seniors and accessibility – Raymond Cho.
We also reminded the premier of the many campaign promises which were made in the all-candidates debate on May 16 by Christine Elliott who is now Deputy Premier and Minister of Health.
While expressing support for the initiatives mentioned in the Throne Speech that will benefit some people with disabilities, we named several other areas that were not highlighted in the speech that need the government's attention.
As always, CWDO offers its experience and expertise to provide input into planned initiatives to assist people with disabilities and seniors to live in Ontario with dignity and security.
Read CWDO's letter to the premier on our website.
The P.E.I. government has removed the word handicapped from five major pieces of legislation, as a result of lobbying by former Easter Seals ambassador, Hannah MacLellan.
The Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act (Persons with Disabilities) changes the wording in five major pieces of legislation: the Employment Standards Act, the Engineering Profession Act, the Labour Act, the Mental Health Act and the Public Health Act.
Hannah's Bill, as it became known, advised government to changing wording from "disabled parking spaces" to "designated accessible parking spaces" and from "persons with physical disabilities" to "persons with mobility impairments".
Raising awareness MacLellan is now working on a Bachelor of Arts in Human Rights, with a minor in disability studies, at Carleton University and is also putting her lobbying skills to use in Ottawa. Source.
Opinion Dawning of a new age for persons with disabilities in Canada (Accessible Canada Act).
Disability rights advocates have welcomed a long-awaited national accessibility legislation, but say the law needs significant strengthening to meet its goals.
A Senate committee tasked with studying the disability tax credit and a disabilities savings plan says the two programs need to be overhauled and is urging the government to do more to help people living with a disability.
Presented by: Ohio’s 12 Centers for Independent Living, The Ohio Statewide Independent Living Council, Ohio Association of Area Agencies on Aging, Disability Rights Ohio, League of Women Voters of Ohio, The University of Cincinnati Center for Excellence in Development Disabilities (UCCEDD), Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO)
The Ohio Candidate Forum on Disability Issues is an event for Ohio Governor and U.S. Senate candidates to express their positions on disability-related issues/policy. These issues affect approximately 2 million Ohioans with disabilities, at least 13% of our state’s population.
People living with disabilities face significant issues, for example the nationwide jobless rate for people with disabilities is more than double that of people without disabilities, according to the 2015 American Community Survey. The poverty rate for people with disabilities is 30.3% compared to 12.1% for those without a disability and almost 25% of students with disabilities did not complete High School.
Moderator: Mr. Alan Johnson, (Retired) Columbus Dispatch Statehouse Reporter
Keynote: John D. Kemp, Esq., Life-long advocate and co-author of ADA.
The event is FREE and open to the public, but you must register. At least 150 attendees are anticipated.
Learn more at http://www.disabilityempowerment.net/
**If you need specific accommodations, please contact Sue Hetrick at (614) 575-8055 or [email protected]. Please note that requests may take up to 5 days to fill, so please plan accordingly.**
DOORS OPEN AT 11:30AM. THE PROGRAM WILL BEGIN PROMPTLY AT 12:30PM.
Thursday, July 26, 2018 at 12:30 PM - 4:30 PM EDT
This is a follow up on the May 17th webinar on the overview of the parliamentary process. The goal of the webinar was to help provide a better understanding of what to expect and how the process works, once a bill is introduced in Parliament. The webinar was a continuation of our dialogue on the planned accessibility legislation and created a great discussion through questions posed by participants from across the country.
Thank you to Jeffery Leblanc (Principal Clerk, House of Commons) for providing the overview of the parliamentary process, Jane Arkell (Spinal Cord Injury Canada) for participating on the panel and to Dean Mellway (READ initiative) and Carleton University for hosting the event.
Thank you for all who participated and the great questioned that were posed.
For those unable to attend, please find the link to the archived video here.
https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/1676918/D7C4F3610BF6ADAA196AE0954BFB3838
Euthanasia opponents and disability rights activists are uneasy about a process to liberalize Canada’s euthanasia law — a law which they say still lacks regulations and proper safeguards.
Taylor Hyatt and Not Dead Yet’s executive director Amy Hasbrouck sent a nearly 30-page study of the guidelines to Health Canada last year.
They informed MPs about the research Hyatt has done on the draft guidelines for assisted suicide across Canada.
Among the criticisms is the “lack of demographic information on the people who are seeking death,” said Hyatt. “It’s the name, the address, basic things, but no information on what accessibility needs are going unmet in their lives.”
“There’s enough holes in these guidelines that you can drive a hearse through them,” said Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.
Read the full article on euthanasia concerns.
