Statement by Wendy Porch, Executive Director, Centre for Independent Living in Toronto on The International Day of Persons with Disabilities
Today, December 3, is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, as declared by the United Nations. This year’s theme is “Amplifying the leadership of persons with disabilities for an inclusive and sustainable future”. I agree, we must plan for the future, as our current lack of planning for accessibility is evident all around us. Despite the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act being almost 25 years old, we are still far from achieving the accessible Ontario it envisioned.
The consequences of our ongoing, inadequate planning are visible in the faces of disabled people who, despite being interested, willing, qualified, and educated, are still unable to secure decent, living-wage jobs due to ableist attitudes. The housing crisis facing our community is another example of a lack of future planning. With disabled people representing 24% of the population, and a generally aging population, we desperately need accessible housing to have been built already. However, developers today still believe that accessible housing is unsellable and unwanted. These attitudes result in the number one inquiry we receive at CILT being, “Where can I find affordable and accessible housing?” Unfortunately, we have few answers. Almost no one is building it, accessible housing isn’t required by any legislation and even the affordable housing movement itself sometimes hesitates at adding the word accessible to their messaging. We live in a world where it is considered perfectly acceptable that some people will just never be able to get into some buildings. How have we come to accept such nonsense?
We must plan for an accessible future, and the leadership of disabled people in that future is critical. We, people with disabilities, know what we need to be included and to live independent lives. For too long, others have made decisions for us, but as someone I know wisely said, it is not just, “Nothing about us without us” as “Everything is about us, so nothing without us.” Disabled people must be included in how we think about the world. We must be imagined taking up space. We must be envisioned in all spaces, roles, places, plots. If there is no vision of us being there, we are excluded by default. We need more disabled leaders. However, how can we achieve leadership roles when it can be impossible for some in our community to even get out the door and down the sidewalk on a snowy day? How can we attain leadership positions when most boards, commissions, and committees only seek out disabled people if the topic itself is disability?
Opportunities for disabled people to participate are rare, let alone lead. Ableism still surrounds us. As a disabled woman, my whole life I have experienced people refusing to shake my three-fingered hand, preferring to ignore me because I make them uncomfortable. I have been asked, “What’s wrong with you?” honestly more times than I can remember. Until the world accepts that disabled people have always existed, and will always exist, and that we also DESERVE to be fully realized members of our communities, ableism will remain a barrier to leadership and societal progress.
So, what do we do? As disabled people, we continue to support our peers through peer-based initiatives, raise awareness about the exclusion of our community at all levels, and celebrate our achievements, like we are doing today at CILT’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities event. Please join us and check it out. Remember, we need allies. We have made great advances, but there is still much more to do. If you have never joined an IDPD event, take the chance and join us today. I promise you will learn something, and the next time you encounter the exclusion of disabled people, you will speak up too.
