Manitoba Disabilities Issues Office
Full Citizenship:
A Manitoba Strategy on Disability
Full Citizenship
Disability Access in Manitoba
Disability
in an Historic Perspective
Introduction
Full Citizenship
Any complete understanding of citizenship requires the full inclusion of persons with disabilities. When full citizenship exists, persons with disabilities will have access to the social, recreational and employment systems and programs open to others. We will meet this objective by taking actions that extend access to generic programs and services for all Manitobans, including persons with disabilities. In doing so, we will also be honouring our commitments made in such federal/provincial/territorial government documents as In Unison: A Canadian Approach to Disability Issues.
There are four basic building blocks for full citizenship:
- Income Supports;
- Access to Government;
- Disability Supports; and
- Employment.
The Government of Manitoba believes that it has a responsibility to respond with specific initiatives to the special problems faced by Aboriginal persons with disabilities.
The Manitoba Government recognizes that in each of the areas identified above it is being challenged to make changes that remove the barriers to full citizenship. This White Paper will set out an Action Plan that continues the work of extending full citizenship to Manitobans with disabilities. Finally, the White Paper will outline mechanisms that will be put in place that will allow Manitobans to measure our progress along the road to a more inclusive society.
Disability Access in Manitoba
The most recent demographic information available (the Statistics Canada 1991 backup tables
for Manitoba of the Health and Activity Limitations Survey) tells us that 17.6 per cent,
or 183,635 Manitobans are disabled. Aboriginal Manitobans are particularly affected with
over 25.8 per cent reporting a disability.
As one might expect, the elderly have a high likelihood of being counted among those with disabilities. But younger people are also amply represented: 8.2 per cent of those 15 to 34 years have disabilities, as do 13.8 per cent of those 35 to 54 years of age. Many of these individuals face significant barriers that prevent them from full social participation.
Many Manitobans with disabilities face economic hardship in their daily lives. Forty-eight per cent of working age Manitobans with disabilities are not participating in the labour market (either unemployed, or not actively seeking work) as opposed to 24 per cent of those not disabled. The result is that Manitobans with disabilities are much more likely to live in poverty than Manitobans in general. Equal access to education, training and support programs would certainly increase their potential for employment and a better economic future.
We must identify, for Manitobans of all ages with disabilities, where the public sector, the private sector, and all of Manitoba society can do better on issues of inclusion.
This work has already begun. The Special Education Review Initiative is building on the accomplishments of previous decades to bring inclusion into the classroom. We have comprehensive social services through Children's Special Services and the Child Day Care system, and health services such as Home Care, and speech and language therapy that support children with disabilities and their families. In the Child Day Care system, for example, approximately 1000 children with disabilities are fully integrated with other children in child care centres through specific provincial funding. While these services need to be continually reviewed and updated, they provide the basis for inclusion from a child's very early years as she or he gets ready to enter school.
It is when children with disabilities become adults and leave school that full inclusion becomes more difficult. Whether it is disability supports, post-secondary education and training, access to employment or income support, we have yet to establish a network of services and policies to support full inclusion and citizenship for adult Manitobans with disabilities. For this reason, the discussion paper focuses largely on issues for adults. However, it does provide the framework for initiatives that will enable inclusion for Manitobans of all ages.
Disability in an Historic Perspective
While the presence of disability has been a constant reality throughout human history, the
social position of people with disabilities has been subject to great change, particularly
in the past century. History tells us that the traditional role of disabled persons was that
of the beggar. The industrial revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries spawned
an urban reform movement that sought to impose order upon a society that was seized by social
and economic turmoil. In the process, beggars were swept off the streets. Disabled persons,
formerly allowed at least a modest position in society, were soon routinely locked away in
asylums, poor houses or workhouses. An age of exclusion had begun.
In the 20th century, the eugenics movement cast a particularly dark shadow over the lives of persons with disabilities. Inspired by Mendel's discoveries in genetics and Darwin's theories on natural selection, social planners in the West speculated that the human species could be improved by the systematic elimination of disabled persons. The idea found its most horrifying expression in Nazi Europe, where more than 100,000 persons were selected and put to death because of their disabilities. However, the influence of eugenic thinking extended beyond the Nazi-inflicted holocaust. For example, sterilization of disabled persons became a popular public policy throughout the Western world during the first half of the 20th century.
Finally, public attitudes began to change after the Second World War. Many servicemen came home with disabilities, looking for the best available health care and rehabilitation services and, like their non-disabled counterparts, jobs. Their demands were hard to ignore. As innovative rehabilitation therapies were developed, it became difficult to exclude all persons with disabilities as non-members of society. Public sentiment held that disabled persons were inherently limited; but now, this opinion was tempered with goodwill. It seemed that perhaps science could restore them, that through therapy, disabled persons would enjoy at least some level of participation in everyday life. Their employment potential also began to receive some attention. The Vocational Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons Act of 1961 set up a cost-sharing mechanism for rehabilitation services in Canada.
The disabled citizens/consumer rights movement emerged in the 1970s. Using concepts and strategies borrowed from earlier civil rights movements, disabled people began to establish their own organizations, and demand rights of self-determination and inclusion. This was a very important, historical development. Previously, health, human service, and charitable authorities had dominated in representing the needs and interests of persons with disabilities. This model highlighted the need for charity, relief, and treatment. The message to persons with disabilities was that they were to accept what was given them with humility, and to struggle, repair themselves, and somehow adapt to the world. Little was said of that the fact that this world was, in most ways, unwilling to consider ways of accommodating them.
Manitobans with disabilities provided a great deal of leadership to the world-wide movement to include persons with disabilities. One organization, the Winnipeg League of the Hard of Hearing, was organized as early as the 1920s. Many others followed. The 1970s saw the emergence of organizations of persons having various forms of disabilities united in common cause for access, equality and inclusion. These organizations, such as the Manitoba League of the Physically Handicapped (now the Manitoba League of Persons with Disabilities) and the Coalition of Provincial Organizations of the Handicapped (now the Council of Canadians with Disabilities), developed through the leadership efforts of Manitobans with disabilities such as the late Alan Simpson. The leadership of Manitobans with disabilities saw the development of organizations such as Disabled Peoples' International at the global level, the Universal Design Institute in the design arena, and the Canadian Centre on Disability Studies in the academic research world.
Disabled people have now been speaking with their own voice for several decades. Their message has been delivered through the Obstacles Report, The Mainstream 92 Report, the In Unison: A Canadian Approach to Disability Issues vision paper, Two Hundred and Forty-Four Voices and countless other reports informed by citizens with disabilities. The message in these reports is clear and straightforward: the most urgent problems facing disabled persons have little to do with disabilities as a biological condition. In fact, the most pressing problems are conditions in society, most importantly, barriers which deprive people of their right to enjoy all aspects of daily life.
This idea, that disability is less of a biological fact than a social construction is central to this White Paper's philosophy and approach. To say that disability is a social construction is to say that the nature of disability arises from society's inability to deal with biological differences in ability. Short-sightedness, for example, is only disabling if one is unable to afford eyeglasses. A physical impairment or difference is only disabling if the social and physical infrastructures of our society are constructed and maintained in a manner that restricts or denies access to persons with disabilities. Access in this context is far more than physical access: it includes access to information, to the labour market, and to policymaking. This approach stresses that persons with disabilities are citizens who must be included in society, not victims who must be assisted in curing themselves.
Most people with disabilities see themselves as independent individuals, capable of managing most aspects of their lives. Most are not permanently unemployable and do not view themselves as such. Increasingly, the people of Manitoba are coming to understand this reality. The generation of Manitobans coming to adulthood today have been educated in a school system that was far more inclusive than those of the past. Younger Manitobans in particular know that the social world need not be constructed in a manner that excludes persons with disabilities. The rapid social changes for persons with disabilities in our society challenge us as never before. From economic segregation as beggars to economic integration as workers; from exclusion in institutions to inclusion in our communities - the transformation of the social role of persons with disabilities over the past fifty years has occurred quickly and continues to accelerate.
Policies and programs must embody the changing needs of persons with disabilities and evolving public attitudes. To allow persons with disabilities to be full participants in society, we must continue in our efforts to remove barriers and systemic discrimination.
We must move from vision to action. The government can do a great deal by improving existing programs and the coordination between programs. New investments will be required. As we move from vision to action, we will need the support of the disability community and all Manitobans. We must also develop frameworks of accountability that allow us to assess program effectiveness. A commitment to change, a commitment to partnership, and a commitment to accountability will guide us as we work to implement our vision of full participation of persons with disabilities. The changes that we propose are rooted and guided by the following philosophy and vision.
