Keys to Positive Change

By Raymond D. Cohen

What an interesting time this is! Here we are, issue number 40 of ABILITIES Magazine - hitting the street during the next to last quarter of the final year of the twentieth century... (Didn’t Nostradamus make some kind of veiled reference to this event?)

Anyway, Nostradamus, or any other seer/prophet type, would not have had too hard a time predicting where disability is in Canada today - based on its cyclical history of the last several years.

No, the greater trick would be to predict where disability will be during the earliest part of the twenty-first century. Given the number of diverse, and seemingly unconnected efforts currently at play, one would have to have something akin to prophetic powers to begin to imagine where things might land up.

There are papers. Yes, we have surveys, studies, proposals, and position papers. And we have groups. We have federal departments,
provincial advisory councils, consumer and advocacy associations and service groups - and as many disability-specific organizations as there are types of disabilities.

And we have meetings! Conferences, workshops, planning sessions, consultations... most of which tend to evoke a profound sense of
deja vu in the more seasoned delegates.

In spite of all this activity, and much of it is positive, we are still dealing with issues with which many of us have been wrestling for a number of years... employment, workplace accommodation, economic disincentives, access to adequate health and educational resources, transportation issues - and just plain access, as in access to buildings. This is before we even begin to talk about the more esoteric issues. Things like public portrayal of people with disabilities.It’s hardly an improvement that "terminal sufferer" has been added to the other
stereotypical depictions of people with disabilities. "Let’s see - umm - you have a disability? Ergo, you are either extremely cute, tremendously brave, or in agonizing pain. Which did you say you were?"

OK, here is where I get a little less sardonic.

There have been improvements. There is more sensitivity to disability issues than in years past - and there is greater access to resources, buildings and transportation. But, the reality, too, is that full access still eludes us, and while the improvements that have been made help - they are inconsistently available - and often serve as a profound tease. There is so much further to go.

So, how come? Why have we not gone further? What is it that is missing in the mix?

In my view we have neglected an essential ingredient - communication.

Communication at a minimum opens the door to participation; and participation by a sufficient number of informed people equates to power - power to effect change.

There is some very important work in progress... and it exists in a variety of places. It is up to all of us, the authors of the work and the potential recipients of its benefit to do what we can to create a convergence of those pieces with which we want to go forward.

The CAF Forum section of this issue of ABILITIES has within it a few gems serving as signposts to some of this, articles placed by people who work for organizations who want you to take the time to consider what they are doing - and the information to which they have access.

Take the Canadian Human Rights Commission (Everybody Agrees: It’s Time for Action, page 41) and the Council of Canadians with
Disabilities (Dismantling the Barriers, page 32) as examples. Both reference the works of other organizations, as well as their own, and both point to various initiatives currently at play, works which really deserve your attention.

So, I encourage you to check out some of the few cracks where the light shines through (to steal a phrase). With your input and support, the work referenced here just might make the difference.