CCD's New Book Is a Testimony to Progress in the Disability Rights Movement
On Nov. 2, at the End Exclusion 2011 event in Ottawa, the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) launched the book Celebrating Our Accomplishments, featuring personal reflections from 61 leaders in the disability rights movement. As the Hon. Diane Finley stated in the Foreword, “Significant progress has been made in Canada over the past 30 years for those with disabilities. And it has been a collective effort by individuals, business, government and organizations like CCD.”
While Celebrating Our Accomplishments focuses primarily on achievements, it also tackles the hurdles that the cross-disability movement has had to overcome as well as ongoing challenges.
In her article on the inclusion of disability in Section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Yvonne Peters addresses how CCD initially focused on the inclusion of people with physical disabilities and then amended that position to include persons with mental disabilities.
In “Multicultural Communities Making Progress on Disability Issues,” Meenu Sikand calls attention to the underrepresentation of racialized people with disabilities in mainstream disability groups. “Perhaps the recognition and inclusion of diversity in the disability movement has overlooked the cultural diversity that also exists among Canadians with disabilities,” states Sikand.
CCD launched the book to tell the story of how Canada has become more accessible and inclusive because the voice of people with disabilities has been supported and heard. The authors dispel misconceptions about disability policy. Some Canadians wrongly assume that initiatives sought by the disability community benefit only a small segment of citizens. In “Just A Deaf Thing?” (see below) Jim Roots and Henry Vlug describe how measures innovated by the Deaf community are now helping Canadians with no attachment to the Deaf community other than that they are beneficiaries of the work undertaken by the Canadian Association of the Deaf.
The dynamism of the contributed articles has convinced CCD to compile a second volume. Email 400-word submissions to
ccd@ccdonline.ca. Read Celebrating Our Accomplishments at
ccdonline.ca.
JUST A DEAF THING? REFLECTIONS ON THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF THE DEAF (CAD)
By Jim Roots and Henry Vlug
Thirty years ago, the first captioned television program was
broadcast in Canada. It was a triumph of the campaign that the Canadian
Association of the Deaf (CAD) had begun in 1967, when the earliest experiments
in captioning were reported at the CAD’s Annual General Meeting. today, nearly
45 years after the CAD started this crusade, we can boast that Canada has the
most captioned programming of any country. Captioning has not only benefited
the three million Deaf and hard of hearing Canadians; it has also benefited
functionally illiterate people, seniors, immigrants learning a new language,
children learning to read, and anyone who has ever tried to watch TV in noisy
bars or food courts or other public places. This is not “just a Deaf thing.”
Thirty years ago, no communication supports were available
to Deaf or hard of hearing people in hospitals and medical centres. Deaf people
who signed had no access to interpreters; hard of hearing people who could
speak had no access to devices that could help them hear. Imagine how
frightening such communication barriers can be in a medical emergency, a
hospital operating room, a referral to specialists in cancer or other serious
diseases! thanks to the supreme Court decision in the Eldridge case, supported
by the Canadian Association of the Deaf, now we all have the legal right to
full and equal communication access in medical services and centres. This is
not “just a Deaf thing”...
There are countless other achievements that the Canadian
Association of the Deaf can boast about in its 71-year history. We’ve helped to
make this country a great, shining beacon of hope and accomplishment in
accessibility. And everything we have done for Deaf and hard of hearing
Canadians has ended up benefiting all Canadians. We may be the Canadian
Association of the Deaf, but we are not “just a Deaf thing”!
Jim Roots and Henry Vlug have been working for Deaf rights
and accessibility since the 1970s. Roots is Executive Director of the Canadian
Association of the Deaf (CAD) in Ottawa. Vlug is a retired lawyer in Vancouver
who has held many positions in the CAD and in other organizations.
CCD is a national human rights organization of people with disabilities working for an inclusive and accessible Canada. CCD seeks to achieve change through law reform, litigation, public education and dialogue with key decision-makers. 
Landscape of Literacy and Disability (Canadian Abilities Foundation publication) by Ezra Zubrow, et al. 
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