{"id":14794,"date":"2016-07-20T11:12:36","date_gmt":"2016-07-20T15:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=14794"},"modified":"2016-08-02T20:23:17","modified_gmt":"2016-08-03T00:23:17","slug":"politics-as-usual-accessibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/politics-as-usual-accessibility\/","title":{"rendered":"POLITICS AS USUAL: Accessibility?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most of us don\u2019t think about it on a daily basis as we are now accustomed to it, but it wasn\u2019t long ago that many businesses, doctors\u2019 offices \u2013 even the public bus \u2013 were inaccessible to people with mobility or accessibility issues.
\nThink about your high school and then think about your kids\u2019 high school and see how far we have come in accepting, and even expecting accommodation, as normal. Now we assume that there will be parking for the disabled, bathrooms equipped to accommodate a wheelchair or a ramp to allow folks with mobility or other physical challenges to enter a restaurant, library or Starbucks to get a coffee.
\nAnd, for those that don\u2019t accept it, there is legislation to make them accept it.
\nIn Ontario, \u201cbusinesses, public sector organizations, municipalities, educational institutions, producers of educational materials (such as text books) and Library boards are required to be AODA compliant by the end of this decade.\u201d
\nThat means they must meet at least a minimum standard of accessibility for all users. It\u2019s not just about making a building \u201caccessible\u201d \u2013 putting in a ramp, widening doors, including at least one bathroom per floor for the physically challenged \u2013 it is about making websites accessible for the visually or aurally challenged.
\nIt\u2019s about provisions to ensure those across the broad spectrum of accessibility needs can access facilities and services with no impediments.
\nBut, is that where accessibility stops? Putting in a ramp and patting yourself on the back about how \u201cinclusive\u201d you are? What about those folks who are challenged by other issues, not necessarily physical? What about folks who have \u201cinvisible\u201d disabilities? What accommodations \u2013 if any \u2013 are made for them?
\nMuch like other rights based legislation; it takes time for a culture to be inculcated with a new norm. And it is clear that we still have quite a ways to go. A recent event with a good family friend and their daughter\u2019s painful odyssey toward gainful employment makes that patently clear.
\nYou can have all the legislation in the world, enforce changes to enable folks to access all manner of things, but how do you legislate fairness? How do you ensure that everyone \u2013 regardless of their abilities \u2013 has equal access to every aspect of modern life \u2013 including employment?
\nYes, yes, it is wonderful that folks in a wheelchair can now go to a restaurant and eat just like everyone else, but if they can\u2019t get a job to pay for that meal, what the hell is the point?
\nYou don\u2019t have a right to a job, that\u2019s true, but what you do have a right to is the opportunity to try to get a job, based on your abilities. If you can do the job, it shouldn\u2019t matter if you have cognitive challenges, or physical challenges. According to the law, it\u2019s not supposed to matter.
\nThink about it this way: would you work for a company that would not hire people of colour because they didn\u2019t \u201cthink\u201d they could do the job, or frequent a restaurant that did not hire female chefs because they didn\u2019t \u201cthink\u201d they could handle the job? Or frequent a business that would not hire seniors because they didn\u2019t \u201cthink\u201d they could handle the job? I dare say your answer would be no to all of the above.
\nIt\u2019s not about quotas. It\u2019s not about tokenism. It\u2019s about giving folks a chance to contribute in whatever way they can.
\nAt least give them a shot. They have a right to surprise you.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas Most of us don\u2019t think about it on a daily basis as we are now accustomed to it, but it wasn\u2019t long ago that many businesses, doctors\u2019 offices \u2013 even the public bus \u2013 were inaccessible to people with mobility or accessibility issues. Think about your high school and then think about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3QC","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 19:26:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}