The Dominion - disability

Nova Scotia NDP says “No” to Essential Services for Disabled

Tim McSorley — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 08:16:29 +0000

HALIFAX—Siphoning thousands of dollars from a special-needs program for the disabled while pumping tens of millions into a convention centre is a "betrayal" by Nova Scotia's New Democratic Party government, said many in attendance at a Halifax news conference on August 16.

People with disabilities and their advocates urged the government to cancel changes made on Aug. 8 to the Employment Support and Income Assistance regulations that cut essential health benefits to people living with disabilities.

"I rely on income assistance and have received special needs assistance for massage therapy to treat chronic pain and migraine headaches," April Keddy of Port Williams told the Halifax Media Co-op. She lives with a progressive genetic disorder.

"I need this therapy—it’s not a luxury. Without it I’m afraid I would end up in the hospital long-term," she told the news conference.

The change in regulations eliminates special-needs assistance for drugs and treatments not covered by the provincial Medical Services Insurance (MSI), such as massage therapy, psychological counseling and a range of alternative medications, said Dalhousie legal-aid lawyer Claire McNeil.

The government cuts, which affect fewer than 25 people, were made without notice, public consultation or input from health or disability rights groups, said McNeil.

A quick check of the health plan covering Nova Scotia MLAs and all employees of the provincial government reveals that all such treatments are recognized and covered for up to a total of $1,500 a year.

The government has said the changes are meant to clarify what is covered by law.

"They haven’t clarified the law, they’ve stripped people with disabilities of their rights by repealing laws that made it possible for those living in poverty to request services essential to maintain their health," McNeil said.

"This change undermines a human right that has been in place since national standards were put in place 45 years ago under the Canada Assistance Plan," she continued.

McNeil said the government cutback prevents provincial Department of Community Service caseworkers from using their discretion to accommodate special needs, and limits the caseworkers to a "cookie-cutter" approach with a narrow list of approved items.

"And the cuts won’t even save money," said Dr. Margaret Casey, chair of the board of directors at the North End Community Clinic.

"These cuts will create a gap in services which will increase demands on family physicians, pharmacare programs and emergency rooms, adding to the burden on the healthcare systems," Casey said.

"For individual patients living in poverty, it will mean no access to measures designed to alleviate pain and suffering," she explained.

Many attending the news conference expressed disgust that an NDP government they helped elect would take such a discriminatory and ill-advised approach.

Pamela Harrison said that, had these cuts been made three years ago, the audience of people protesting the cuts could have included many NDP MLAs and party officials. None were in attendance.

Another person wondered why the NDP government had millions of dollars for developers and business but were trying to save a pittance by hurting the disabled. "Are developers’ needs more special?" The province and Halifax Regional Municipality have each committed $56 million to have a convention centre built by Rank Inc. as part of a mixed-use $500-million project. The federal government recently added $51.4 million to the pot.

Jim Guild is retired from a staff rep. position with the NS Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU) and has been active of late with the Halifax Media Co-op.

This piece was originally published by the Halifax Media Co-op.

NS disability rights press conference

April Keddy

Audio Vision

hillarybain — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 06:07:26 +0000

Campus and community stations transform to accommodate people with disabilities

HALIFAX—Every Monday, listeners tune into CKDU 88.1FM to hear host Adam Noble count down Halifax’s top 30 albums on the popular chart show Radio Numerica. They would never know that Noble is blind.

“I hope to help more people who are blind or visually impaired become involved in radio and to get their voices heard,” says Noble.

Like many people living with disabilities, Noble encounters societal barriers in activities that others may take for granted, like hosting a radio show. He and his allies at campus and community stations aim to change this, by giving support to the voices of people with disabilities and making radio stations more accommodating to their needs.

With the help of Noble and other disability-conscious radio volunteers, the National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA) is compiling a guidebook and accompanying audio disc to distribute to its 74 campus and community member stations across the country. The handbook is scheduled to be complete by spring. The authors hope it will increase radio programming on disability issues, as well as to encourage stations to analyze accessibility in their own spaces and ultimately promote an accommodating environment for people with disabilities.

“Ideally,” says NCRA Membership Coordinator Shelley Robinson, “All people [will] have full access to our stations and our processes so they can suggest and make the changes themselves, from the inside.”

That’s exactly what Noble did when he began volunteering in the campus and community radio field in 1998 at CHSR 97.9FM in Fredericton, New Brunswick before joining the CKDU team in 2008.

Noble was initially drawn to campus and community radio by his love for music, but was also intrigued by an atmosphere that welcomed a diversity of individuals. “The staff and volunteers have been very helpful to me,” he says. “Each Monday when I host Radio Numerica, CKDU’s music director makes sure I have the CDs I need and that the top 30 chart is accessible for me.”

“I used to be an extremely shy person and was afraid to ask for help if I needed it,” says Noble. “Once I moved out on my own I soon realized that I needed to overcome [shyness] or I wouldn’t make it by myself.”

Many community spaces fail to accommodate a wide scope of physical and mental disabilities. Accessibility is a common obstacle within public spaces: buildings often lack wide corridors for walkers and wheelchairs, and few public places are functional for the visually impaired. Noble gives the example of “walking into an office building and trying to find a certain floor in an elevator but there isn’t any Braille on the keypad.”

André St. Jacques, a volunteer at CHUO 89.1FM in Ottawa, faces similar constraints in his wheelchair.

CHUO is located in the sub-basement of the Morrisset library at the University of Ottawa campus. St. Jacques’ mobility limitations force him to depend on elevator service. On Thursday evenings he must be at the radio station one hour before his midnight show since the facilities department turn off the elevators at eleven o’clock. “I was constantly being locked out if I did not arrive on time, and then it was always a struggle to get out of the building once the show was over,” says St. Jacques. “The station manager fought with the school administration and now the University is more aware of the challenges.”

Cooperation between staff and volunteers at CHUO played a significant role in St. Jacques’ radio experience. “No one has made me feel like I don’t have a voice,” he says. Alongside hosting and co-hosting three French programs on the airwaves, St. Jacques is a member of the station’s Board of Directors and speaks up on behalf of disability needs.

Staff support was crucial in enabling Noble to establish CHSR as a functional space for the Blind. “When I started at CHSR the staff and volunteers were very excited to work on making the station accessible,” he says. “The first job was to put Braille labels on all of the equipment in the master control room as well as the production studio.”

Making a space accessible for disabled persons also involves educating the able-bodied people who share the space. For instance, there are programmers who peel away at the Braille labels—an anxious habit while hosting on air—and eventually remove the labels unknowingly.

Pierre Loiselle worked alongside Noble during the construction of a disability-conscious space at CHSR in Fredericton. “Challenges [from a staff perspective] included mobilizing the membership to be considerate to the needs of people with varying abilities,” says Loiselle, “[such as] getting the membership aware that they had to place their bags on a chair as opposed to the floor, not move the furniture around, and if any temporary changes were made, things had to be put back in their place immediately afterward.”

However, supportive staff and Braille labeling alone do not make a space accessible for the Blind. Specialized equipment for the visually impaired is also required, but the equipment is costly and these purchases are expensive for radio stations with small budgets. For instance, Job Access With Speech (JAWS) is a screen-reading software program that reads aloud everything on the computer screen. Noble has been using JAWS for twelve years but he had to spend $1,000 out-of-pocket.

“Once you are finished school there is no funding that I know of that will help buy equipment for persons with disabilities,” he says. “There are definitely some challenges [associated with having a disability] but with new technology that’s available, slowly it gets easier.”

In order to mobilize awareness for a Blind-functional radio station in Halifax, staff members at CKDU are seeking funding from the federal government for a contract position for Noble. The goal of the short-term contract will be to make the studios at CKDU more accessible by installing screen-reading software, offering training for Blind programmers, addressing disability awareness in general volunteer orientation, and communicating with the membership about the technological and physical features of the space.

Whilst the campus and community radio handbook will initiate conversation regarding disability issues, stations across the country have a long way to go to being accessible. When speculating about the number of disability-conscious community radio stations in Canada, Robinson states: “[T]o be honest, I have no idea how many [stations] have volunteers with disabilities or can accommodate people with disabilities, especially since there are so many [disabilities] to consider.”

There is still a long way to go, but Noble has helped make CKDU a more accessible space for blind programmers so others like him may have the opportunity to work in radio. “I’ve had an extremely positive experience in radio. I remember my first time on the air I was scared to death. With lots of practice eventually I began to relax and have a lot of fun.”

“I always tell people to never be afraid to ask me questions about my disability. I would rather people ask me stuff than assume things. People need to understand that just because I’m blind I can do just as much as someone who is sighted.”

Radio Numerica broadcasts Mondays 1:30-3:30AT on CKDU 88.1FM or www.ckdu.ca.

Gianna Lauren is a radio enthusiast, vegan baker, musician and writer. She hosts a weekly female-focused news and music program on CKDU called Third Wave Radio.

Adam Noble 1

Adam Noble 2

Strong Nudes

Fri, 26 May 2006 14:30:41 +0000

Sexuality and Disability

It should come as no surprise that people with disabilities have healthy sexualities and sex lives – but it does. According to Bob Gutler, a writer for Bent Magazine, this demonstrates "the power of a Culture Machine, which sells Sex while simultaneously limiting Eros to the smallest possible range of expression." Twelve per cent of people in
Canada are living with disabilities – both visible and invisible. Whether it's sex care workers specifically for people with disabilities, Bob's Flanagan's performance art and poetry, or Internet dating forums for people with 'life challenges,' people are speaking and acting out against the Culture Machine that excludes 'sexual minorities.'

One such person is Belinda Mason-Lovering, an artist who complicates the classical view, use, and revere for the classical nude with her photographic essay Intimate Encounters. The men and women Mason-Lovering pictures are people with physical, intellectual, learning, psychiatric and neurological disabilities. The project was collaborative in the sense that Mason-Lovering worked to create sets, compositions and finished images that represent elements significant to each person who posed. The "nude" in each photograph leaves the classical passive-object role prescribed to both nudes in art and people with disabilities. In the words of its creators, "Intimate Encounters explores the myriad connections between disability and sexuality. A sense of our sexual selves is as vital to our existence as the air we breathe. This is the pervading message present in every image in the series. The quest is to create images that 'tell a thousand words' and which reflect sexual diversity without tokenism."

Saul Food
Saul and Anonymous
Sydney NSW, Australia
2000

"Sexual Being is defined by spirit, not body. Exploring ways we best fit together is my career -- a clear choice of pleasure over prejudice."

"Sexual Being is defined by spirit, not body. Exploring ways we best fit together is my career -- a clear choice of pleasure over prejudice."
Saul is a sex worker and sex surrogate who works with men who have disabilities. Saul has been a sex worker for many years. He has worked in New Zealand and Australia. In the tradition of the ancient temple prostitutes, his career is his spiritual vocation -- "If someone told me I couldn't do this work anymore, I'd cry."

The Explorers
Titi Chartay and Carolyn Dearing
Sydney NSW, Australia
2000

"We must understand the past with clarity; there is nothing more heinous than dragging the scourge of fundamentalist belief systems into our future. Oppression in any form is an evolutionary dead-end."

A smiling veteran of Gay Liberation, the Vietnam Moratorium and Women's Liberation, Titi maintains her activism to this day. A Mardi Gras 78'er, she now applies her experience to the area of disability. A writer, musician and theatre artist, she has a strong practical streak that means she is as at ease repairing a car radiator as she is critiquing literary theory. She is a great believer in the subversive value of satire and maintains through her disdain of current dance music that she is not a Luddite. She has been fond of dinosaurs since childhood and of Motown, all her life.

Titi uses crutches in order to be mobile.

Caroline Dearing is a homeopath with a penchant for ballroom dancing. Her commitment to social justice issues and appreciation of the practical strategic thrust now sees her subverting the legal system from within. She believes that the "sledgehammer approach" of law is often the only way that the rights of the marginalized and the ignored can be respected and as such, is a strong advocate of law reform. She loves a groove to a Motown song and tolerates the presence of dinosaurs at home with whimsical forbearance.

Moment
David Toole with his partner Cherylee Houston
Manchester, UK
2002

"Until becoming a performer 10 years ago, I was not really aware of my body as such and the thought of someone finding me sexually attractive would make me laugh.

Recently, however, I have become happier with my body, having spent years giving permission to people to obviously stare when on stage......
Having a good relationship and an opportunity to share intimate moments has been something that has only occurred over the last few years of my life as people with a disability are for some reason not seen as a sexual being......"

David came into dance through workshops with CandoCo Dance Company in 1992. While working with them, he studied for a year at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance, receiving a Professional Diploma in Community Dance in 1993. Six years of national and international touring with CandoCo followed, until 1999, when he decided to try new experiences. In 1995, David had his first taste of theatre when he played the part of Puck in Benjamin Britten's opera of A Midsummer Night's Dream. This was followed a year later with an appearance in the Sally Potter film The Tango Lesson, playing the part of the designer.
David's most recent performances have been with Graeae Theatre Company in 2000 and also 2001, playing the parts of Edgar in The Fall of the House of Usher and Deflores in The Changeling respectively. In the summer of 2000, he worked with DV8, creating and performing the piece Can We Afford This for the Sydney Arts Festival prior to the 2000 Olympics. David now works as a freelance dancer, actor and workshop leader.

David has no legs due to complications at birth.

The full series can be found at Intimate Encounters.

A supplementary list of practical guides and resources for sexuality and disability: The Illustrated Guide to Better Sex for People with Chronic Pain by Robert Rothrok and Gabriella D'Amore, 1992, Restricted Access: Lesbians on Disability, edited by Victoria A. Brownworth and Susan Raffo, 2000, MS and Intimacy: Managing Specific Issues, by Tanya Radford, 2000, and Sex and Back Pain: Advice on Restoring Comfortable Sex Lost To Back Pain, by Lauren Andrew Hebert, PT, 1997.

For the more scholarly approach, there's The Sexuality and Disability Journal published by Springer-Netherlands. In one issue, articles range from "I Thought I was Less Worthy: Low Sexual and Body Esteem and Increased Vulnerability to Intimate Partner Abuse in Women with Physical Disabilities" to "In Vitro Effect of Ginseng Extract on Sperm Count."

Max Liboiron explores sexuality and disability through Belinda Mason-Lovering's photographic essay Intimate Encounters.

No Dissing Their Abilities

Tue, 10 May 2005 21:04:43 +0000

Canadian athletes compete internationally at the 22nd Défi Sportif

I hear a save in the making; a canadian goalballer in action. photo: Benoît Pelosse

Covered in hockey equipment and sporting modified ski goggles painted opaque in the colors of the Canadian flag, six men throw themselves onto the gym floor in a desperate attempt to thwart the progress of the oncoming jingling ball. A Canadian team member sprawls out--fully extended, he barely manages to deflect the ball away from his goal line. His body covers a full seven feet, yet he only manages to divert the ball with the last measure of his finger tips.

The small crowd does not cheer. Total silence is maintained in the gym. This is goalball, a game where absolute silence from the fans and players alike is not only expected, but intrinsic to the game. Relying on sound rather than sight (all participants wear masks to level the aural playing field of differences in seeing ability), goalball is a game where the sight-impaired hold a competitive advantage over their sight-oriented sisters and brothers, due to their more highly developed use of sound for spatial orientation.

Goalball is one of many such sports that were part of last week's Défi Sportif, held in Montréal. From April 27th to May Ist, 2700 athletes and over 500 volunteers gathered for the 22nd edition of the annual event. In locations scattered throughout the city, athletes with a variety of disabilities raced, battled, and competed in 15 sports.

Défi Sportif is the only competition in Canada that encourages athletes of all disabilities to participate. Whether the disability be visual, auditory, intellectual, psychiatric or physical the students, developing or paralympic athletes face off for gold. They come mostly from Québec, although the rest of Canada is well represented along with combatants from 8 other countries.

The badminton, basketball and volleyball played at the Défi Sportif are similar to their mainstream counterparts, slightly altered to allow for each respective disability. Sports such as goalball, tandem cycling and wheelchair fencing, however, are quite unique in their development of rules and competitive dynamics. In many cases, it is the latter category of sport that draws the fascination of spectators.

The previously mentioned Goalball pushes auditory senses to the max. Players sport masks that discourage even traces of light from influencing them. The goal is to roll the ball past the other team's goal line while blocking it from crossing one's own. The players extend themselves across the floor, chasing a ball containing small bells that signal its location. Players rely on textured tape on the ground to determine their location in relation to goal lines and boundaries. Twenty minutes after the ball sings its first shot, the team with the most goals wins.

Tandem cycling along with hand cycling and cycling make up the bicycle sports. Cyclists are ranked according to their disability and face fierce competition on traditional bikes, three wheeled bikes or tandems. The tandem cycle is unique in that it involves two racers: a visual impaired athlete who occupies the rear seat and a pilot who steers the duo. The pilot is the only non-disabled athlete who competes for a medal at the games.

Wheelchair fencing also attracts its share of attention. As with traditional fencing, the aim is to strike a hit upon the opponent's body with either an épée, saber, or foil. What separates it from its upright counterpart is that the target area for these athletes is limited to area from the waist up. The wheelchair is tethered in place within striking distance of the opponent. The anchored chair allows for a full range of upper body movement but eliminates any toppling of the fencer. The close proximity leads to an intense and very fast paced clash.

These sports, as with all others in the games have come a long way since organized disabled sports competitons got their start nearly sixty years ago, when disabled veterans of the Second World War were encouraged to compete in wheelchair sports to aid with their mental and physical rehabilitation. Today, disabled sports have a more proactive role. Social values and the promotion of a positive self image are at the forefront and for some, overshadow mere competition. For many, being perceived as a serious athlete and breaking out of the largely negative connotations of "disabled" are as important as winning.

Each year of Défi Sportif has seen an increase in the number of athletes, a deepening of the talent pool, and a growth in media coverage and corporate funding. With hopes of becoming the largest disabled games in the world, the Défi Sportif has received a boost with the support of athletes such as Chantal Peticlerc. The winner of five gold medals in Athens in wheelchair racing, Peticlerc is a well known paralympic athlete from Québec.

Peticlerc and other recognizable athletes competing in these games help draw crowds, media, and funding that are facilitating the advancement of all disabled sports. Apart from its growth, the Défi Sportif's real achievement continues to be in giving these athletes from around the world the spotlight that they deserve. The dedication and years of training become the satisfaction that every competitor feels when they step onto center stage in Montréal to show us just what they are capable of.

When does blindness give you the competitive advantage in a sport? Chris Tucker reports from Montréal's annual Défi Sportif

From Margin to Main Character

Tue, 02 Dec 2003 02:29:30 +0000

<cite>Deafening</cite> brings disability to the centre of mainstream fiction

I always get suspicious when in coffee shops, on buses, trains, and coffee tables, or peering out of purses, I see the same book. It seems that everyone except me is part of the same book club, and they've all picked up the assigned reading for the month. Not too long ago, this novel was The Life of Pi, and the ubiquity of this brightly coloured, incessantly discussed novel made me want to avoid it, for the sole reason that nobody else seemed to. In a few weeks, when the paperback version is released, I have a feeling this book will be Canadian author, Francis Itani's Deafening.

For a first novel, Deafening has had astounding success and has already made Itani a millionaire. Without having been shortlisted for any major literary award or chosen by Oprah's Book Club, such an achievement is certainly uncommon. Nevertheless, I approached Deafening with caution. Could the novel really be that out of the ordinary, or was its success more a testament to HarperCollins' marketing skill?

I can say that, stylistically at least, there was nothing astonishing about this novel. The plot was at times predictable, the form somewhat conventional, and the pace a little slow for my liking. Perahps this very stylistic conventionality is a contributing factor to its commercial success. As a general rule, bestsellers rarely challenge established standards of form. In its content, on the other hand, Deafening fills a void many of us probably never noticed existed.

Itani's novel describes the life of a girl growing up in the small town of Deseronto, Ontario, and her relationship with Jim, who becomes a soldier in WWI. Fairly standard fare: war, peace, love, loss, pain, and some Canadian history. Here conventionality is a contributing factor to the novel's success; these are universal themes with mass appeal. However, the main character, Grania, is left deaf at the age of 5 as a result of scarlet fever. When was the last time you read a piece of fiction about a deaf person? When, in fact, was the last time you read a novel about anybody with any sort of disability? I can name several novels in which such characters figure marginally: Dickens' novels, for example, are full of deaf old ladies, "cripples," and dwarves. But they serve only as one-dimensional villains or as comic relief. There are few novels which actually explore the experience of being marginalized due to a perceived disability. Considering that approximately 1 in 8 Canadians lives with a disability, this is an inappropriate silence.

"Increasingly, we are understanding that impairment is the rule and normalcy the fantasy."

There is a similar silence when it comes to scholarly work on the subject. Somehow, despite the emphasis that feminist and queer studies place on the body and postcolonial studies places on how people are "othered" based on criteria such as race, class, sex, or sexuality, the topic of disability is typically overlooked. Instead, academia has focussed on the "freak." However, in the past 5 or 6 years there has been an explosion of scholarly work which seeks to redress this negligence, bringing to light the ways we think about those with disabilities. Increasingly, we are understanding that impairment is the rule and normalcy the fantasy.

These are exactly the issues which Itani's novel brings to light. Grania's mother initially refuses to send her to the Ontario School for the Deaf in Belleville because this would force her to acknowledge her daughter's difference. Instead, she wants her daughter to lip-read and speak. Townspeople question whether Grania, being deaf, is capable of thought. They believe it is self-evident that she will not marry or have a life of her own.

Chapters open with quotes from Alexander Graham Bell, a strong advocate of the abolishment of sign language, and The Canadian, the school paper of the Ontario School for the Deaf. These quotations provide an historical context through which we watch the losing battle of the deaf community to retain its own language. Indeed, it is only in the past few decades that "oral" language such as ASL (American Sign Language), which has no written equivalent, have begun to be seen as legitimate, complete languages. As Grania says, language is the "battleground" of the deaf.

With her particular perception of the world around her, Grania realizes that there are many people in her community who feel as out of place as she does. Both the flu epidemic which sweeps through Ontario and the war leave thousands of people deaf, disfigured, and emotionally and physically scarred. She watches their struggles to blend in, a struggle she and her deaf friends have sought to master all their lives. And it is Grania who is able to help those around her to cope with their sense of isolation.

Deafening is a novel about communication that shows the way people often fail, but also sometimes miraculously manage, to understand one another. One secret to this novel's success certainly lies in the compelling character of Grania, whose unique point of view shows us our world in a light in which many of us have never considered it.

Laura Cardiff is writing from Kingston, Ontario, where she recently completed an MA in English at Queen's University.

Deafening brings disability to the centre of mainstream fiction