Barrier Free Architecturals
January 26, 2011

The Government of Canada Helping the Disabled Prepare for the Job Market in Alberta

Canada's Economic Action Plan Logo. Image Credit: Government of Canada.

The Government of Canada is backing two projects designed to provide career counseling for youths and people struggling with disabilities in Medicine Hat, Alberta.  In partnership with the federal Skills Link program and the Opportunities Fund for Persons with Disabilities, the Government of Canada and Rehabilitation and Employment for Developing Independence (REDI) will work together to coordinate the rollout of two projects – Youth Employment Pathways and Opening Doors to Opportunities – which will be made available to the community shortly.

The two projects will provide an estimated 30 individuals with crucial career skills by enabling them to gain on-the-job experience.  Special attention will be paid to the interests and work habits of each individual enrolled in this highly personal, customizable program.  The federal government is working with communities in other provinces to execute similar programs throughout the country.

REDI is expected to receive over $187,000 in federal funding from Skills Link and Opportunities Fund for Persons with Disabilities to support these two projects.

The “target audience” of the two initiatives is youth between the ages of 15-30 who are not receiving Employment Insurance benefits.  The program hopes to help develop basic and advanced employment skills by assisting participants via a client-centred approach and hands-on experience while paying special attention to the participant’s unique needs (such as specialized classroom equipment), abilities and interests.

The Skills Link and Opportunities Fund programs are part of the Government of Canada’s strategy to create a world-renounced workforce, comprised of the most skilled flexible workers in the world.  One crucial aspect of this plan is to help create more opportunity for Canadians of all ages – including those with disabilities.  For more information about this initiative, visit www.actionplan.gc.ca.

These programs are delivered by Service Canada, which provides personalized services for Government of Canada programs, services and benefits. For more information about these programs, visit www.servicecanada.gc.ca.

Filed under Health and Mobility Tips
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January 24, 2011

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Part II

With the recent news that the European Union (or the ‘EU’- an economic and political union of 27 member states that are mostly in Europe) has recently ratified the UN’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, it feels like a good time to remind oursevles about this convention and what it entails.

First off, what does it actually mean to ‘ratify’ something? Wiktionary defines the word as “To give formal consent to; make officially valid”. Because the Convention involves binding conditions, it’s big news that an intergovernmental organization like this has signed up. The EU is the first group of its kind to sign up to the Convention and officially joined on the 23rd of December.

So what is the Convention and what does it include?

It was first adopted by the UN on the 13th of December 2006 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. According to the official website, “there were 82 signatories to the Convention, 44 signatories to the Optional Protocol, and 1 ratification of the Convention”. Apparently, this is the largest number of signatories to sign up to a UN Convention on a single day, ever.

The Convention was a major step forwards in human rights thinking and represented what it described as a ‘paradigm shift’ in how people with disabilities are treated by their governments. Instead of seeing them as ‘objects’, who simply receive charity, medical treatment and social protection from the relevant powers that be, people with disabilities are represented in this document as ‘subjects’ – people with rights who are free and capable members of society.

The underlying core principle of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is that all people with all types of disabilities must enjoy the same human rights and fundamental freedoms as everyone else. Therefore, by ratifying the treaty, all EU members “countries pledge to uphold non-discrimination and other protections and to provide people with disabilities services they need to participate fully in society”.

In practical terms, this means making sure that accessibility is a priority for all countries, including anything from accessible toilets in public spaces to wheelchair ramps for transport systems.

Filed under Mobility Issues and News
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January 20, 2011

US Federal Court Allows Modern Technology to Assist in Professional Examinations for the Disabled

Scales of Justic. Image: The Liberal Orange County.

A ruling was made by a US federal appellate court ruling affirmed the right of a blind California women to use screen access technology to take professional examinations in order to receive her license to practice law. The ruling was handed down unanimously by a panel of the United States Courts of Appeals for the Ninths Judicial Circuit, upholding preliminary injunctions granted by a federal district court requiring the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) to provide electronic copies of its legal examinations to Stephanie Enyart so that she could read the questions with text-to-speech and magnification software.

In a recent press release by the National Federation of the Blind, President of the organization, Dr. Marc Maurer, acknowledges this as a step in the right direction:

“The National Federation of the Blind welcomes this ruling, which means that testing agencies must afford the accommodations and auxiliary aids that are most likely to level the playing field for the blind and other test takers with disabilities.  The court made it clear that law and equity simply do not permit the NCBE to dictate a one-size-fits-all solution for all bar candidates with disabilities.  The ruling stands solidly for the principle that the NCBE and all testing organizations must consider the individual needs of each examination candidate and that accommodation policies must change as access technology continues to improve.  It is our sincere hope that the NCBE will change its rigid and outdated accommodation policies to reflect the letter and spirit of this ruling, and that other entities that administer educational and professional examinations will take note and do likewise.  The National Federation of the Blind stands ready to fight for the rights of blind students and aspiring professionals and to make sure that this ruling is faithfully followed.”

The court has upheld the validity of a Department of Justice regulation, promulgated pursuant to Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), requiring that exams are chosen and administered so that exam results can accurately reflect aptitude or achievement rather than disability.

The court has also acknowledged that as technology advances, testing accommodating should advance as well. Accessibility should take place across all areas of modern life, from removing barriers to education to improving physical access at home.

Filed under Barrier Free News, Mobility Issues and News
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January 11, 2011

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Part II

U.S. Signs UN Convention On the Rights Of Persons With Disabilities. Image Source: Zimbio.

With the recent news that the European Union (or the ‘EU’- an economic and political union of 27 member states that are mostly in Europe) has recently ratified the UN’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, it feels like a good time to remind oursevles about this convention and what it entails.

First off, what does it actually mean to ‘ratify’ something? Wiktionary defines the word as “To give formal consent to; make officially valid”. Because the Convention involves binding conditions, it’s big news that an intergovernmental organization like this has signed up. The EU is the first group of its kind to sign up to the Convention and officially joined on the 23rd of December.

So what is the Convention and what does it include?

It was first adopted by the UN on the 13th of December 2006 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. According to the official website, “there were 82 signatories to the Convention, 44 signatories to the Optional Protocol, and 1 ratification of the Convention”. Apparently, this is the largest number of signatories to sign up to a UN Convention on a single day, ever.

The Convention was a major step forwards in human rights thinking and represented what it described as a ‘paradigm shift’ in how people with disabilities are treated by their governments. Instead of seeing them as ‘objects’, who simply receive charity, medical treatment and social protection from the relevant powers that be, people with disabilities are represented in this document as ‘subjects’ – people with rights who are free and capable members of society.

The underlying core principle of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is that all people with all types of disabilities must enjoy the same human rights and fundamental freedoms as everyone else. Therefore, by ratifying the treaty, all EU members “countries pledge to uphold non-discrimination and other protections and to provide people with disabilities services they need to participate fully in society”.

In practical terms, this means making sure that accessibility is a priority for all countries, including anything from accessible toilets in public spaces to wheelchair ramps for transport systems.

Filed under Uncategorized
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January 6, 2011

The EU Ratification of the UN’s Convention of the Rights of People With Disabilities

European Union Flag. Image Source: Top News.

The European Union (EU) has just ratified the United Nation’s (UN) Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities that intends to ensure rights of people with disabilities. This Convention is meant to set the standard for protecting and safeguarding the civil, political, social and economic rights for people with disabilities. It attempts to level the playing field between those with disabilities and other citizens.

This is the first time the EU as a whole has become a party to an international human rights treaty as well as it being the first one ratified by the EU as a whole. The treaty was signed by all 27 EU Member States and ratified by 16 of them.

The treaty was also signed by 97 other parties in providing an accessible Europe for people with disabilities. Its purpose is to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms of people will disabilities.

Currently, one in six in European Union is around 80 million and over one-third of people over 75 have a restricting disability or mobility issues. These numbers are expected to increase as the population grows older.

An EU disability strategy for the next ten years had been unveiled in 2007 and to date it has been signed by 27 EU countries and 120 other nations around the world.  The 16 ratifying countries promise to improve the following areas:

-          Access to education

-          Employment

-          Transport

-          Infrastructure and public facilities to allow physical access with, for example, mobility ramps

-          Granting voting rights

-          Improving political participation and ensuring full legal capabilities of people with disabilities

The European Commission Vice-Present for Justice Viviane Redling, states that this is a “milestone in the history of human rights as it is the first time ever that the EU becomes a party to an international human rights treaty” and calls upon those who have yet to ratify to do so soon. She notes that “it is our collective responsibility to ensure that people with disabilities do not face additional obstacles in their everyday lives.”

Filed under Mobility Issues and News
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January 1, 2011

Disability Activist Max Starkloff, 1937-2010

Starkloff Disability Institute Logo. Image Source: Starkloff Disability Institute.

News earlier this week announced the death of Max Starkloff, one of the US’s most prominent disability activists. Max was the founder of two institutions designed to help people with disabilities: the first was Paraquad Inc., founded in 1970, was one of the first independent living centres in the US; in 2003, Max co-founded the Starkloff Disability Institute with his wife – they described it as “the next big step” toward equal rights for disabled people.

In 1959, Starkloff was involved in a serious car accident that broke his neck and made him quadriplegic. He lived with his mother for a few years but then moved to a nearby nursing home, where he stayed for 12 years. During that time, he met and fell in love with his future wife, a physical therapist named Colleen Kelly. He also used those 12 years to come up with a plan for an organisation that would advocate for people with disabilities and help anyone who wanted to, to learn to live independently. This organisation became Paraquad.

David Newburger, a close friend of Max, describes his motivation for the organisation: “There he was, stuck in a nursing home, and he developed independently the idea that he would move out into the community, live in an apartment, marry his sweetheart and have a job. He didn’t want to spend his life in a place where other people made the decisions for him. He was fiercely independent.”

Max and Colleen Starkloff went on to help hundreds of people with disabilities in their local area and around the world (they travelled to Japan in the 1990’s to help build the independent living movement there).

The Starkloff Disability Institute, founded in 2003, was created to help non-disabled people get used to the idea that people with disabilities had just as much right to live ordinary lives as anybody else.

At Barrier Free Architecturals, we know that means building in accessible living from the ground up, making sure that anyone is able to work and socialise in shared spaces whatever their disability. This is why such basic facilities as Handicap Toilets are such an important feature of any public space or office.

Filed under Mobility Issues and News
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