Following recent snowstorms that deposited as much as 40 cm onto Hamilton streets, some Hamilton residents are using social media to bring attention to the issue of snow-covered residential sidewalks.
Currently, residents are expected to clear snow from their sidewalks within 24 hours of a “snow event.” If residents fail to comply, the city will issue a 24-hour “Notice to Comply,” followed by possible inspection and a contracting fee for the homeowner.
However, residents say both residential and city sidewalks are still not being cleared, either by residents or by the city.
The Disability Justice Network of Ontario has encouraged residents to participate in the “Snow and Tell” campaign by tweeting out pictures of snow or ice-covered roads and sidewalks using the hashtag #AODAfail, referring to the Accessibility for Ontarians for Disabilities Act.
https://twitter.com/VicBick/status/1087879002092646401
McMaster student and local community organizer Sophie Geffros supports the campaigns and says it a serious issue of accessibility and justice.
Geffros uses a wheelchair and knows how especially difficult it can be for those who use mobility devices to navigate through snow-covered streets.
“It's people who use mobility devices. It's people with strollers. And it's older folks. People end up on the street. If you go on any street after a major storm, you'll see people in wheelchairs and with buggies on the street with cars because the sidewalks just aren't clear,” Geffros said.
https://twitter.com/sgeffros/status/1087384392866123778
Snow-covered sidewalks also affect the ability for people, especially those who use mobility devices, to access public transit.
“Even when snow has been cleared, often times when it gets cleared, it gets piled on curb cuts and piled near bus stops and all these places that are that are vital to people with disabilities,” Geffros said.
https://twitter.com/craig_burley/status/1088798476081741824
Geffros sees the need for clearing sidewalks as non-negotiable.
“By treating our sidewalk network as not a network but hundreds of individual tiny chunks of sidewalk, it means that if there's a breakdown at any point in that network, I can't get around,” Geffros said. “If every single sidewalk on my street is shoveled but one isn't, I can't use that entire sidewalk. We need to think of it as a vital service in the same way that we think of road snow clearance as a vital service.”
Public awareness about the issue may push city council.
Some councillors have expressed support for a city-run snow clearing service, including Ward 1 councillor Maureen Wilson and Ward 3 councillor Nrinder Nann.
I just don’t find it all that complicated. Cities are for people. It is in our best interest, financial and otherwise, to plow sidewalks. It’s also a matter of justice. I await the city manager’s report and ensuing debate
— Maureen Wilson (She / Her) (@ward1wilson) January 29, 2019
A city council report issued in 2014 stated that a 34 dollar annual increase in tax for each homeowner would be enough to fund sidewalk snow-clearing.
Recently, Wilson requested the city council to issue a new report on the potential costs of funding snow-clearing service.
Geffros sees potential for the current discourse to open up to further discussions on other issues of accessibility and social justice.
Hamilton’s operating budget will likely be finalized around April. Until then, Geffros and other Hamilton residents will continue to speak out on the issue.
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When Jess completed her undergraduate degree, she found herself at a crossroads. Look for an entry-level position in primary health care? Or pursue additional studies to streamline her career path?
Having decided to take the further education route, Jess began her search for a graduate certificate program that would provide the experience she needed to make her resume stand out. She found the right fit in Hamilton at Mohawk College and enrolled in the Mental Health and Disability Management Graduate Certificate program.
"My degree gave me a solid foundation, but I knew I needed practical skills and workplace experience," says Jess. “With so many opportunities to learn outside of the classroom and get involved in the community, Mohawk’s graduate certificate program checked all the right boxes for me."
As a leader in experiential learning, Mohawk’s graduate certificate programs prepare you, in one year or less with experience you will use in the workplace. Embedded in all programs are learning opportunities developed in cooperation with industry partners, such as capstone projects, work placements, and interactive simulations. These partnerships formed between industry, colleges and universities are key to students leaving with relevant skills for today's job market.
As a university graduate, these opportunities to specialize and gain industry-relevant experiences can build on your degree and make a difference in your job search. In fact, 88.6% of Mohawk grads find employment within six months of graduating. *
Securing a job in a field directly related to your undergraduate studies? Consider a graduate certificate program that complements your existing knowledge base.
Interested in working in an industry that’s entirely different from your university major? Your bachelor’s degree is the key to being eligible for a diverse range of graduate certificate programs.
For Jess, combining her undergraduate degree with a graduate certificate has given her the confidence that she’ll have both the knowledge and the skills to help fill gaps that exist in primary health care environments.
Ready to go further? Explore Mohawk College Graduate Certificates today and find the one that’s the right fit for you.
* 2017-18 KPI Student Satisfaction and Engagement Survey
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In the lobby of L.R. Wilson Hall, human figures constructed of wood carving and found objects are fastened to a series of nine panels. At the bottom of the panels are phrases chronicling the thoughts that the artist, Persimmon Blackbridge, had while making the work. The figures come together to question the way in which society frames disability as a fracturing of life rather than an expected part of it.
Blackbridge’s Constructed Identities exhibit will be set up in L.R. Wilson Hall from Jan. 16 to Mar. 15. The exhibit is part of McMaster University’s Socrates Project and put on in partnership with Toronto disability arts gallery Tangled Art + Disability, for which Constructed Identities was the opening exhibit in 2015.
On Jan. 16, Blackbridge came to McMaster via video chat to have a conversation with Eliza Chandler. Chandler is an assistant professor at Ryerson University, founding Artistic Director of Tangled Art + Disability and a practicing disability artist and curator.
Blackbridge chronicled her disability art practice, which began in 1977. The Canadian sculptor, writer, curator, performer and editor told the story of her life and its entanglement with her art practice. She cites art as something that has helped her in dark spaces and in her daily life.
“I've been an artist for 48 years. I've had a psych diagnosis for 31 years. I've had a learning disability for 68 years. Had kidney disease for 15 years. Some of these things work better together than others,” said Blackbridge in the opening of her talk.
Blackbridge recalled starting art school not long after experiencing her first breakdown. She counts herself as fortunate to have found a community of artists and activists in art school who understood her experiences.
Blackbridge’s history of making disability and mad art has put her on the forefront of these movements, which are only now being publicly funded and programmed. She likes the idea of having this exhibit shown in a university because she sees universities as spaces where disability is beginning to be discussed in new ways.
The pieces in Constructed Identities bear similarity to figures she created for a preceding series that explored her diagnosis. It was in that series that she began cutting off the tops of the figures’ heads and she has continued doing that in this work.
“[I]t really represented how some of us have [multiple] diagnoses and every shrink you see gives you a new diagnosis and expects you to act in a different way depending on that… [I]t's [also]… a way of representing invisible disability… [S]ometimes we don't get to speak with all of our identities together, sometimes we get fragmented into different, different pieces,” explained Blackbridge.
The first phrase in Constructed Identities is “what she taught me.” “She” refers to Tempest Grace Gale, a singer, artist and Blackbridge’s friend who was murdered in 2009. Gale combined doll parts and collected junk in her art practice, items which Blackbridge inherited after her death. The series begins with a reference to her because she influenced all the pieces in the exhibit.
There are others in Blackbridge’s life who influenced the work. SD Holman insisted Blackbridge carve more in this series than she did in her previous one. The wings in panel 4 are a tribute to the death of Blackbridge’s friend, Catherine Holman, who passed away in a plane crash. The words, “soft stroke” refer to the small strokes that Blackbridge’s partner, Della McCready, has as a result of her mysterious brain disease. McCready also helped to install the exhibit.
Some of the figures in the exhibition were made since it first showed in 2015, all entitled “his bones.” These pieces are made with bones that once belonged to Geoffrey McMurchy, a disability artist and activist who died suddenly in 2015. McMurchy was a founder of Vancouver non-profit Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture, which supports and promotes artists with disabilities.
“He and I shared a junk aesthetic and often traded… in bits of trash to inspire each other's art work. I was sent beautiful bones he’d collected over the years and that formed the basis of these new pieces. His work, his style, his energy and his hot sly humour helped so many of us along the way,” Blackbridge said.
Blackbridge is not done with Constructed Identities. She still has McMurchy’s bones that she is working with. His death was also the catalyst she needed to create more seated figures, as she realizes that the floating figures could be perceived as standing.
Constructed Identities has been on tour across Ontario since it opened up at the Tangled Arts + Disability gallery in Toronto. Next year it will be going to Vancouver where Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture Society will showcase the exhibit as it continues to inspire audiences to think deeper about disability.
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By Saad Ahmed
The Disability Justice Network of Ontario is a new Hamilton-based organization dedicated to addressing issues faced by the city’s disabled community, with the hope to scale the organization across the entire province within the next three years.
Two of three of the organization’s co-founders, Sarah Jama and Eminet Dagnachew, are McMaster alumni, and the third co-founder Shanthiya Baheerathan is a current student at the university.
The initiative launched on Sept. 13 to a full house at the Hamilton Public Library auditorium. The co-founders opened the launch by outlining the organization’s values.
“Our mission statement is to build a just and accessible Ontario where people with disabilities can thrive and foster meaningful relationships, build community, and learn skills meaningful to all people, communities, and organizations,” said Baheerathan.
Last year, the co-founders were approved to receive a Trillium grant over 36 months to create and run the network. Jama, an activist and recent McMaster graduate, hopes to bring the community together to help make individuals with disabilities heard.
“We’re all about building community and personal political power. People with disabilities haven’t been treated as though we have the capacity of a community, which is why implementing things like accessible spaces is very hard to this day,” said Jama. “This is why we hope to build a community and collective power to help address the isolation faced by people with disabilities.”
The network hopes to be unique from other disability services offered in the city.
“There are a lot of services that already exist for people with disabilities. We want to uniquely position ourselves in that landscape so that we don’t have any service overlap or reproduction. We’re in the process of mapping out those services and organizations to ensure we can have the highest possible impact,” said Baheerathan.
The initiative will be led by the co-founders and volunteers and will partner with other organizations in Hamilton to make the most of the network’s capabilities.
“We hope to do programming, education, activism, advocacy events and research. Community consultation and focus groups will be held to figure out what our needs are,” said Jama. “Workshops will be held for schools and service providers to help build spaces that go beyond accessibility and assist in integrating disability justice into their practice.”
At the launch, Baheerathan also announced the creation of the network’s Youth Advisory Council.
“We don’t just want to focus DJNO around adults with disabilities. If you’re a young person aged 16-29, identify as having a disability, and want to get involved in disability justice organizing, the DJNO Youth Advisory Council is a great way to make your voice heard and learn about community justice organizing, as well as develop skills in public speaking, event planning, advocacy, research, and much, much more,” she said.
Although their plan is to expand the network across Ontario, the organization is currently only focused on disability justice in Hamilton. As outlined on their website, Hamilton has one of the highest percentages of people with disabilities in Ontario.
“By launching DJNO in our city, we hope to service our community and build momentum to expand this movement,” reads a statement on the network’s website.
Whether it is advocacy, education or programming, the DJNO hopes to be community-informed and community-led. If you have any questions or concerns, you can reach them at info@djno.ca
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With International Day of Persons with Disabilities around the corner, disability justice activists in Hamilton through the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion (HCCI) decided to host the first Disability Justice Unconference: Momentum.
Community organizer Sarah Jama pointed out that the “unconference” is one of the very few events aimed at commemorating the annual date designated by the United Nations.
The event is sponsored by Laidlaw Foundation and the Equity and Inclusion Office at McMaster University.
“Justice for people with disability is never really on the forefront of conversations around equity in this city.… This conference is meant to bring people together, talk about the history of the disability justice movement and talk about the future of the movement in Canada,” said Jama.
Jama, a recent McMaster graduate who has served two years as the Ontario Director of the National Educational Association of Disabled Students and founded the McMaster Students Union’s accessibility-focused peer support service Maccess, hopes that the conference will bring people with lived experiences, as well as their allies, together to brainstorm the next steps for tackling issues in the disability community.
The full-day conference is set to take place Dec. 1 at the Lincoln Alexander Centre and features workshops, talks and community forums created by activists, community members, academics and service providers from all across Ontario.
“We are bringing people together, who are mostly youth, to discuss the future of the disability justice movement. It’s the best way to decide the next steps,” explained Jama.
“You can’t make change without building that foundation from learning from one another,” said Jama.
“Justice for people with disability is never really on the forefront of conversations around equity in this city.”
Sarah Jama
Activist
Momentum
The event’s welcome address by Associate Director at the Centre of Independent Living in Toronto and former CBC producer, Ing Wong-Ward, is followed by thirteen diverse workshops that attendees can choose from.
The workshops aim to start conversations on the experiences of persons with disabilities and identify the current needs of the community to work towards envisioning the next steps.
Current McMaster students Alex Wilson and Shannon Balfour are hosting a workshop titled Re-imagining Recovery: A Historical examination and interactive chat on what recovery has, does and can mean.
Ottawa-based community organizer, Jen Roy, will be introducing attendees to self-defining disability documentation and care planning.
Other workshops focus on sexual violence against people with disabilities, mental health and barriers to academic accommodations.
Jama also hopes that Momentum will be an opportunity for attendees to explore the disability justice movement and the history of violence against persons with disabilities in Ontario, such as the institutionalization of thousands of people with disabilities until 2009 at the Huronia Regional Centre (formerly known as the Asylum for Idiots) in Orillia, Ontario.
The devastating accounts of physical and sexual abuse, forced sterilization and death of children at the government-run institution is not often taught in schools, let alone addressed in our community.
The day also includes lunch time focused conversation activities, artistic performance by Hamilton-based writer and actor, Rex Emerson Jackson, a community forum and a final keynote address by Sarah Jama.
“What I like about this conference is that it’s not people without disabilities talking off about what needs to be done, its people with disabilities from across the province deciding what’s important to them and what they think should be talked about and what knowledge they want to share,” explained Jama.
“In a way, it’s about giving power back to people with disabilities.”
Momentum strives to create a community for individuals to share their experiences and work together.
Attendees will build relationships and leave with not only a sense of belonging in the movement, but a family of people willing to help work towards positive social change.
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By: Sabrina Lin/ Meducator and Sarah Ge
Frustrated by the inefficiency of the therapy model used to support children with special needs in schools, McMaster School of Rehabilitation Science professor Cheryl Missiuna decided it was time for change. At the onset of her journey, she didn’t realize how her team’s innovative service delivery model would revolutionize the field of special needs therapy in elementary schools across Canada.
Prof. Missiuna has served as Senior Scientist and Director at the CanChild Research Centre for seven years and is leading the Partnering for Change project. The project introduces a novel service delivery model that allows occupational therapists to provide services to school-aged children with Developmental Coordination Disorder.
Touching nearly one in five children across Canada, DCD is a motor disability that affects a child’s ability to complete everyday self-care and academic tasks such as zipping up a jacket, folding a piece of paper or using a pencil for schoolwork.
In Ontario, children identified with DCD are referred to school health support services for occupational therapy, after which they spend up to 24 months on waitlists to receive in-school treatment. Without the proper support, children with DCD remain at a standstill in these crucial years of development. Meanwhile, secondary academic, mental health, and physical health issues unfold, making their needs more complex and difficult to cope long-term.
Promoting collaboration between families, educators, and therapists, Partnering for Change is distinct from previous therapy models as it takes a more holistic approach to special needs therapy. “We have had traditional models in the past of servicing children one child at a time. At Partnering for Change, we recognize that this one-child-at-a-time model is not effective in large part because the kids spend so long on waitlists. Even if we had an intervention that was effective, children are waiting two years to see a therapist,” Missiuna said.
In response to this issue, she has worked with families, educators, therapists and other stakeholders to create a socio-educational therapy model that sees the whole school as the client. This is a departure from the current medical model characterised by referrals, check-ins, and long wait times.
“[Partnering for Change] helps to support features within the school to change or improve the environment around the child,” she said. Unlike previous methods, the development of the model centers around the needs of the children it services. It provides support with a focus on the child, and employs strategies in the classroom to resolve problems the child is having.
Occupational therapists play an important role in the process. After observing the child in the education setting, they assist in the development of individual learning profiles that are catered to the needs of the child. OTs will then provide knowledge and resources to educators and parents by either suggesting specialized instructional strategies or recommending specific tools that enhance learning.
In Ontario, children identified with DCD are referred to school health support services for occupational therapy, after which they spend up to 24 months on waitlists to receive in-school treatment.
P4C has seen widespread success in the school community. Missiuna explained that this is largely due to participatory action research, an approach that incorporates the opinions of families into the project design. “From the very beginning, we made sure that we were developing a model that was going to target issues that were identified by families, educators, and the health care system,” she said.
As the John and Margaret Lillie Chair in Childhood Disability Research, Missiuna hopes to continue to develop P4C in the next four years, systematically expanding its outreach both provincially and nationally. The program has already been implemented in 40 schools across three school boards, including the Hamilton Wentworth Catholic District School Board.
In addition to contributing to the field of childhood disability research, the new integrated delivery model has the potential touch the lives of nearly 400,000 Canadian children who are affected by the disorder.
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The MSU is well on its way to launching Maccess, its newest service. As the name suggests, Maccess will cater to students with both visible and invisible disabilities, with the goal of peer-based support and advocacy.
“What's different about this [service] is that it's peer-centric and that it also helps to capture students who maybe suffer with acute disabilities, so that captures students who deal with mental health concerns,” explained Giuliana Guarna, VP (Administration) of the MSU.
“We know there's a desire for peer support and we know there's also a desire to have an advocacy component that teaches students self-advocacy and also in the sense of campaigns and educating the campus, and advocating to the university.”
Guarna hopes the service will help prevent students from feeling “othered,” and while Maccess does not have a confirmed space yet, due to the logistics of physical accessibility concerns, she stressed the importance of finding a non-medical space. “Many students don’t find the medical resources to be sufficient,” she explained.
She also hopes Maccess will pioneer a better ally system for students with disabilities. While Student Accessibility Services runs its own version of the program, she said, “Many of the students who are part of the ally program don’t actually have a disability. So they don’t really appreciate the nuances of navigating the university while having a disability.” The service would hopefully launch a version of the program where students with disabilities could share tips about accommodations.
Ultimately, it will be Alex Wilson, the service’s newly hired coordinator who will work to shape the service. The selection committee, made up of Guarna, Brandon Stegmaier, the MSU Services Commissioner and Nishan Zewge-Abubaker, the MSU’s Diversity Services Director, worked with a set list of competencies to find a candidate who fit the job description. “[We wanted] someone who understands what is currently happening on campus with regards to disability and what services already exist,” explained Guarna. “Second, we are looking for someone who can build an inclusive space that would operate under an anti-racist framework and that had knowledge of intersectionality.”
To Guarna, Wilson displayed all the qualities the committee looked for. “I think he has a very thorough understanding of the role of peer support based on his role with SHEC. He also has a very strong understanding of working with campus and our community partners,” she said.
In regards to the role that lived experiences with disability played in hiring, Guarna said that the committee never said that they were exclusively going to hire someone with a disability, visible or invisible.
“We never even said we were going to hire someone with a disability. I mean, obviously we would hope that we do, because they're going to have that more nuanced understanding; however, I don't think it's even fair for us to have to expect a student to self-identify, because again, that is a barrier. And that in itself creates a barrier for those students, having to say, ‘I have this disability.’”
Wilson, for his part, is looking forward to taking on his new role. Starting in January, he will work six hours a week on developing the service, a job he will continue over the course of the summer, the goal being to officially launch the service September 2016, though it remains to be seen in what form.
“The next few months will be very dynamic as we look at how the collaboration between SAS, SWELL, SWC, HRES and Maccess turns out.” He also cited that finding a permanent, readily accessible space was another factor that would be vital in getting the service set up.
While progress has been made, the Maccess has a long way to grow yet, and it will be exciting to see how the new advocacy service develops.
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By: Sarah Jama
Over the past few weeks a picture has been floating around on my social media feed. From my understanding, it went viral because it captured an act of compassion. It showed one man — known only as Robert — who initiated hand holding with a stranger who allowed and reciprocated it. Godfrey Coutto, the stranger in question, is a McMaster student.
Believe me when I say I understand why this picture went viral. When on the HSR, most of us barely look up from our cell phones, let alone conduct acts of kind-hearted physical contact with people we don’t know. Not only was this moment a rarity, it also reminded a lot of people about how simple and momentous an act of kindness can be.
But something was off. Robert’s name was scarcely mentioned online in the shared posts, and only barely touched on in the news articles about the photo. He was never interviewed about the incident, and the only thing mentioned about him was that he was a man who has Cerebral Palsy (a mobility related disability) and a hearing impairment. In contrast, Coutto’s name was always mentioned in the first three sentences of the news articles. The articles written about this photo also tended to frame Robert as a person with “special needs,” but did nothing else to illustrate his character, or touch on why he initiated the hand holding in the first place. It would not have been difficult for the people writing these news articles to find American Sign Language interpreters (as Robert is fluent in ASL) and ask him these sorts of questions. On the off chance that he was approached and did not want to give a statement, this could have been communicated easily in the article.
I want to know what kind of dialogue Robert and Coutto had while holding hands on the bus, if any. I want to know why Robert wanted to hold Coutto’s hand. I want to know if Godfrey reminded Robert of someone he cared deeply for. I want to know why he enjoys riding the HSR for hours as his family has stated he does, and what his favourite stops in Hamilton are. Most of all, I want to know how he feels about the photo and the articles written about him. Not telling readers what Robert was thinking at the time this was taken tells us that he is more useful when silent. That he is to be used by society to teach others a lesson about compassion, as opposed to having his own personal intentions behind his actions. It says that even though the story would not have gone viral without him, he wasn’t an important piece of it.
When people with disabilities aren’t given the opportunity to have a say in the way they portrayed in the media it strips away at the pieces of autonomy that people with disabilities have fought to have for years. Canada has a hushed history of institutionalizing people with disabilities, taking them away from their families and putting them in homes, because people with disabilities were considered burdens on society with zero autonomy. It was only recently, on March 31, 2009, that Ontario closed the last three of its large-scale government operated institutions meant for people with disabilities.
In a lot of places around the world — mostly because of our warped tendency to view human productivity (and our limited understanding of what that entails) as the standard of who deserves to be treated with respect in society — people with disabilities are hardly given the space to voice their opinions. Considering that the leading cause of disability in Canada is old age (which is inevitable for us all), and considering the fact that people with disabilities exist in every culture, race, religion, region of the world and can have any sexual orientation, making them the largest minority in the world, we need to be careful that when covering acts of kindness in the media, we aren’t accidently erasing the identity of people with disabilities along the way.
