The policy environment is perfectly designed to produce the problems that people with disabilities experience
This is a core assumption of the Canadian Disability Policy Alliance. In other words, if people with disabilities in Canada experience a problem in their day-to-day lives, it can almost always be tracked back to a gap in the policy environment (e.g. regulation, legislation, program).
Since 2009, the Canadian Disability Policy Alliance – a unique pan-Canadian collaboration between researchers, federal and provincial policy makers, and community organizations – has been committed to evaluating and improving disability policy in Canada. As of July 2013, the Alliance has completed 4 years of its five-year research agenda, and has completed more than half of the proposed 27 projects. These projects cover a wide variety of issues affecting people with disabilities, including education, employment, health care, and civic engagement.
Making a Difference
The Alliance is motivated by a vision of Canada where people with disabilities enjoy full participation and citizenship, supported by a coherent framework of legislation, regulation and programs. This vision is reflected in several recent studies that look at policy in education, employment, and citizen participation. Examples include:
• Accessibility to health services is an essential part of the well-being of all Canadians. As such, the health research team conducted a study of 50 family health teams in Ontario to assess their level of compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. The project raised awareness of accessibility issues and resulted in improved facilities and examining rooms of family health teams.
• As part of the 2010 Ontario election, the Alliance’s citizenship team evaluated the accessibility of candidate offices, meeting spaces and voting booths to determine how effective the Elections Act was in ensuring equal opportunity for citizens to exercise the right to vote. Based on their findings, recommendations were made to ensure that future elections would be even more accessible to all Canadians.
• Meetings and correspondence with policy makers at the provincial and federal level are also key aspects of the Alliance’s work. Activities have included a general meeting with the Alliance’s education team and education ministers from across the country. During this meeting, the concept and potential of inclusive education was explored.
• The employment team has also engaged Ontario’s Ministry of Training Colleges and Universities with regard to the hiring and training practices involving Canadians with disabilities by submitting a letter with recommendations on how to enhance the related programs and services. Shortly after submitting the letter, the Ministry replied positively, stating that they had come to similar conclusions and that the proposed changes were already underway.
• Change has also occurred at the federal level. Among the first studies that the Alliance conducted was a comparison study between the former Veterans Disability Pension and the New Veteran’s Charter, which replaced it in 2006. The findings showed that the new document was in fact less beneficial to veterans with disabilities. The team submitted this report to the Department of Veteran Affairs with positive effect.
To study such a broad range of issues, the Alliance has organized itself into five research teams. Each project team is coordinated by a community partner and university partner, including Alliance members from the University of Regina, McMaster University, University of British Columbia, and Queen’s University, the Canadian Hearing Society, Canadian Association for Community Living, Spinal Cord Injury Ontario, Easter Seals Canada, and Ontario March of Dimes.
Movng Forward
The CDPA aims to complete its research agenda in 2014 and is in the process of applying for sustained funding to continue mobilizing research findings to make positive and meaningful change to legislation, regulation and services affecting Canadians with disabilities.