Every year, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities is celebrated across the world. The theme this year is “Empowering persons with disabilities and ensuring inclusiveness and equality”.
This year, CWDO challenges you to learn first-hand what ensuring inclusiveness and inequality means to people with disabilities.
If you accept our challenge, you will discover how necessary accommodation is in helping you get on with your life You will also learn how a lack of accommodation becomes a barrier to doing what you want to do – things that are taken for granted by most people who do not have a disability.
Try the 8 exercises below. Share your experiences on Facebook, Twitter or with CWDO’s contact form. We think these experiences exercises will strengthen people’s commitment to accessibility.
We hope you will share these exercises with others to help strengthen commitments to address accessibility at work, school and in the community.
1. Accessible restaurants – Activity: Make a plan to go to a restaurant with a friend. The restaurant you chose must be accessible, have a braille or large print menu and have an accessible washroom. Reflection: Were you able to go to your favourite restaurant? Did you have a good selection of restaurants to choose from? Were you able to read the menu? Action you might consider: When you go to a restaurant, notice whether they are accessible. If not, ask the manager what their plans are to add accessibility features like ramps, braille menus and an accessible washroom.
2. Accessible transportation – Activity: Plan a route from your home to your school, work or friend’s place, using only accessible transit. Consider accessible buses and whether sidewalks have ramps and tactile markings. Does your community have accessible taxis? Do you have an accessible vehicle that you could drive with your disability? Reflection: How long will it take you to get from home to your destination using an accessible public transit route as compared to using public transit when you did not have to consider accessibility features? If you are in Toronto – imagine an elevator on your TTC subway route is out of service. Plan your alternative route. Reflection: How long will take you to reach your destination using accessible transit versus public transit? If you have to build into a detour, how long did it take you now? Action you might consider: Support plans in your local municipality to improve accessible transportation.
3. Accessible taxi service – Activity: Find a taxi company near your home or work that is accessible and will use the meter to calculate your fare (rather than a fixed rate, which is usually double to triple the amount of a meter fare). Start with your favourite taxi company, and work your way down through all the taxi companies until you find one. Reflection: How long did it take you to find an accessible taxi? What was their estimated waiting time to get to you? How much would your trip cost? How does this compare to how long you would have to wait for taxi that was not accessible? Action you might consider: Support plans to increase the availability of accessible taxis in your local municipality.
4. Accessible media with described video – Activity: Put on a TV show but do not look at it. Take note of how well you are able to follow what’s going on. Now, watch it with described video (Go to Accessible Media, Inc. (AMI) for program offerings). Reflection: How did described video improve your ability to follow what’s going on when you were not able to see the TV screen? Action you might consider: Supporting the addition of described video to media on TV, films and videos.
5. Accessible media with captioning – Activity: Put on a TV show and turn the sound off. Take note of how well you are able to follow what’s going on. Now, watch it with captions (Use the closed caption feature on your TV or go to Accessible Media, Inc. (AMI) for program offerings). Reflection: How did captioning improve your ability to follow what’s going on when you were not able to see the TV screen? Action you might consider: Make sure any videos or film clips used at work have captions and/or supporting the addition of captions to media on TV, films and videos.
6. Accommodating personal routines – Some people with physical disabilities need the assistance of a support person to be able to use the washroom. This takes planning and coordination of schedules. Activity: Decide today exactly what times you will go to the washroom tomorrow. Write out your schedule including how long you expect to need for each bathroom break. Reflection: How well were you able to follow your pre-planned schedule? Were there any surprises? How well did your personal schedule align with changes that came up unexpectedly during your day? Action you might consider: When planning meetings, adhere to the break schedules established to assist people who need to plan for their personal routines. Be willing to accommodate individuals who may have to follow their own personal schedule.
7. Accessible cooking – Activity: Think of a way you could measure out a cup of water in your home if you were blind. Reflection: Do you have cups that you know are the right measurement? Do you have measuring cups with tactile or braille markings? If so, where these helpful? Action you might consider: Include tactile or braille markings on microwaves in the shared spaces; supply shared kitchens with measuring utensils that have tactile or braille markings.
8. Accessible elevators – Activity: Use an elevator but do not look at the floor indicators. Reflection: did the elevator buttons have braille? If not, how did you figure out what floor to press? Since you were not looking at the floor indicators, how did you know when you had arrived at your floor? Action you might consider: Supporting the use of braille and talking floor calling features in elevators
So how did it go? Please share your experiences with CWDO and on social media.
About the International Day of Disabled Persons (IDPD)
The International Day of Disabled Persons was proclaimed in 1992, by the United Nations General Assembly resolution 47/3 and is recognized each year on December 3.
IDPD aims to promote the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities in all spheres of society and development and to increase awareness of the situation of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life.
Building on many decades of UN’s work in the field of disability, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted in 2006, has further advanced the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other international development frameworks, such the Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action.
2018 IDPD Theme: Empowering persons with disabilities and ensuring inclusiveness and equality
This year’s theme focuses on empowering persons with disabilities for an inclusive, equitable and sustainable development as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The 2030 Agenda pledges to “leave no one behind”.
Persons with disabilities, as both beneficiaries and agents of change, can fast-track the process towards inclusive and sustainable development and promote resilient society for all, including in the context of disaster risk reduction and humanitarian action, and urban development. Governments, persons with disabilities and their representative organisations, academic institutions and the private sector need to work as a “team” to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).