THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

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• _________________________________________
• _____________________________
• THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
• LAURIE LETHEREN YEDIDA ZALIK
• ARCH DISABILITY LAW CENTRE

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ARCH DISABILITY LAW CENTRE

• WHAT IS ARCH?
• Specialty legal aid clinic dedicated to defending
  and advancing the equality rights of people with
  disabilities in Ontario.
• Governed by a volunteer board of directors, a
  majority of whom are people with disabilities.
• Offer summary advice and referral service to
  Ontarians with disabilities
• Provide education to people with disabilities on
  disability rights, and to the legal profession
  about disability law make submissions on matters
  of policy and law reform.
• You can find more details on ARCHs website at
  www.archdisabilitylaw.ca.

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ARCH DISABILITY LAW CENTRE

• ARCHs Work
• Promote social model of disability (disability is
• caused by physical, social and attitudinal
• barriers. Barrier to be removed to allow
• full participation for all. Not that person
• with disability must be fixed or must just fit
  in)
• Cases we take on must have potential for a
• systemic benefit for people with disabilities
• in Ontario
• Purpose is often to ensure that the
• disability perspective is heard by court
• or government committee

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ARCH DISABILITY LAW CENTRE

• Call ARCH if you
• ARE A PERSON WITH A DISABILITY
• and you
• NEED ASSISTANCE OR HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT
• your human rights
• your attendant care services
• your rights as a person living in a group home
• your rights as a student or a worker
• capacity to make your own decisions

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Laws that Protect and Promote the Rights of
People with Disabilities

• Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
• Ontario Human Rights Code
• Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act
• United Nations Convention on the Right of Persons
  with Disabilities

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EMERGING ISSUES IN DISABILITY RIGHTS

• Right to full inclusion in all aspects of society
• Right to make own decisions and have disability
  needs accommodated in process
• Right to have disability needs accommodated to
  allow for full participation
• Use of Technology

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Right to full inclusion in all aspects of
society

• Right to live in neighbourhood of your choice
• The Dream Team v. City Toronto, Sarnia, Smiths
  Falls and Kitchener Waterloo HRTO
• Current application before the Human Rights
  Tribunal of Ontario
• The Dream Team is a group of advocates who are
  psychiatric consumer survivors who promote the
  importance of safe, supported, inclusive housing
  for people with mental heath disabilities
• Challenging the municipal restrictive by-laws
  that limit the proximity of homes for people with
  disabilities in a municipality
• Most of Settled or are near settlement
• Toronto in discussions

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Right to full inclusion in all aspects of
society

• Right to Attend Neighbourhood School with Peers
• Emily Eaton v. Brant County Bd of Ed (SCC 1997)
• First 3 years of school in fully integrated
  setting
• School decided remaining in integrated not in
  Emilys best interests
• Ontario Court of Appeal found that segregation
  did violate Emilys Charter Rights from earliest
  age children with disabilities should see
  themselves as part of society and children
  without disabilities should see them the same way
• Board of Ed appealed to SCC

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Right to full inclusion in all aspects of society

• SCC determined that segregated setting did not
  violate Emilys rights
• Segregation can be both protective of equality or
  can violate equality depending on circumstances
  and persons disability and dound in this
  situation segregation did not burden or
  disadvantage Emily
• BUT
• Must breakdown the structures and assumptions
  that result in the relegation and banishment of
  disabled persons from participation
• Only when integrated setting cannot be adapted to
  meet the special needs of an exceptional child
  will a placement outside of this setting be
  required
• Most school board policies ensure that inclusion
  in regular classroom is the first placement for
  all students

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Right to full inclusion in all aspects of
society
Emily fought on. Before appealing the Div. Court
decision to the Court of Appeal, her whole
family was baptized. She switched to Catholic
Board and remained integrated in class with her
peers through all her school years. In 2010,
Emily and her family entered Chinas Forbidden
City step by step despite a declaration from
their tour guide that it would be impossible.
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Right to make own decisions

• Must start with assumption that person has
  capacity to make own decisions
• Question to be asked is does the person
  understand the decision to be made and the
  consequences of making and not making that
  decision
• Those assisting must do what is necessary to
  accommodate the disability needs of person so
  that they can make the decision. This may involve
  breaking down information into small parts
  allowing the person to communicate through
  symbols or gestures all them to have a support
  person.
• People with mental health and intellectual
  disabilities have the right to make bad decisions
  just like everyone else

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Right to make own decisions

• R v. DAI Supreme Court of Canada
• Young woman with intellectual disability advised
  teachers and police that she was victim of sexual
  assault
• In court, person who does not swear an oath can
  communicate the evidence on a promise to tell the
  truth
• At trial the judge forced the victim to explain
  abstract concepts of truth and lies and when
  she could not through out her evidence.
• This was common occurrence.
• Supreme Court of Canada said
• Persons with mental disabilities are not required
  to meet a more onerous test than any other
  witness before they are even allowed to take the
  stand. If a witness can describe what happened to
  her she can testify after saying that she
  promises to tell the truth.
• Also notes that the questioning of mentally
  disabled adults may require accommodation or
  individualized supports so that their evidence is
  best communicated in court.

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Use of Technology

• Jodhan v. Attorney General of Canada
• Woman with vision disability could not access
  on-line government information and could not
  apply for jobs through the required job bank
  portal because governments computer code was not
  compatible with very basic screen reading
  software
• Federal government appealed to Federal Court of
  Appeal and argued
• Ms. Jodhan still had access to all the
  information because she could go down to a
  government office to make a request, could fax in
  job application, could order paper copies of
  documents (remember she is legally blind!)

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Use of Technology

• Government lost
• Court understood that having to make in person
  applications or requests what not equal access
• Her application would not be considered in same
  manner as others
• Unlike others who can access information from
  home at any time, she was constrained by having
  to go through government offices

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Right to have disability needs accommodated to
allow for full participation

• Moore v B.C. Ministry of Education Supreme Court
  of Canada
• When Jeffrey Moore was in Grade 3 he was found to
  have a Learning Disability
• It was recommended that he attend a Diagnostic
  Centre run by school board for remedial literacy
  program
• Just as he was to go, school board closed the
  Centre and did not put a similar program in place
• Jeffrey ended up at a private school for the
  remainder of school as it was believed he would
  never learn to read in public system
• It took almost 18 years to reach Supreme Court of
  Canada

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Right to have disability needs accommodated to
allow for full participation

• Moore v B.C. Ministry of Education Supreme Court
  of Canada
• Supreme Court of Canada found
• School board had discriminated against Jeffrey as
  a student with a disability by failing to provide
  him with an education that was to be available to
  all children, failed to provide him with the
  opportunity to reach full potential which was the
  objective of education
• Accommodations of people with disabilities are
  not mere luxuries
• Accommodations cannot be determined on mere
  efficiencies
• When school board decided to make budget cuts it
  discriminated against students with disabilities
  in failing to consider the discriminatory impact
  of its decisions
• Ordered school board to pay all private school
  fees
• Ordered all legal costs of parents from the
  beginning to be paid by board

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Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities (CRPD)

• CRPD came into effect May 2008
• Canada has ratified meaning Canada can be held
  accountable for violation of the provisions
  mentioned in the Convention
• Canada has not implemented the Convention which
  means it does not consider the Convention to be
  law in Canada
• Very important document to people with
  disabilities both for its substance and because
  of the way it was developed
• Disability rights organizations ensured a role
  for disabled people and their organizations in
  the implementation and monitoring of what became
  the Convention.

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Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities (CRPD)

• Contains positive rights
• live independently and participate fully in all
  aspects of life
• equal recognition before law and
• legal capacity of the persons with disabilities
• guaranteed the right to inclusive education at
  all levels
• full and effective participation and inclusion in
  society
• Recognizes the importance of technology to people
  with disabilities

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ONTARIO HUMAN RIGHTS CODE

• Ontario Human Rights Code imposes duties on
  service providers such as community care workers,
  legal clinics, doctors, business etc to
  accommodate the needs of people with disabilities
  to the point of undue hardship.
• Definition of Accommodations
• Accommodations are changes that are made or
  things that are put in place to stop or prevent
  discrimination
• Accommodations are steps taken so that the person
  with a disability is not disadvantaged and can
  be fully included

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ONTARIO HUMAN RIGHTS CODE

• Examples of Accommodations
• Instead of refusing the job to a person who does
  not use a keyboard or mouse to type, find out
  what kind of tools they need to do the job in
  their own way
• Instead of making the person with the wheel chair
  sit at very front or very back of movie theatre
  have a way to remove a chair so that she can sit
  with her friends
• Allow a person to direct his care by using a
  symbol board or other device
• Accessible websites, documents, communicate in
  ASL,

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ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT
(AODA)

• Customer Services Standard
• Establish policies on service that promote the
  dignity, integration and equality of opportunity.
• Establish a policy about the use of assistive
  devices
• Communicate with a person with a disability in a
  manner that takes into account his or her
  disability.
• Permit the use of service animals or support
  persons, and provide notice of cost of admission
  for support person
• Train all persons policies, practices and
  procedures, Establish and provide for a
  feedback process,

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ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT
(AODA)

• INTEGRATED STANDARD
• Information and Technology
• Information in accessible formats
• Websites Accessible
• Employment
• Must accommodate in recruitment, in job setting,
  develop individual accommodation plans
• Must have return to work process
• Must consider disability in job reviews

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ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT
(AODA)

• INTEGRATED STANDARD
• Transportation
• Training of employees
• Fare charges
• Use of Assistive Device
• Alternative stops
• Specification in vehicles
• Stop announcements, lighting, grab bars etc.
• All Standards have different application
  depending on size or organization
• Most not in effect until 2014
• Lots of good information at AccessON website

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Status of Passport and Special Services at Home
Funding

• In the past, some adults with a developmental
  disability received funding under the Special
  Services at Home (SSAH) Program.
• Starting April 1, 2012, SSAH is for children
  only.
• Adults with a developmental disability (or their
  families) who received SSAH funding are now
  supported entirely through the Passport program.
• If you received SSAH funding in 2011-2012
• You do not have to apply for funding in
  2012-2013.
• You will automatically receive the same amount of
  money you received in 2011-2012.
• The money you receive in 2012-2013 will be under
  the Passport program, not SSAH.
• You can use your Passport funding in the same
  ways you used your SSAH funding.
• There are 12 Passport offices across Ontario. If
  you have any questions, contact the one nearest
  you.

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Status of Passport and Special Services at Home
Funding

• Government stated reasons for changing Passport
• Having a single direct funding program for adults
  with a developmental disability will make it
  easier for them to apply for services and
  supports.
• Whats next
• Government says it is expanding the Passport
  guidelines to cover a broader range of services.
• Government says it will be introducing changes
  over the course of the next year.
• Government has stated that before they make
  further changes, they will consult with
  recipients and their families, as well as
  Passport agencies.

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For more Info on Passport and Special Services at
Home

• SSAH Provincial Coalition http//www.ssahcoalitio
  n.ca to learn more about SSAH, resources and
  connect with families.
• Individualized Funding Coalition for Ontario
  http//www.individualizedfunding.ca to learn more
  about individualized funding and supports that
  work. SSAH is one form.
• Family Alliance Ontario http//www.family-allia
  nce.com to locate regional family networks,
  resources and connect with families.
•  

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• THANKS

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SCENARIO ONE

• You are a person who uses a wheel chair for
  mobility. You see a job ad that states drivers
  licence required. You do not drive. You also
  learn that interviews will be held in a building
  that has three steps and no ramp to its entrance.
• What can you do. You think you are very
  qualified for the job.

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SCENARIO TWO

• You work at a youth drop-in centre. You have
  drop in and chat sessions every Tuesday at
  430. On Thursday a young woman who is deaf comes
  to ask about the drop in. None of the employees
  speak ASL. What should the drop-in centre do?