Disability advocate quits as chair of city committee

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This article was published 26/11/2023 (700 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The chairman of a city committee tasked with tearing down barriers for residents with disabilities says he’s fed up with the red tape at Winnipeg City Hall and resigning from his post as a result.

Earlier this month, Michael Baker informed the public service that he would be stepping down from its accessibility and inclusion subcommittee — a volunteer group under the human rights committee of council — on Dec. 1.

Baker, a resource teacher, said he’s both disheartened and disillusioned with the city’s repeated failure to act in a timely manner to promote disability rights initiatives.

“This seems like systematic ableism at its worst or, it could just be disability is not a priority for the public service but either way, (my experience) really calls into question the purpose behind these committees and whether the city is willing to take the community’s input seriously,” he told the Free Press.

Soon after being appointed to the human rights committee of council in September 2021, Baker began overseeing a forum established to liaise with and advocate for disability organizations, and craft motions to address accessibility needs and gaps.

Both initiatives he has tabled as chairman remain in limbo.

In July 2022, Baker requested the city start phasing out a 1960s wheelchair icon from all city communications and properties in favour of a dynamic accessibility symbol that is gaining traction across the globe.

The status-quo sign for accessible infrastructure depicts a stationary stick figure. Baker and his colleagues sought to embrace “design activism” and begin replacing aging signage with a modern icon showing a wheelchair user in action.

The initiative built upon Baker’s advocacy work on the file; the teacher, who authored the province’s introductory high school course on disability studies, updated accessibility signage in Springfield Collegiate Institute’s parking lot several years ago.

City hall’s executive policy committee unanimously approved the request and directed the public service to undertake further research into updating signage in September 2022. At the time, Coun. Markus Chambers (St. Norbert) endorsed the project and touted it as “visionary and inclusive.”

The public service is typically expected to report back on matters within 90 days, Baker said, noting it’s been more than 14 months since the directive was issued.

“We could’ve been a leader in changing our symbols, in promoting it as a reconceptualization away from a deficit-based model of disability and more towards a social model, a strength-based model to represent personhood,” he added.

More recently, Baker’s team submitted a motion to set-up collection sites for Tabs for Wheelchairs — a program that gathers aluminum tabs from pop cans, pet food containers and other products, and sells the scrap metal to purchase mobility devices for local children – inside municipal buildings.

Peter Tonge of the Rotary Club of Winnipeg-Charleswood, which has long collected tabs in a grassroots manner, pitched the idea to set-up boxes in city staff rooms, cafeterias and canteens.

“I can’t do it on the scale that the city can do it,” said Tonge, an accessibility consultant who promotes the extracurricular project to neighbours through word of mouth and accepts donations at his doorstep.

Given it takes about a year for the group to collect enough tabs to purchase a single wheelchair, he said the city initially appeared to be “an obvious partner” to support an expansion of their fundraising efforts.

Coun. Evan Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood) indicated his office would explore a partnership in the summer, but both Baker and Tonge said no progress has been made.

Duncan did not provide a comment on the matter this week.

City communications officer Kalen Qually confirmed there was no update on either of the initiatives put forward by the accessibility and inclusion subcommittee. The city declined to address Baker’s resignation.

Following numerous unsuccessful requests for information, Baker said it took submitting a copy of his final subcommittee report – in which he announced his imminent departure – to be promptly contacted by city staffers about the projects, although none had detailed information.

“I’m hoping (Baker’s exit) will spur them to have a closer look or take more interest in issues for disabled people in the city because it doesn’t seem to be of interest or a focus,” Tonge said.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca