Disability advocates fight ‘barriers’ in workplace

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This article was published 12/01/2018 (2806 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Disability advocates made their voices heard on the last day for Manitobans to weigh in on drafts of the accessibility standard for employment.

Barrier-Free Manitoba sent eight recommendations to the province for how to improve its proposed standard. They include a suggestion to “speed up its efforts to develop and release the details of the regime required to monitor and enforce compliance with the standard,” as it’s unclear how Manitoba’s Disabilities Issues office will monitor its standards beyond responding to complaints.

Fred Dugdale, who suffered a brain injury from a car accident in 2000, said Friday he wants to ensure the province doesn’t just “pay lip service” on the Accessibility for Manitobans Act (AMA).

Dugdale used to help lead groups such as the Variety and the alumni association at the University of Manitoba, but after his accident, he struggled to find work.

“Often when I have my resumé, I will say to people, ‘This resumé describes the person I used to be, I can’t go back and do the things I did then,'” Dugdale said. “I often say to people that you don’t lose intellect, but you do lose capacity.”

People with disabilities consistently struggle to find jobs at the same rates as people without, despite increasing open-mindedness about having them on board, said Oly Backstrom, a Barrier-Free Manitoba (BFM) steering committee member.

According to 2012 statistics compiled by BFM and sourced from Statistics Canada’s Canadian Survey on Disabilities, 56.4 per cent of Manitobans with disabilities found employment, while 77.3 per cent without disabilities had jobs.

“There are all kinds of reasons to unpack. I think there is still some systemic discrimination,” Backstrom said. “I think that there may be employers that have barriers to employment that they don’t even realize are barriers.”

Some of those barriers include making applications online-only or timing them, said Backstrom.

Insisting on a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedule rather than flexible hours is also an issue, said Dugdale, since many with disabilities “have good days and bad days, and highs and lows within those days.”

The government is staggering its introduction of five AMA standards — customer service, employment, information and communications, built environment and transportation standards — with hopes for “significant progress” by 2023.

Advocates are still pushing to include one more accessibility standard for education in the mix, too.

“We see that there’s a gap in educational levels for people who have disabilities and people who don’t. And that educational level and training often has an impact on the types of employment that people are eligible for and qualify for,” said Jeannette DeLong, executive director of Steinbach-based enVision Community Living.

“There’s something amiss if people who have a disability don’t have equal access to the same types and the same levels of employment. And so we believe that (an education standard) could greatly enhance the success of employability for people with disabilities.”

jessica.botelho@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @_jessbu