Community Living Ontario

Disability declaration to be used as tool to push for reform
Monday July 26, 2010 -- Lisa Bailey

A dialogue on the struggles of people living on the Ontario Support Disability Program (ODSP) was opened up at an ODSP Action Coalition event, creating new awareness and interest in advocacy.

More than 100 people, including ODSP recipients, their families, others who support people who have a disability and the public, attended the Telling Our Stories: Disability Should Not Equal Poverty forum July 7 at Toronto’s Metro Hall.

Theresa Somerton is a member of the coalition’s Telling Our Stories committee and Community Living Ontario’s board of directors. She and coalition co-chair Kyle Vose both expressed surprise at the larger-than-expected turnout.

They add that the event, which included an interactive panel discussion and speakers sharing their personal stories, opened eyes and ears about issues faced by ODSP recipients, such as inadequate support levels to cover living costs and the replacement of a special diet allowance, which was the subject of an Ontario Human Rights Tribunal case.

“It’s not one person saying (here are the issues), it’s 10 people saying the same thing,” Vose says, adding the collection of information made for a “more impactful message.”

“It was a lot of sharing stories and trying to get a voice out there, but a lot of people came forward to talk to me and they were just stunned about how people on (ODSP) live,” Somerton says, noting the forum further debunked the myth that recipients get a lot of financial assistance.

She and Vose found much support for the coalition’s work among attendees, with a number of them wanting to get involved with the group and have their say.

At the event, a booklet was distributed that summarizes the stories of 236 ODSP recipients from around Ontario. Vose says anyone on ODSP had been invited to share their experiences prior to the forum, with independence, choice, health and dignity revealed as the overriding needs and values.

The resulting report will be used by the coalition to advocate government for an improved system of income and employment support for people who have a disability.

This reform must follow a rights-based approach rather than a basic-needs approach, the coalition states. It is seeking public support of its disability declaration, which calls on the province to recognize the rights of people who have a disability in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

“People with disabilities have basic human rights. Respecting, protecting and fulfilling these rights should be the basis for all government programs or services for people with disabilities,” the declaration states.

To read the disability declaration and learn more about the ODSP Action Coalition, click here.

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