Category Archives: Human Rights

Tackling disability discrimination takes more than wheelchair ramps

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Dribblers please sit on the left”; the underbelly of disability segregation and acceptance.

Civil rights activist Rosa Parks, who took a stand against racial segregation on buses in Alabama. Disabled people face an 'us and them' ethos. Photograph: Corbis

By Matthew Harper – Guardian Blog

You’re in a restaurant; dressed up, with friends, family, maybe a partner and halfway through your slap-up meal there’s a tap on your shoulder and “do you mind moving? it’s disgusting, no its just … you’re dribbling – it’s putting me off my food”. Had that said to you? Or been the one saying it? Or even just thinking it?  Continue reading →

US Disability Rights story told in PBS documentary Oct 27th

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People with disabilities are one of the largest minorities in the United States yet were treated as a sub-class without human rights

PBS - Lives Worth Living

PBS - For most of American history, they occupied a sub-class of millions without access to everyday things most citizens take for granted: schools, apartment buildings, public transportation, and more.

Some were forcibly sterilized under state laws. Others were committed to horrifying institutions where they were left and forgotten.

After World War II, however, things began to change, thanks to a small group of determined people with an unwavering determination to live their lives like anyone else, and to liberate all disabled Americans of the limitations their government refused to accommodate.   Continue reading →

IWD Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves

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Annie Lennox and Dave Lennox penned this anthem to women and Aretha Franklin rocks it with Annie

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pu0Fn1oRN4&feature=related']

Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart wrote Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves in 1985. The Eurthymics team recorded the hit with R&B star Aretha Franklin.

The song and video became a Top 20 hit in the US and Top 10 in the UK, helped by the popularity of MTV and the video.

Along with Lennox, Franklin and Stewart, Nathan East played bass and Stan Lynch (drums) and Mike Campbell (guitar) of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played on the original.

The Eurythmics released the song on Be Yourself Tonight  and Aretha Franklin released her version on Who’s Zooming Who.

International Women’s Day

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This week, March 8, 2011 is International Women’s Day.

Disabled Peoples International - At this time, we can celebrate the fact that women with disabilities are growing in visibility and dignity.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is empowering each day more of us to demand realization of our rights. We must share our knowledge and our spirit and support our sisters with and without disabilities to achieve our human rights!

The Convention states in Article 6 that: “States Parties recognize that women and girls with disabilities are subject to multiple discrimination, and in this regard shall take measures to ensure the full and equal enjoyment by them of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.” Women are mainstreamed throughout the Convention.  Continue reading →

NDP have policy on disability Liberals and Tories have squat

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Jack Layton throws Hail Mary on human rights and disability rights for 4.4 million Canadians

Jack Layton, NDP leader with Jeanne-Le Ber

NDP Leader Jack Layton has released a substantive election platform for the much-anticipated 2011 Canadian Election.

Layton lays out a comprehensive program for women, people with disabilities, Aboriginal , multicultural and LGBT Canadians.

Where are the Liberals on human rights?

Stephen Harper has the RDSP, a savings plan for the upper middle class who have children with disabilities which isn’t much help.

Here’s the NDP platform for the disabled.  Continue reading →

Man with disability raises $600K as street beggar

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Would Jesus or Charles Dickens notice the difference in how people with disabilities are utilized in Canada today

His name is Muki Baum, he has cerebral palsy, he's deaf and can barely speak. Yet for almost 20 years he's been fundraising outside Holt Renfrew for people with disabilities. His tally to date is a staggering $600,000. VINCE TALOTTA/TORONTO STAR

Muki Baum is a man severely disabled by Cerebral Palsy who has raised $600,000 begging on the streets of Toronto outside posh stores like Holt Renfrew.

Donna Thompson, wife of Canada’s High Commissioner to the UK, argues in The Four Walls of My Freedom that we are not valuing people like Muki Baum.

The Toronto Star reports Mr. Baum raised this money day-after-day for charities like Wheels in Motion and the March of Dimes. He has done it for 20 years.

It’s a wonderful story of triumph over adversity and personal sacrifice.

It’s also the saddest commentary on how little Canadian society values people with disabilities.

Mr. Baum is not alone.

Many Canadians with moderate to severe disabilities are not employed and resort to street begging to survive.

Mr. Baum is not limited in intelligence but his appearance, mobility and verbal limitations make him fit for the lowest level of activity.

Continue reading →

Your iPhone may betray you with a secret code

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Google already has too much private information and now Apple wants to patent the right to spy on you

iPhone 4, sending back private information to the mother ship (picture Apple Computer)

Commentary by Eva Galperin, EFF

Your digital camera may embed metadata into photographs with the camera’s serial number or your location.

Your printer may be incorporating a secret code on every page it prints which could be used to identify the printer and potentially the person who used it.

If Apple puts a particularly creepy patent it has recently applied for into use, you can look forward to a day when your iPhone may record your voice, take a picture of your location, record your heartbeat, and send that information back to the mothership.

This is traitorware: devices that act behind your back to betray your privacy.

Perhaps the most notable example of traitorware was the Sony rootkit. In 2005 Sony BMG produced CD’s which clandestinely installed a rootkit onto PC’s that provided administrative-level access to the users’ computer. The copy-protected music CD’s would surreptitiously install its DRM technology onto PC’s.   Continue reading →

Will UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities mean anything on PEI

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PEI celebrates the day with plagiarism, pontificating and prevarication

Minister of Community Services, Seniors and Labour Janice Sherry, press release to follow

The world celebrates UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities. On Prince Edward Island, we can look forward to political hot air.

The appropriate minister will rise in the Legislature to acknowledge her love for and empathy with the situation of Islanders living with disabilities. Those speeches are fulsome, with profound words that puff up those who listen.  In reality, they are hollow with pontificating and prevarication.  Continue reading →

UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities and all is not well in Canada

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Two decades of neglect by government leaves many living with disabilities further behind and living in poverty

The UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities may be a publicity stunt or a grim reminder to many of the 4 million Canadians living with disabilities that they are locked in last place in the Canadian experience.

The UN press release says “The Day aims to promote a better understanding of disability issues with a focus on the rights of persons with disabilities and gains to be derived from the integration of persons with disabilities in every aspect of the political, social, economic and cultural life of their communities. The goal of full and effective participation of persons with disabilities in society and development was established by the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1982.” UN Enable

How good is life for people with disabilities in Canada?  Continue reading →

Disability and poverty go hand in hand

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Many Canadians assume people with disabilities are well provided for. Few understand that disability and poverty are synonymous. Disability can lead to poverty and poverty can lead to disability.

Harry Wolbert, disability activist

By HARRY WOLBERT, For the Winnipeg Sun

In less than a year, Manitobans, and possibly Canadians, will again head to the polls.

There are certain issues that are bound to surface again. They are poverty, housing and the closure of institutions for people with disabilities.

Disability poverty is an unacknowledged reality. Advocates and disability organizations have been calling for social policy reforms that would eradicate poverty.

One of the proposed reforms is for the introduction of a Basic Income Plan for Canadians with severe disabilities. The foundation of this plan is a new federal Basic Income program that would replace provincial and territorial social assistance for most working age people with severe disabilities. The disability community is also asking Ottawa to covert the existing non-refundable disability tax credit into a refundable disability tax credit.   Continue reading →

Gwynne Dyer parking was too far away

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Plans fell apart when UPEI’s inaccessible parking met my fatigue

UPEI 2009 accessible parking survey (click for larger image)

I wanted to hear Gwynne Dyer last night lecturing at the AVC building on UPEI campus but I was simply too tired to walk or wheelchair the long distance from the parking lot.

The Atlantic Vet College building is one of the buildings that is more than double the legal distance from the optimistically painted “wheelchair parking.”

The legal limit is 50 meters from the parking to the door. The AVC building is 103 meters.

Most people intuitively understand that people with walking or other disabilities need to be close to the building.

The National Building Code, which is also the law in Charlottetown, stipulates that accessible parking should be as close as possible to the door but not greater than 50 meters.

Frankly, on some days 50 meters is too far to walk for many people with disabilities.

The point is not lost on retailers who want our business like WalMart, Canadian Tire and the SuperStore.  Continue reading →