Disability Advocacy 4 Action

Al Etmanski is a community organizer, social entrepreneur, and author. He’s been a parent activist in the disability world since his daughter Liz was born. He led the closure of institutions and segregated schools in British Columbia, and founded Canada’s first Family Support Institute. In 1989 he co-founded Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network (PLAN) with his wife Vickie Cammack. While at PLAN he lobbied into existence the world’s first Disability Savings Plan.

Al is a global Ashoka fellow and a member of John McKnight’s Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) network. He has received many awards for his activism including the Order of Canada and the Big Picture award from his peers in the disability movement.

RespectAbility is a diverse, disability-led nonprofit that works to create systemic change in how society views and values people with disabilities, and that advances policies and practices that empower people with disabilities to have a better future. Our mission is to fight stigma and advance opportunities so people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community.

Accenture provides disabled workers with the latest technology, tools, and training to create a barrier-free workplace. These efforts include leadership and career growth programs, Accessibility Centers, the use of artificial intelligence, and more. Beyond its own work environment, Accenture is committed to helping other enterprises support prospective and current team members with disabilities and build more inclusive cultures for all.

The Disability Handbook (https://www.vitalsource.com/en-ca/products/disability-handbook-jason-d-andrew-m-jean-v9780985338954), written by Jason D. Andrew and M. Jean Andrew, provides brief descriptions of over 50 disabling conditions, their limitations, questions to be asked in an interview, and vocational implications of the disability.

Boston Scientic’s LEAD Employee Resource Group embraces disability inclusion by emphasizing Leadership, Education, Allies, and Disabilities. It works specifically to raise awareness for problems faced by people with disabilities in the workplace. Boston Scientific also works with the US Business Leadership Network and its Going for Gold Project which has helped them better understand how to increase disability inclusion in the workplace.

ITV is committed to increasing the representation of disabled people both on and off-screen at every level, and includes targets to improve the career opportunities for disabled talent working on ITV programmes, and to ensure there are entry-level career opportunities available for them. They also want their commissioning to better reflect the lives of disabled people on screen.

The Workplace Adjustment Programme is a groundbreaking initiative that has offered support to over 18,000 workers to date. With the help of Remploy, they’ve also created a work experience scheme for those with disabilities.

Allies for Disability Inclusion is committed to fostering an inclusive environment for persons with disabilities and employees who are caregivers to family members in need. Our vision is an environment where everyone with the passion to create extraordinary products has the opportunity to contribute. Through inclusion, accommodation, communication, networking and community engagement we strive for an environment that is inclusive of persons with disabilities.

Multiple initiatives both internal and external, help remove employment barriers for disable people and foster inclusion and support

Abilityforce is an employee resource group dedicated to ensuring all employees feel empowered while advancing the company’s dialogue on accessibility and accommodation strategies. Abilityforce unites people with visible and invisible disabilities, employees with loved ones who are disabled, and allies. We work to make sure our physical and technological environments are accessible and designed for all by developing and implementing innovative practices that solve customer and employee needs.

According to the team at UnitedHealth Group, disability inclusion is central to who it is and provides crucial perspectives that innovate its services and the healthcare industry at large. To build an inclusive culture and encourage team members to be their authentic selves, UnitedHealth Group hosts the Disability Inclusion Internship Program and observes National Disability Employment Awareness Month. It also fosters enterprise-wide accessibility, community engagement and support services, sustainable career growth, and more.

Walgreens is committed to integrating people with disabilities throughout workplaces, fostering a disability inclusive workplace and culture that lets it tap into a wider pool of talent, retain valued team members, and gain insight into the needs of an important and expanding segment of the customer base.

The Disability and Paid Family Leave Benefits Law (Article 9 of the WCL) provides weekly cash benefits to replace, in part, wages lost due to injuries or illnesses that do not arise out of or in the course of employment (WCL §204). If you get injured or become disabled while you are eligible for or are collecting unemployment benefits, and if your injury or disablement results in you being ineligible for unemployment benefits, you are eligible for disability benefits.

The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) makes it unlawful to discriminate against a person, in many areas of public life, including employment, education, getting or using services, renting or buying a house or unit, and accessing public places, because of their disability.

These California State laws protect people from discrimination based on disability and help ensure equal access.

The Disability Act of 2005 enables the assessment of health and education needs occasioned to persons with disabilities by their disabilities, to enable ministers of the government to make provision, consistent with the resources available to them and their obligations in relation to their allocation, for services to meet those needs, to provide for the preparation of plans by the appropriate ministers of the government in relation to the provision of certain of those, and certain other services, to provide for appeals by those persons in relation to the non-provision of those services, to make further and better provision in respect of the use by those persons of public buildings and their employment in the public service and thereby to facilitate generally access by such persons to certain such services and employment and to promote equality and social inclusion and to provide for related matters.

This United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs resource lists
disability laws and acts by country/area.

The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland is a non departmental public body established by the Northern Ireland Act 1998. Our powers and duties derive from a number of statutes which have been enacted over the last decades, providing protection against discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, race, religion and political opinion, sex and sexual orientation. We also have responsibilities arising from the Northern Ireland Act 1998 in respect of the statutory equality and good relations duties which apply to public authorities.

The purpose of the New Zealand Health and Disability Act of 2000 is to provide for the public funding and provision of personal health services, public health services, and disability support services, and to establish new, publicly owned health and disability organizations.

The purpose of the Swedish Disability Services and Support Act is to promote the conditions of a person with a disability to live and work as an equal member of society and to prevent and eliminate the disadvantages and obstacles caused by the disability.

The Equal Opportunity Act of 2000 prohibits certain kinds of discrimination, to promote equality of opportunity between persons of different status, to establish an Equal Opportunity Commission and an Equal Opportunity Tribunal and for matters connected therewith.

The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society. It replaced previous anti-discrimination laws with a single Act, making the law easier to understand and strengthening protection in some situations. It sets out the different ways in which it’s unlawful to treat someone.

The second edition of Deborah Sienstra: About Canada: Disability Rights, explores the historical and current experiences of people with disabilities in Canada, as well as the policy and advocacy responses to these experiences. Stienstra demonstrates that disability rights enable people with disabilities to make decisions about their lives and future, claim rights on their own behalf, and participate actively in all areas of Canadian society. Disability rights can and do increase access to and inclusion in critical areas like education, employment, transportation, telecommunications and health care.

Stienstra also identifies new approaches and practices, such as universal design, disability supports and income supports, that can transform Canadian society to be more inclusive and accommodating for everyone.