Shifting Perspectives on Ableism by Donna Bulger
As a person living with a disability, I never really considered myself an advocate. In 2020, with the onset of the pandemic, I suddenly had time to devote to advocating for and with people who live with a disability. With the support of the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights, a group of 15 diverse individuals living with disabilities came together in a project called Radical Inclusion to discuss the impacts disability has on our lives. It was both empowering and enlightening to learn more about our rights and recognize that we should be supported with a Human Rights lens versus the charity based lens we were all so used to. The outcome of this group saw a shadow report on the Status of People Living with Disability submitted to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as well as many additional stakeholders and decision makers that we targeted with the release. This experience was unique for many of us who participated, since it is rare to have individuals living with disabilities outnumber those who are able-bodied at the table.
With the shadow report submitted, a second group of cohorts were brought together to focus on and develop advocacy strategies for the five main areas identified in the report: Financial, Employment and Careers, Housing, Healthcare, Justice and Law Enforcement. 4 key lead facilitators were selected to continue work with the second group and teams were formed to brainstorm and create some strategies to further advance the rights of people living with disabilities for each pillar.
Another team emerged to help develop a study on Transportation with the University of Alberta and after research and several focus groups were conducted, a report was written where both issues and suggested recommendations for change in Public Transportation were developed.
I was excited to build on the work coming from this experience with this next group of my peers who live with disability in 2023. With the support of JHC and with a few members of our original group as facilitators, a call was sent out for Artists with disabilities to be involved with a project called Action on Ableism. The need to make both the general public and public sector organizations more aware of ableist issues was very strong.
From January until April 2023, a group of 15 – 20 artists living with disabilities answered this call and met monthly via zoom. During this time, we discussed the type of art we do; what experiences we had trying to promote our art and ourselves in the public sectors, as people living with disabilities; and most importantly what ableism meant to each of us. Through storytelling and discussion it didn’t take us long to bond and again see that the encounters we all often faced were not acceptable from a human rights perspective.
Our goal, with the continued support of JHC staff, was to bring this eclectic group together, face to face. We needed creative space and time where we could all brainstorm together and do what we do best – create art centered around the theme of what ableism meant to us. By April we had a plan in place to do just that. Lists were made for mediums we could use, key themes around ableism were decided upon in our group and the logistics of where we’d meet, how we’d get there and a sketch of what our face to face might look like, was established.
In May 2023, during National AccessAbility Week and thanks to the Government of Canada, the first phase of the Action on Ableism project culminated in bringing members of our group who could attend, to a week-long in-person retreat. This retreat was an overwhelmingly positive experience for all participants who could attend and the week flew by as each of us delved into the world of creativity as it relates to ableism. A number of beautiful pieces came out of this retreat and an equal number of strong bonds were developed … as we each shared, discussed and learned from one another.
With additional support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the second phase of the Action on Ableism project with the John Humphrey Centre, saw 15 - 20 first phase artists with disabilities continue to meet, via zoom, on a monthly basis in 2023/2024. Topics of discussion included their experiences with arts communities as they related to ableism; how they could see using the pieces they created during the 2023 NAAW retreat to educate public sectors during NAAW 2024; as well as if a mentoring opportunity between them and non-disabled artists could benefit them.
From these discussions we hosted a 2 day gathering in YEG at the end of April 2024. Interested Action on Ableism participants, as well as members of the Righting Relations Change Lab, Voices of Albertans with Disabilities, and some members of the Radical Inclusion project, joined this gathering to develop a number of workshops centered around increasing awareness of ableism for several public sectors including government, health and education. We also invited two able-bodied artists from racialized communities to join us on the second day to share any discriminatory experiences they have had in the arts communities.
We developed our training/workshops to centre around 5 areas concerning ableism: Definition/language/awareness, Employment, Health Care, Inclusion in the WorkPlace and Human Rights. These sessions were fleshed out and offered to above areas of the public sector through a comprehensive outreach campaign. We asked those who were interested in learning more from people living with disabilities to RSVP and sent out reminders as the NAAW in May approached.
It was a great experience to see that the topic of Ableism was something of interest to several and our schedule of sessions was put in place. Seven sessions were delivered from May 27th - June 3rd by those individuals from the April gathering. Our Workplace Inclusion workshop, delivered to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, had 167 attendees at one point; the Disability Rights and Advocacy workshop saw 25 attendees and the Learning from People Living with Disabilities saw 18 attendees. The remainder of our workshops had an average of 8-12 people attending. Both attendees and facilitators felt this was important information to deliver and the overall feedback from all parties was extremely positive.
It was an absolute pleasure seeing our work turned into valuable workshops designed by us to deliver to individuals not familiar with ableism and how it affects each of us in some way. Our facilitators, all experts in their own right, and the support of the John Humphrey Centre, delivered excellent teachings and were imperative to the success of this project!
