Participants in disability simulations experience their adopted disabilities as a series of discoveries of things they can’t do. They can leave the exercise imagining an unbroken string of those discoveries stretching out for a lifetime. Those of us who have had a disability all our lives haven’t experienced our disabilities that way.
Read more at
http://www.accessibilitynewsinternational.com/how-disability-simulations-promote-damaging-stereotypes/
By Victor Schwartzman
December 30, 2013
2013 is already being flushed away by 2014. The past year’s disappointments are swirling down the drain and into the sewage treatment plant of time. To sum up 2013, it made one potty.
Read more at
http://www.aoda.ca/2014-our-top-ten-resolutions/
by Willy Noiles
The Ontario government celebrated the United Nations’ International Day of Persons with Disabilities by doing what the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Act Alliance (AODA Alliance) hoped they wouldn’t: simply offer more platitudes and lofty rhetoric (of which some was inaccurate or overblown). With the AODA Alliance having already demonstrated earlier this fall how little the government has done to implement its own 2005 accessibility legislation this year, Dec. 3 should’ve been a time to finally announce new standards and a plan to enforce existing standards, but instead all it really did was name a couple people to a committee it had promised a year ago would be developing new standards.
Read more at
http://www.aoda.ca/accessibility-not-a-priority/
Text-based 911 service will become available for deaf Canadians in some parts of the country in 2014. Other parts of Canada, however, may have to wait until 2015.
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Visit www.inclusivemedia.ca to find out more.
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In this Issue
*Ontario Government Knows Staggering 70% of Ontario Private Sector Organizations with 20 or More Employees Violating Disabilities Act’s Reporting Requirement
*Deadline to Prepare Accessibility Policies Approaching
*Vets Deserve Better From Feds Regarding Disability Benefits, Ombudsman Says
*Big Pharma made $711 billion Overcharging Seniors and Disabled
*Why Rudolph Pooped On Premier Wynne’s Roof
*Workplace Study Exposes Difficulties Faced by Disabled Workers
But No Effective Enforcement, Despite Election Promises, Even Though Ample Unspent Budget for Implementing this Law
The Government has kept this embarrassing information from the public for months. Back on January 22, 2013, the AODA Alliance wrote the Government to find out how many organizations were complying with the Disabilities Act, and what the Government planned to do with those who don’t comply. For 287 days, the Government did not answer.
Adam Gorley
In January, I wrote about how large organizations in Ontario must prepare multi-year accessibility plans to comply with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (by January 1, 2014).
Well, those obligated private sector organizations (50+ employees) must also develop and implement relevant policies, practices and procedures under their general obligation and under each accessibility standard
Read more at
http://www.aoda.ca/deadline-to-prepare-accessibility-policies-approaching/
OTTAWA—A report on how former soldiers are told whether they’ve qualified for disability benefits is the start of a wide-ranging look into problems plaguing veterans’ care, the veterans ombudsman says.
Read more at
http://www.accessibilitynewsinternational.com/?p=2487
The 11 largest drug companies have made $711 billion in profits in just a decade, largely due to overcharging Medicare, which does not seek out competitive prices and uses taxpayer funds to support Big Pharma.
Read more at
http://www.accessibilitynewsinternational.com/big-pharma-made-711-billion-overcharging-seniors-and-disabled/
By Santa Claus, as told to Victor Schwartzman
But although it all seemed nice, Santa saw warning signs that someone was preparing to be naughty. In 2005, Santa left the Premier what she asked for: pencils with erasers, because she wanted to learn to be flexible about what she wrote down. Then, in 2006, she asked for an etch-a-sketch, so she could learn how to write something and then with a flick of her wrist make it disappear. Santa left her that toy, and in 2007 a disappearing ink pen. But Santa was becoming concerned. The Premier’s requests showed a disturbing pattern.
Read more at
http://www.aoda.ca/why-rudolph-pooped-on-premier-wynnes-roof/
