By: Sue Hutton

The Self-Advocates Council and friends had their voice heard in the recent Accessibility Roundtable Discussions held by Deloitte. The provincial government put Deloitte in charge of hosting discussions with people with disabilities on a new Accessibility Certification model. This certification model will not replace the law called the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), but it will be another way of making accessibility happen for people with disabilities. At the discussion, Nelson said he wants to see accessibility “mandated” for everyone. Self-Advocates don’t think the AODA is being upheld often enough.  For people with intellectual disabilities, telling the government what accessibility means to them is important. It’s more than just wheelchair ramps.

Deloitte listened to the Self Advocates thoughts and included them in a report to the provincial government. This certification model is supposed to provide people with disabilities a chance to directly let a business or community organization know if they think it is accessible. For self-advocates, the term accessible isn’t very specific. For many people, the term brings to mind wheelchairs, interpreters for the deaf community, or braille communications. For people who have an intellectual disability, accessibility means a lot of other things. Here are some of the things the Self Advocates Council talked about at this meeting:  “Making sure that people understand that we need more time to communicate is important” said one person. Another person talked about the importance for businesses to talk directly to a person with an intellectual disability, and not just to their staff person. Making sure that businesses are polite, respectful and friendly was very important to self-advocates and they made sure that was going into the report to the government.

From the Self-Advocates Council:
For people with an intellectual disability, here are just few things that are important about accessibility:

• Please take the time to communicate clearly so we understand.
• Please use pictures or movies to communicate. Don’t just give us words to read.
• Please show us respect, patience, and kindness.
• Treat us like we belong, because we do.
• Please don’t be impatient with us.
• We communicate and process things differently.
• Please know we are all different and have different ways we communicate.
• Some of us use assistive devices to communicate.
• Please communicate with us directly, we deserve your attention.

To get involved in Self Advocates projects like this consultation, contact Sue Hutton at 647-725-1205 or shutton@cltoronto.ca

For more information on the Accessibility Certification: https://www.certifiedforaccess.ca/ Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act: http://www.aoda.ca/
AODA Alliance: http://www.aodaalliance.org/