BC Disability,
January 22nd, 2025
A new year is upon us! As we start 2025, many readers have written in about their hopes for the year. Here are what five disability advocacy groups and community members highlighted as the changes they want to see most in the coming year.
Our top priority is evidence-based health protections, especially in high-risk settings like healthcare. This includes maintaining healthcare mask requirements year-round, as urged by patients, medical professionals and human rights experts. It also means improving existing requirements by using N95s or other respirators (which are the only masks rated to protect against airborne illnesses).
Far too many vulnerable people must avoid care due to preventable risks - or become infected in the very places meant to protect them. In addition to masks, we need clean indoor air everywhere, aligned with up-to-date standards like ASHRAE 241. There are so many things we can do to improve safety and accessibility for our community, and we urge people to join us in taking action at https://donoharmbc.ca/
Christina Salter, Kelowna
I want there to be safer, more inclusive schools for kids with disabilities. No more students having to sit out from class activities or trips out in the community. No more having to worry all day because you have no confidence in the school's ability to accommodate their needs.
Sure, schools were worse when I was a kid in the 70s, and I am not denying there's been improvement. But there is a superficial level of inclusion today. A lot of buzzwords are said about inclusion, but in practice educators are overwhelmed and don't have the support, or in some cases the knowledge, needed to put the words into practice. They then get discouraged or frustrated, which leads to exclusion.
A lot of buzzwords are said about inclusion, but in practice educators are overwhelmed and don't have the support needed to put the words into practice
What do I think is needed to make education more inclusive? For one, there must be enough education assistants, support staff, and staff specifically to provide one on one help to kids with disabilities. That takes a bigger investment in education.
I also think the education system in general needs to learn some lessons about what it really means to be inclusive, and how that can be put into practice. To that end, I want all teachers in training to be required to complete courses about disability and inclusive ed, and for ongoing learning about inclusion to be mandated for practicing teachers.
No kid should ever feel left out or like they don't belong.
Barbara Clift, Vancouver
Raise the rates! Stop pushing us back just when we're getting ahead!
Life as a person who has a disability is more expensive. And yet people with disabilities have less money to support themselves than non-disabled people do. I think the government and the community in general doesn't take us seriously enough.
We're seen as a burden, as people who are lazy and trying to cheat the system. But that makes no sense when people with disabilities have to work harder than anyone to survive, and survive barely.
In 2025 I want PWD raised to an amount that allows us to live a good life, not a minimum life! And I want the government to keep their hands off the money we get. Stop clawing back what little we have from other sources, don't touch the Canada Disability Benefit. When you do that it just shows you want to keep us in poverty.
I am so tired of politicians who say they care but then act like they don't.
Tony Guarino, Kamloops
I know housing's a challenge for most people. But now shrink the market to only those places accessible to disabled folk, and try then. Then shrink it again to only those places affordable to people with low-incomes, and there's even less available.
Housing's a challenge for most people. But now shrink the market to only those places accessible to disabled folk, and try then
I want there to be a greater focus on making all housing accessible, and making it affordable so accessible housing isn't just something wealthier folk can afford. I'm not a policy expert so I don't know exactly what to tell you, but one thing I know is that all levels of government can offer some type of incentive to developers to build accessibly. They also have land they can use that, so let's see it put to use for a good purpose.
Arthur Ingram, Chilliwack
I use a cane and multiple times now have had someone brush by me and knock it clean out of my hands. Not everyone has stopped to help or apologize either. Cities make the streets like people with disabilities and seniors don't matter, and that attitude is reflected by its users.
Cities make the streets like people with disabilities and seniors don't matter, and that attitude is reflected by its users
Stop reducing the space disabled people have to travel safely in the community. Each day I see more spaces made for bike lanes, less space and more bumps along sidewalks. There is less courtesy from from non-disabled people using them too. It's bad here and Chilliwack and even worse when I visit Vancouver.
Spencer van Vloten is the editor of BC Disability. To get in touch, send an email to spencer@bcdisability.com!
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