Roadblock: You're poor and disabled.

“Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work. “
Mother Teresa


While sitting down to write this blog on my laptop with a cup of tea, I experienced an extreme case of writer’s block. The deadline was drawing near and I had other assignments to complete and exams to focus on. I could not find anything to write about with respect to physical disabilities and poverty. In desperate need of help, I texted a few friends on my Blackberry, and walked into another room in my house where my mom was on another computer and simply asked the question “When you think of poverty and physical disability, what do you think of?” While I got a variety of responses from people, a few ideas friends and family shared with me stood out in my mind.

“Desperately needing help.”

“Hopeless.”

“Helpless.”

“Homeless.”

Although these are generalizations, they are common themes idealized in Canadian society when you cross the ideas of a person with a physical disability and a person living in poverty. Then it hit me. I was trying to think of obstacles these people overcome in everyday life.  Laptops to do assignments on for a person living in poverty are uncommon, not to mention the luxury of multiple computers in one house. Texting someone on a Blackberry for ideas? That’s not likely to happen either. Walking around? Someone with a physical disability may not have that leisure, and walking around in a house – that’s another pleasure that not all of us are given, unfortunately.

I was annoyed that I had nothing to write about when others may not be able to write, may not be able to read, may not have the money or resources to attend school and receive the education we are all deserving of. 

Manitoba has the third lowest tuition rates in Canada, after Quebec and Newfoundland (“Statistics Canada,” 2009), and one of the highest minimum wages in Canada at ten dollars an hour (“Canada Online,” 2011). Poverty in Canada should not exist, and in my opinion there should be a way for university to be available to everyone, not just those of us fortunate to have come from well off families or those of us able to easily loan money from the bank. 

The percentage of persons living in low income after tax in Canada is 9.6% (“Statistics Canada,” 2009) and the percentage of persons living with disabilities in Canada is 16.6% for persons over the age of 15 (“Statistics Canada,” 2009). Perhaps many people with disabilities fall into poverty because of their disability and perhaps people living in poverty become disabled because of their poor living conditions. It is certain though that there are far too many people in Canada living in poverty with physical disabilities and the combination of these two situations exponentially increases their day-to-day hardships, challenges, and activities.
Lightman, Mitchell & Herd (2010) explains the detrimental cycle that many persons in Canada living with disabilities become entrapped in. The authors also articulate that as people leave the welfare system to pursue a career, they suffer consequences that include: lower wages and less working hours, which sequentially result in making lower than welfare incomes. “Those leaving welfare for work face precarious employment opportunities. Leavers earn lower wages, work fewer hours and consequently have lower annual earnings than non-recipients. Over time the gap narrows but remains significant, even after six years. Returns to welfare are frequent.” (Lightman, Mitchell, & Herd, 2010).
Although we cannot change the number of people living in Canada with disabilities, we can take a number of steps to help make life more enjoyable and less stigmatizing. I believe that if we could create community outreach programs and more assistive programs for persons living in poverty with disabilities, the cyclical on-and-off welfare fashion could be minimized.
We are quick to pass judgment on people living in poverty with a disability. We think to ourselves that if a person didn’t want to be poor or homeless they should get up and go get a job, but it isn’t always that simple. We as a society need to be more understanding of other people’s circumstances and more grateful of our own plush lifestyles.  In addition to community outreach; I think Canada and Manitoba could benefit from more government funded and volunteer supported programs for people living in poverty with physical disabilities. I also think we all need more compassion, we are all people and we all deserve to be treated like that, no matter what circumstances surround us. We are all a little lonely and unwanted sometimes, but nobody should feel like that their whole lives.

-Kelsey

Canada Online. (2011). Minimum wage rates in Canada [Data file]. Retrieved from: http://canadaonline.about.com/od/labourstandards/

Lightman, E., Mitchell, A., Herd, D. (2010). Cycling off and on welfare in Canada. Journal of Social Policy, 39, 523-542.

Statistics Canada. (2009). Earnings and Incomes Reference Guide, 2009 Census [Data file].  Retrieved from: http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/subject-sujet/result-resultat.