Many studies have been done to show the struggles and experiences that individuals of ethno cultural communities face. Including finding a place to live, placing their children in schools, finding employment, and just getting accustomed to the Canadian culture or environment can be difficult. Because there is so much focus on the starting needs of people in these ethno cultural communities, long-term needs and needs of the disabled individuals rarely get attention. For example because there is so much focus on finding houses for the general ethno cultural population little is done to find housing needs for people with disabilities in these communities.
The population for individuals with disabilities continues to grow alongside the aging population. 3.4 million adults reported having a disability from mid, moderate and severe levels. The growth of the disabled population undoubtedly places new challenges on public policies and social systems because change is needed to support the rising rate of individuals with disabilities. It is important to understand that looking only at an individual’s disability doesn’t acknowledge the different lifestyles each one is brought up in, i.e. class, religion, gender, ethnic background, and so on.
In today’s society many individuals face a disadvantage by being poor, having minority status, and by having a disability. So the challenges and discrimination one faces by being of a minority group and disabled becomes increasingly difficult. If you come from a minority group you are more likely to be poorer and unemployed. So by having a disability and being of a minority status your chances of trying to find employment are less than that of your white counterpart.
Throughout history people who have had a disability were wholly defined by their disability, but as we know today many different things make up an individual. So in trying to find a living place for people with disabilities all things must be taken into consideration. With the disabled population increasing communities need to be able to integrate these individuals so that they can live comfortable around environments which they feel at home. For example a Chinese Canadian person with a disability may feel more comfortable living in a neighborhood around other Chinese people who speak his language and understand his culture and customs, rather than living in a disability community that makes it safe for him to move around. Or a wealthy disabled person would much rather live around wealthy communities than to be placed in an environment where he fits in just because he is disabled. The relationships between living areas, race, disability, gender and class need to be taken into consideration when finding homes and help for the disabled population. Because of these different elements that make up an individual all communities should be made to include the disabled, based on the principle that all people with disability should be valued and accepted socially in all of society.
- Marcia M.
References
Statistics Canada 2010
The Intersection of disability and Race/Ethnicity/Official Language/Religion (Stienstra, Deborah, March 2002)
I enjoyed your perspective on things!
ReplyDeleteI agree that their defenitely needs improvement and more policies made to help individuals with disabilities and we must do all that we can do make them feel comfortable
-Brigitte
This is a great look at the way that individuals with a physical disability may feel in society today. I personally think that maybe we need to change the name given to people with a physical disability because of the stigma that is attached to the word disability. People with a physical disability are not disabled when it come to being an active member of society, we just need to change the way we are describing their condition. Great blog post Marcia.
ReplyDelete-Chandra B