Book Review - "Working Men's Bodies"

My Review of John Field's book, Working Men's Bodies: Work Camps in Britain, 1880-1940 is now posted on the Humanities and Social Sciences Online. It can be found in the H-Disability section, which explores historical issues around the experiences of disability. The full book review can be found here. 

Gifts & Assets Ontario: Action to Support Disabled Persons Receiving ODSP

Many people are under the assumption that those receiving the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) have all of their immediate needs covered. But this is not the case as the maximum amount an ODSP recipient can access ($1,110 per month) puts ODSP recipients on and/or below the poverty line. 

Consider the following: 

• In 2014 the average expenditure for housing was $1617 and $675 for food - way below the maximum level an ODSP recipient can receive.

• Cuts and a failure to keep pace with inflation have meant that ODSP payments have failed to reflect the cost of living. In fact, it would require a 25% increase to the rate a single person receives for ODSP to even be worth what it was in 1994. 

Additionally, there are costs disabled persons incur that are not adequately covered by ODSP. These include: 

1. Safe and accessible housing.
2. Adequate and healthy foods.
3. Adaptive equipments and accessibility needs.
4. Transportation related costs. 
5. Fee-for-service disability supports.
6. Clothing and recreational expenses. 

While we certainly need to raise the rates for ODSP recipients, we also need to do away with outdated regulations that prevent persons on ODSP from receiving gifts and assets. This is a quick fix that the province of Ontario could implement immediately (like BC has done) to better support the economic well being of ODSP recipients.  

How can you help? 

• Visit the Gifts and Assets website to learn more.
• Join the coalition for change. 
• Follow Gifts & Assets on Twitter.
• Share information about this effort with your networks. 

Housing Trust for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities in Ottawa-Carleton

I was fortunate enough to work as a part of a wonderful team of researchers for a recent exploratory study on the feasibility of a housing trust for persons with intellectual disabilities in the Ottawa-Carleton region. 

Through Citizen Advocacy Ottawa, our research team worked with individuals, stakeholders, and advocates to explore the housing needs of persons with intellectual disabilities as well as how the establishment of a local housing trust would help to address the housing crisis. 

Some of the key findings from this research include: 

• The ageing population, both in terms of caregivers and disabled adults, has created an urgent need to identify and implement innovative housing models, like a housing trust, in this region.  

• Housing trusts are a part of a broader housing continuum that can offer greater options for independent living and affordable housing. 

• Community members need a strong continuum of housing choice to ensure inclusion and personal autonomy.  

• Existing gaps within parallel areas of disability support require policy makers to proactively work to promote a holistic lens where disability supports are concerned. 

• It is vital that future housing models separate housing costs from from support costs to ensure conflicting interests are minimized and that housing requirements can be met using various sources of funding. 

The full research report can now be accessed online. 

Disability Politics in a Global Economy - Available for pre-order

Disability Politics in a Global Economy is now available for pre-order. 

I'm incredibly excited to be a part of this book, which examines the legacy of Marta Russell. 

This interdisciplinary collection, which helps situate the marginalization of disabled bodies, draws on the work of scholars and activists interested in law, political economy, education, and disability studies. 

Marta Russell scholarship and activism have left an important mark where disability rights are concerned, and as the chapters in this collection illustrate, her insights continue to shape the disability rights movement. 

Exploring Innovative Housing Solutions in Ottawa

In the fall of 2015 I jumped at the opportunity to be a part of a research team looking into the housing needs of adults with intellectual disabilities in Ottawa. 

I recently had the opportunity to talk a bit about this research with CBC Morning Ottawa. Here is a link to our interview. 

This research was made possible through Citizen Advocacy Ottawa  and the Housing Task Force. 

Disability, Exploitation, and Work

While it's not a new issue, exploitive labour practices for disabled folks in Canada continues to get sporadic media coverage. Most recently, a piece appeared on rabble.ca about these practices. 

This piece, which I am quoted in, touches on my own research around sheltered workshops. It also includes insight from Dr. Ravi Malholtra - who has been instrumental in addressing permits that allow employers to pay disabled employees below the minimum wage. 

It is important to continue to address these forms of economic exploitation as these archaic practices persist (and even thrive) where disabled bodies are concerned. 

Problematizing How we "See" Down Syndrome

As World Down Syndrome Day approaches (March 21st) there are bound to be campaigns aimed at Down Syndrome awareness and inclusion. While well intentioned, it's important that these efforts are contextualized to ensure they do not perpetuate or reinforce stereotypes. 

With this in mind, the #HowDoYouSeeMe campaign strikes me as particularly problematic. In short, this video narrated by a woman with Down syndrome is shot almost entirely using a famous, white, non-disabled woman to demonstrate all the things folks with Down Syndrome do. The reveal at the end is that the reflection in the mirror is that of a woman with Down Syndrome - and the catch is that we should "see" people first. While this plays on notions of personhood and disabled status (there are many pieces on the politics person-first language that are well worth the read), the ultimate take away is that we should not see Down syndrome. Yet, historic and contemporary resistance to the physical characteristics associated with Down syndrome are important considerations that this campaign completely ignores. 

There are many reasons this is problematic, and disability rights advocates quickly responded to voice their concerns (a specific thank you to @erabrand for our conversation and shared insights here). However, my specific discomfort with this campaign is the ways in which it ignores historical context around the physical features associated with Down syndrome and subsequent attempts to correct and erase these. 

In his paper "Observations on an Ethnic Classification of Idiots" John Langdon Down (sometimes uncritically embraced as the "father" of Down syndrome) situated Down Syndrome in relation to the physical characteristics of various "ethnic standards" suggesting the presence of Down syndrome was a kind of "retrogression" linked to non-European races. Of note are how these foundational ideas still persist in language around Down syndrome and practices aimed at erasing and/or diminishing these physical features. For example, both tongue reduction and facial reconstruction have been touted as means to diminish the physical features of Down syndrome. 

Folks with Down syndrome have been (and continue to be) subject to invasive and abusive interventions aimed at minimizing Down syndrome and making them appear less disabled to the outside world. Given this, it is especially important that any awareness campaign does not erase the physical features associated with Down syndrome and instead promotes inclusion that is based on "seeing" and embracing our peers as they are.