The Accessibility For Ontarians With Disabilities Act

The United States has many minority groups that face oppression. In the media today, most of the minority issues that are highlighted involve the LGBTQ community, women, and racial minorities. Differently-abled people are rarely given the space to share with the world how they see it. This literature review will discuss terms related to visual impairment, legislative measures taken in the United States to assist those with severe visual impairments, and the oppression and discrimination those who are visually impaired face.

At the dawn of the Disability Rights Movement in 1980, Canadian legislators were willing and prepared to ignore the rights of Canadians with disabilities. However, throughout the decade, Canadian citizens with disabilities and their supporters fought back and proved to the world that the voices of the disenfranchised could make a difference (Peters, 2004). Five briefs submitted to the Special Joint Committee of the House of Commons and the Senate in 1980 and 1981 regarding disability rights, reflected and supported the efforts of the Disability Rights Movement and significantly contributed to its evolution.

In today's world, one would assume that America is hitting all the marks, when in reality we are falling short in what may count the most. We are not meeting the basic needs of our largest minority group, mentally and physically disabled people. Lack of accessibility is a difficult hurdle for both physically and cognitively disabled people. Lawmakers have a duty to everyone in America, not just the able, and encouraging accessibility in the public is the first step in the right direction.

As the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act approaches later this month, it is clear that many of the fears of the business community failed to materialize. In the first five years of the act, there was no wave of business failures tied to compliance; no wave of unqualified applicants whom businesses were forced to hire; no wave of workers suddenly claiming disability due to a bad back; and no wave of lawsuits that inundated businesses with the burden of undue legal costs. (ADA.gov, 1995). In fact, tax subsidies provided in the act helped many businesses afford to make necessary access accommodations as well as to provide other reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities, and the positive ramifications have been considerable. Up to 45 percent of the disabled population now hold jobs and are contributing to the economy, (Brault, 2012).

With the ever-increasing number of disabled among the population, at 1 in 5 according to the Census Bureau, the responsibility of reasonable accommodations falls to the desks and hands of administrators and businesses alike. In this case, the steps toward accommodation that West Chester University makes have a direct beneficial impact on the quality of both education and life of the students that require them. These steps are crucial to counteracting the latent effects of a society and infrastructure tailored to able-bodied persons and architectural and economic efficiency. Additionally, concerning the language of the ADA itself, the main attention for the university falls under Title Three: Public Accommodations, Subpart C, wherein the language specifically mentions schools as having to provide access to goods and services, either by way of the removal of “barriers” of an architectural nature and “accessibility” to the aforementioned. (Harkin, 1990)

The individuals with disabilities act (ADA) was sign into regulation on July 26, 1990 by using President George. W. Bush. Its passage came after years of advocacy by means of incapacity rights supporters. The ADA observed earlier countrywide regulation that guaranteed disability rights in authorities, housing, and training, inclusive of the rehabilitation act of 1973. The fair housing amendments act of 1988, which amended the fair housing act of 1968 to consist of people with disabilities, and the training for all handicapped kids act of 1975, which changed into the predecessor to the individuals with disabilities training act. In signing the individuals with disabilities act, President George. W. Bush declared that the ADA

“The therapeutic reduction, however, denies that persons are ever moral agents, responsible for their actions, and implies instead that they can never be understood and reasoned with as autonomous equals” (Delattre, E. J., p.259, 2011). Reviewing the seminar slides it states that since society is corrupt, then so is law enforcement. I don’t realize just as long as a society is corrupted means that all police office departments are corrupt, but it’s all around what type of people you have working for you as a police officer. I assume if society protected illegal drug users under the “Americans with Disabilities Act”, next other people will start to claim that they have a disability just to have the drugs they wish. In the book it states that

Lasell College’s Athletics Department must fully meet or exceed the regulations and requirements established by the American with Disabilities Act for every student and faculty member wishing to access Lasell’s athletic facilities.

Nearly 16% of the United States’ population is disabled according to recent censuses, half of which are legally eligible to vote in local, state, and national elections, but despite the sway these politically determined individuals have, the accessibility to extend their voices in the process of making policies is almost nonexistent. Polling booths may be located in obscure locations that do not fully comply with state and federal laws regarding their accessibility. Or a blind voter may not always have the opportunity to take advantage of a Braille ballot, and may also face complications with assuring an accurate measurement of their decisions when being assisted by another person. Throughout the history of America’s

This report serves to review the research completed by Eric Lipp and the Open Doors Organization (ODO). Through familiarity with the issue, analysis, and sound recommendations, we conclude that the research was sound and beneficial to a very large demographic of people with disabilities.

In her chapter on legal peripheries, Chouinard examines the social location in the context of legal rights as experienced by disabled people. In her discourse she identifies a social location where the lived experience of disabled contradicts their legal rights in Canadian law. She calls this social location legal peripheries as the lived experiences of disabled people lies on the outside of the center of Canadian society which enjoys the full power, privileges and benefits of such legal rights and protection. Canadians measure the accomplishments of a civil and accessible society by the laws that influence the perceived equality enjoyed by disabled Canadians such as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom, provincial human rights laws, and the Accessibility for Ontarians with a Disability Act (AODA; in

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The scope of this essay is to develop a strategy for improved performance in the next five years for Australia Post, by assessing the current strategy adopted by the organization and providing recommendations for improvement of the current strategy. The current strategies employed by Australia post are: • Building community engagement program and the launching of National Conversation.

W, K. (2010, november 24). The Importance of Section 508 Accessibility Compliance. Retrieved 3 26, 2013, from Ezine Articles: http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Importance-of-Section-508-Accessibility-Compliance&id=5439679

The location we visited for the purpose of this accessibility project is the Montreal Courthouse, which is situated in Old Montreal. We will be providing a description of the facilities, while evaluating the degree of accessibility for persons with disabilities. We will make a few references to course materials in order to support our findings.

Imagine a society where individuals, regardless of disability, race, religious views, sexuality and origin, live in a state of harmony, where cities are integrated and provide equal access to all members of humanity. This utopian concept seems to almost contradict the current state of contemporary society. However, society’s primary objective should be to become increasingly perfect. To develop this ideal civilization, a broader, more introspective sense of reality needs to be conceived. People, largely urban planners and politicians, need to advance cities to accommodate those with disabilities ranging from mental to physical, develop a sense of what having a disability entails, and form alliances with disabled individuals to allow for the integration of the built environment and its communities.