AccessON.ca

Everywhere around Toronto since January I have witnessed a huge campaign for disability rights, causes, etc. Everywhere from TTC stops to subway cars, I have found and noticed these disability related campaigns. They have a site on the internet now devoted to fixing the unfair advantages of Toronto against people of different disabilities. Posters with people trying to read small print restaurant menus to a man in a wheelchair trying to get into a work interview and being obstructed by a curb right before the door to the interview. I looked up this site and was stunned to see the lengths the government is going to to rectify or attempt to rectify the problem of unfair advantage of "regular people" over people with various differing disabilities. Some of the ads are quite funny and humorous and right to the heart of the issues.

Non-governmental organizations have been lobbying for some time now to get the government to shape up and make the world, especially cities and large urban areas, more accessible to all citizens. It appears as though the government is finally taking a stand to change for the better. This problem with spatial boundaries is evident all across Toronto and especially when it comes to transportation and the workplace. Sometimes preventing citizens from functioning as the law says they should be able to. People with disabilities as victims of a selfish, capitalistic society and are helpless due to the significant geographical problems with places where disabilities are not taken into account for.

These places of disablist repression can have astounding psychological consequences and negative phenomenological consequences to the people victim of these places. Geographical places and buildings must be constructed in such a way as to not oppress certain individuals and give certain people advantages over others. The buildings of Toronto and the cities transportation system must be changed and shaped geographically so that no one person has an advantage over another.


By: Timothy Barnett