Understanding Disability

Definitions and Contacts

About 4.2 million Canadians have a disability. According to Statistics Canada, about 7% of children under 15 years of age have a disability, while 13% of working age adults and 46% of Canadians over 65 also have a disability.

Handicap: a disadvantage that limits or prevents the fulfilment of a role that is normal. In recent times, “handicap” has come to mean “an environmental or attitudinal barrier”. The handicap exists in the environment, not in the person. Stairs, for example, are a handicap to a person who uses a wheelchair.

Impairment: any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological or anatomical structure or function, such as vision, hearing or mobility. A person with no legs, for example, is mobility impaired.

Disability: The World Health Organisation defines disability as “… any restriction or lack (resulting from an impairment) of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being.” A person is disabled if he or she has no legs and has to get up the stairs. Sometimes, adults who use a corrective device that eliminates the limitation, such as corrective lenses or a hearing aid, are not considered to have a disability.

The six general types of disability are:

Physical disabilities: can take the form of limitations in mobility or agility. Mobility often requires the use of aids like wheelchairs or canes, and agility usually involves other physical activities such as gripping or lifting. Physical disabilities may exist from birth (e.g. spina bifida and cerebral palsy) or may be as a result of disease (e.g. arthritis or muscular dystrophy) or as a result of an accident or trauma (e.g. spinal chord damage or amputation).

Developmental disabilities: were, in years past, referred to as “mental retardation”. Most people with developmental disabilities were considered unemployable because of a tendency to learn slowly. This has changed, with the realisation that people with developmental disabilities are capable and reliable employees when realistic expectations and appropriate supervision are present.

Psychiatric disabilities: include such conditions as schizophrenia, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder (formerly referred to as manic depression) or personality disorder. Psychiatric disabilities vary greatly. There are many whose illness does not affect their work or whose symptoms are in remission. Often, symptoms are controlled with treatment, yet these individuals still suffer stigma associated with psychiatric disability - unfounded beliefs that all people with such disabilities are unreliable or even dangerous.

Learning disabilities: are characterized by frequent and persistent problems with processing information.

These include attention, memory, reasoning, listening (but not hearing), reading, writing, mathematics, or organizational and social skills. People with learning disabilities often learn to compensate for their disability by performing activities in a ‘different’ way.

Hearing disabilities: refer to a range of impairments affecting people who are hard of hearing and use hearing aids, to those who are deaf and rely on lip reading, sign language and interpreters. People with hearing disabilities tend to rely on gestures, body language and other visual cues. Over 500,000 working age Canadians have a hearing disability.

Visual disabilities: also have varying degrees of impairment. Low vision, a visual disability less severe than blindness, is one, which cannot be fully compensated for by corrective lenses. The majority of people with visual disabilities are in this group. Their most common workplace obstacle involves access to printed material. Note: The definitions on the preceding pages are just a guide At best, they facilitate communication, but they also may generate assumptions. As one Canadian advocate put it: “labels belong on jars, and not on people.”

Contacts

There are over 5,000 consumer groups in Canada working in the disability field. All are willing and anxious to assist in understanding disability issues.

One of the most powerful information tools that is now available is the Internet. The Canadian Abilities Foundation’s “Enablelink” is one of many World Wide Web sites that offer a wealth of information and contacts on disability. It includes a directory of disability organizations, a product catalogue and advocacy and support groups. Access the resources nearest you at: (http://www.enablelink.org)

Major national disability organizations describe themselves as follows:

Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) improves status of persons with disabilities through monitoring Federal legislation as it impacts on people with disabilities.

926, 294 Portage Ave.
Winnipeg, MB R3C 0B9
Phone: (204) 947-0303
www.pcs.mb.ca/~ccd/

Canadian Paraplegic Association promotes the independence, self-reliance and full participation of Canadians with spinal cord injury and other significant mobility disabilities through counselling, information and advocacy.

230 - 1101 Prince of Wales Dr.
Ottawa, ON K2C 3W7
Phone: (613) 723-1033
Fax: (613) 723-1060
www.canparaplegic.org

Canadian Association for Community Living (CACL) is Canada's national association dedicated to promoting the participation of people with intellectual disabilities in all aspects of community life.

Kinsmen Bldg.
4700 Keele
North York, ON M3J 1P3
Phone: (416) 661-9611
TTY: (416) 661-2023
Fax: (416) 661-5701
www.cacl.ca

The Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) helps blind, visually impaired, and deaf-blind Canadians address one of the greatest challenges of their lives: thriving - not just surviving - in a sighted world.

National Office
1929 Bayview Avenue
Toronto, ON M4G 3E8
Phone: (416) 480-7580
fax (416) 480-7677
www.cnib.ca

Canadian Association of the Deaf promotes and protects the rights, needs and concerns of Canadians who are deaf.

205 - 2435 Holly Lane
Ottawa, ON K1V 7P2
Phone: (613) 526-4785
TTY: (613) 526-4785
www.cad.ca

NEADS - National Educational Association of Disabled Students promotes the self-empowerment of post-secondary students with disabilities.

Rm. 426, 4th Level
Unicentre, Carleton University
Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6
Phone: (613) 526-8008
TTY: (613) 526-8008
Fax: (613) 520-3704
www.neads.ca

DisAbled Women’s Network (DAWN) is a national, cross disability organisation of women with disabilities in Canada whose focus is in the area of research, defining the needs and concerns of women with disabilities and designing programs to address those needs and concerns.

408 3637 Cambie St.
Vancouver, BC V5Z 2X3
Phone: (604) 873-1564
www.dawncanada.net

Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres (CAILC) promotes and enables the progressive process of citizens with disabilities to take responsibility for the development and management of personal and community resources.

1004 350 Sparks St.
Ottawa, ON K1R 7S8
Phone: (613) 235-2581
www.cailc.ca

National Institute of Disability Management and Research is committed to reducing the human, social and economic cost of disability to workers, employers and society through education, training and research.

3699 Roger St.
Port Alberni, BC V9Y 8E3
Phone: (250) 724-4344
www.nidmar.ca

The Neil Squire Foundation was founded to help provide people with disabilities the same choices, opportunities and quality of life as any other people. The Foundation uses technology to increase participation in recreation, employment, communication and ultimately, to create a life full of choices and independence for people with severe mobility impairment.

Head Office
Suite 220 - 2250 Boundary Road
Burnaby, BC V5M 4G5
Phone: (604) 473-9363
Fax: (604) 473-9364
www.neilsquire.ca

The Rick Hansen Institute removes barriers that limit people with disabilities from reaching their full potential and provides leadership in disability fund development, awareness and programs, with a focus on spinal cord injury.

1040 1875 East Mall
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1
Phone: (604) 822-9486
www.rickhansen.ubc.ca

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