Executive Summary

According to Statistics Canada, 12% (or approximately 60,500 people) of the population in Newfoundland and Labrador reported limitations in their daily activities due to a physical or psycho-social condition.

Canada is signatory of a number of international human rights treaties, including the most recent Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Regardless of where they live, Canadians with disabilities should therefore be entitled to the same human rights and freedoms that are granted to all other citizens. Monitoring studies are crucial to measure whether Canadian commitments in paper are translated on the ground.

DRPI-Canada is a collaborative project funded by Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), working to establish a sustainable monitoring system to address disability-discrimination in Canada.  The project applies a human rights approach to disability, which focuses on the way systemic discrimination and social exclusion increase vulnerability to abuse, poverty, unemployment, other forms of discrimination and inequitable social conditions. Evidence-based knowledge regarding the extent to which people with disabilities face discrimination will inform effective societal, policy and program change to improve the lives of people with disabilities in Canada.

This report is based on 48 individual interviews conducted in St. John’s with persons with various disabilities, with a view to monitor their actual experiences of access or denial of human rights. DRPI-Canada partnered with ILRC which took leadership on all aspects of the monitoring activities.  Monitoring data has been collected through face-to-face interviews conducted by previously trained monitors, persons with disabilities themselves. The interviews were taped, transcribed, and coded using a coding scheme developed by the international project DRPI, and then analysed using NVivo9 software.

In this study, five key human rights principles - autonomy, dignity, participation, inclusion & accessibility, non-discrimination & equality; and respect for difference - were explored in connection with the following key domains of life: social participation, privacy and family life, education, work, information and communication, access to justice, income security and services, and access to health, habilitation and rehabilitation service.

Experiences of Human Rights across Domains of Life

Overall, reports of denial and violation of human rights were more prevalent than access to and exercise of rights. Social participation, income security & support services, and work were the domains most discussed. The realms of social participation and work were also those where more negative experiences were found, while Family life was the area where interviewees encountered more positive experiences of inclusion and human dignity.

Almost all participants told a story involving the domain of social participation. The large majority of these reports discussed the prevailing physical barriers in the built environment and transportation systems in St. John’s and the demeaning attitudes towards people with disabilities in the community, causing loss of human dignity as well as the exclusion and isolation of many persons with disabilities.

In relation to accessing income security & support services, half of the participants felt included without significant barriers to needed supports such as homecare or social benefits. However, a similar proportion expressed a loss of dignity in the way services and supports were provided and one third reported being excluded from needed supports.  As a result, in multiple aspects of life they cannot enjoy a quality of life that is equal to that of their non-disabled peers.

Similarly, in the area of work and access to the labour market, a majority of negative experiences was found. Lack of disability-related accommodation and prevailing demeaning assumptions about the abilities of workers with disabilities made the interviewees vulnerable to exclusion and discrimination. This explains in part why one in three of all participants did not have jobs, despite the fact that over half of them have attended some form of post secondary education.

Health, habilitation and rehabilitation was another problematic realm, with many participants sharing instances of exclusion and loss of dignity as a result of poor treatment and lack of support to their heath care needs.

Reports about family life, on the contrary, were found to be mostly positive. Approximately one third of the interviewees reported feeling valued in family life and relationships and matters of privacy, and one third felt being included.

In the domain of education, experiences were mixed. If one in four interviewees reported a story involving loss of dignity in the education system; at the same time, one in five shared stories about accessibility and inclusion.

Regarding access to justice and information and communication, people with disabilities interviewed in St. John’s faced more disadvantages and exclusion. For example, interviewees with sensory impairments reported feeling excluded from a variety of communication systems and mechanisms. Devalued dignity was also expressed by almost one in five interviewees in relation to encounters with the justice system, with financial and legislative barriers being mentioned most frequently by the participants.

Despite their negative encounters with justice, people with disabilities in St. John’s tended to take a proactive attitude when facing discrimination. In fact, almost one in three persons chose to report or file an official complaint over personal encounters with abuse or ableism. Those who did not report, however, reported fear of negative consequences as the key cause for not taking formal action.

Overwhelmingly, the participants perceived economic factors as the primary systemic root of discrimination, poverty being the major challenge in the fulfilment of their human rights.

Intersectional Analyses

The study further undertook a comparative analysis of participants’ experiences based on their gender and age¹. Gender was found to affect the experiences in the areas of privacy and family life and income security and social supports, although in different ways. Women tended to report more experiences than men in relation to family life, whereas men were more prone to discuss the domain of income and support services. Women also reported more negative experiences where they were disrespected, labelled or stigmatized, that might signal multiple forms of discrimination.

The impact of age was also found significant in two domains – health, habilitation and rehabilitation, and education, with younger cohorts discussing primarily experiences in relation to education. Age was also associated with experiences of self-determination and inclusion, with the proportion of positive reports increasing as participants grow older. In contrast, experiences of discrimination and lack of respect were more frequent among younger people. Reasons for this contrast may be related to the perception of disability as a natural and expected facet of senior life, whereas it is commonly viewed as a negative trait worthy of stigmatization when experienced at earlier stages in life.

Note #1

It was not possible to conduct analysis by type of disability due to small size cells once disaggregating by various types of disability represented in the sample.

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Recommendations

The participants in this monitoring project made a number of recommendations to improve the situation and circumstances of people living with disabilities. The most discussed were increasing social supports (35%) and raising awareness through educating the general public about disability and persons with disabilities (27%).  Participants were particularly vocal in demanding the government to create stronger mechanisms to support and improve the living conditions and income of people with disabilities.

• Several participants noted that many cases of using the human rights commission on Newfoundland and Labrador to file complaints when violations occurred.  This was felt to be an extremely effective vehicle for dealing with discrimination; Many called for more information about filing complaints and using the system efficiently.  While there was recognition that filing a complaint was a time-consuming, and potentially expensive, process participants endorsed the approach both as a way to deal with immediate issues and as a way to promote a ‘rights-based’ understanding of disability in Canadian society.
• Another key area where consensus emerged was the importance of investing and supporting disabled peoples’ organizations (DPOs) at a grass –roots level.  People spoke of the need to support people to learn about their rights and to speak out collectively in instances where these rights are violated.
• A third recommendation flowed from discussion about challenges people face in the job market and enjoying their own right to work.  Participants felt that often there was a misunderstanding on the part of employers about costs associated with job accommodations, and employment-related supports.   Further to this they suggested that DPOs do more to expose these myths in an effort to promote employment opportunities.
• Finally, when asked specifically about ongoing monitoring of human rights for people with disabilities in St. John’s and beyond, the participants agreed that any ongoing monitoring work would require financial and institutional support to make it sustainable. They suggested that the ILRC needs resources to continue this sort of monitoring over time, with a view to tracking trends and identifying opportunities to promote human rights for persons with disabilities.

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