Hello, my name is Kylie Brooks and I am honored to have been invited by Sarah Jama to speak here. So this is my first keynote speech ever, please bear with me! What I say and what I write on paper might be a little different.
I am from Toronto and I want to acknowledge that Toronto is Indigenous land – the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe and Mississauga New Credit First Nation peoples.
So… why do we need this new organization? Some of you may be wondering what disability justice is and why it is necessary. Some of you may be disabled and you may be feeling frustrated regarding the discrimination against us – called ableism – that exists right now in society. Society is not accessible, and the attitudes of many people towards disability are not great. Wasn’t having rights in law supposed to help us? Indeed, others here may be thinking that we should be grateful that we have disability rights.
Well, I am here to tell you that disability rights is not enough. A few examples of this… Let’s start with institutionalization, but I just want to back up here and expand on what ableism is first.
Abled people have specific views about us disabled people due to being told to have these views by their family, media (TV, magazines, the Internet, etc), dominant religion, schools, governments, doctors, police officers, and so on. These views are called ableism. One view they have is that we are inherently incapable and dependent on them. As a result, many disabled people were placed into segregated institutions in the late 1800s and early 1900s. We were housed out of sight and out of mind, and abled abuse of us in those institutions was rampant.
We advocated for us to no longer be in those institutions and for these institutions to be permanently closed. How this happened was through legislation. I am genuinely proud to never have experienced those institutions that I just discussed. Some people consider group homes as similiar, however, and I need to learn more about those views.
In relation to that, I was in a group home from age 14 to 21 and I want to honestly say that the environment there was alright. However care by staff cannot replace much needed parenting, and nothing significant really happened at the group home to include ASL or deaf culture. Only a few staff there signed very well – the basic signing most staff learned was not sufficient for a 24/7 environment in which I was a teenager.
So, after 7 years there, I moved to where I live in Toronto, in an apartment that staff come to in order to support me. That whole thing was also established with legislation. Yet here too, quality falls short. Some staff touch my hair (!!!). Most staff are audist towards me by only talking to me – lipreading is inaccurate most of the time. No one knows ASL.
So, let’s think about accessibility. Is that working? Well, judge for yourself with this example. So, there is a smaller company that is similar to Wal-Mart called Giant Tiger. A while ago, I went to a nearby store close to me. Everything was fairly accessible when inside but the entry experience was very awkward, requiring entry between poles that were positioned very close to each other, not fitting wheelchairs. They only fit ambulatory people. The saving grace was that they were movable, but only by staff. When I emailed the manager about this and requested changes including a meeting to show them the issue and a timeline, the manager replied that they had recently renovated the store and follow applicable legislation. I haven’t went back.
Lastly, have you heard what the government in this province has been doing? Well, they cut the annual increase for people on ODSP and OW from 3% to 1.5%. They cancelled the Basic Income pilot, with the last payment to be made in March 2019. I am fairly privileged in this regard in that I can work and am a student on OSAP, but what about those who can’t? We must stop valuing only people who can work, we must value all people regardless of ability to contribute.
The examples I have told you are about the attitudes of abled people. These must be dealt with in order for ableism to end. Legislation and accessibility are not magic bullets that make our lives better as disabled people.
Another thing to think about here… Disabled people exist in every identity you can possibly think of. Disabled people are:
Black, Indigenous, People of color
poor
queer
trans
immigrants, documented or not, refugees
deaf, hard of hearing
not christian – e.g. Muslim
Unfortunately, disabled people with these identities get ignored all the time. People only care about the disabled person that is white, well off, straight, cis, citizen, hearing, and so on. This must stop! Ultimately, we must create a new world where there is no oppression. This requires that each of us look at our attitudes and work towards changing them. We must look at our actions and decisions – are these helping to create a world with no ableism and no oppression? If not, we must change them. All positive actions and decisions – not just participating in protests – are helpful towards that goal. These need to go beyond just talk and show that we truly accept all disabled people of all identities, not only white disabled people, citizen disabled people, hearing disabled people, et cetera. Also, we are going to have to challenge each other to change.
Let’s face it, some of these actions and decisions will require some of us to give up power that we hold dear. Money if you have a lot of it. Ultimately, no disabled person is free until all disabled people are free.
We need to deal with the fact that Canada is a white country run by white people for the benefit of white people. The future of Canada will require some deep reflection and centering of the Indigenous people who the land occupied by Canada actually belongs to.
Last but not least, we must set up a different economic system to the one that exists right now in Canada – capitalism. People are required to work, otherwise they are not seen as human. Plus, if they are poor, they are not allowed to enjoy life by buying what are seen as “luxuries.” And if you can’t work, you don’t get much money right now here in Ontario – a lot of your income goes to rent as a result and you can’t really live on the rest of your money. So only people with a lot of money are entitled to a good life? Everyone is entitled to a good life!
I have just outlined basic things involved in disability justice. This is a much needed journey to begin doing today and everyday, all our lives hang in the balance! I hope you have a great time tonight!