There is one moment from Ann
Blue's professional career that she remembers quite clearly. It doesn't
involve accolades or achievement, promotion or pleasure. Rather, it was a
social battle she went through with one of her senior colleagues at a provincial government office in London, Ontario.
"I was sitting, having a really bad moment at my desk one day, and she just walked by and said, 'You shouldn't be working. You shouldn't be working at all. You're just not up to the job.' Absolutely no recognition or understanding of the trauma I had just been through."
It happened a number of years ago, but the recollection remains vivid in her 60-year-old mind. At the time, Blue was employed as an intake worker and executive secretary and had just endured one of the most horrific accidents of her life.
"It was really freaky," she recalls. "A freak accident."
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Blue's new and improved titanium crutches. "There's not another pair in the world like them," she says. |
Born with the condition spina bifida, Blue is entirely dependent on her crutches. She cannot stand without them. One day, while moving quickly through her kitchen, one of Blue's crutches snapped in half. She was flung forward into the kitchen appliances and the concrete wall.
"I was hurled like a projectile," she said in her English accent. "As one doctor put it, it was the equivalent of me going through the windshield of a car at sixty miles an hour."
"I was terribly bruised around my face," she said. "Internally. In my neck. All of my injuries were internal. At the time, because I had dislocated so much, I could be fine one minute and the next minute - in absolute agony."
The accident marked a complete change in lifestyle for Blue. She was able to work for 18 months post-accident, but eventually lost both her job and income earning capacity because of her handicap.
"I was in so much pain," she remembers. "I continued working, but I had many, many days when I don't know how I got there."
"It was difficult because I could walk in absolutely pink-skinned and bright- eyed and bushy-tailed because there wasn't a scar on my body, (yet) feel absolutely horrible."
But, the accident was not the worst of her struggles.
For Blue, the verbal discrimination she endured from her office colleagues was much, much worse.
Disabled persons like Ann Blue continue to face difficulty and discrimination in the London workplace. This discrimination ranges anywhere from unnecessary harsh words to the loss of one's job because of his or her disability.
Experts consider the number of disabled employees in the city to be low.
It is for this reason that organizations like Community Living London exist. CLL helps people with disabilities find employment, by marketing their services to both the disabled community and employers.
Bruce Rankin
, head of employment services at the centre, believes there are many reasons for the city's lack of disabled employees.
"There are still perceptions among employers that people with disabilities would be a risk to hire," he said.
He describes the most popular perceptions among employers as myths. "There are myths that it can be costly to accommodate a person with a disability in the workplace," he said. "Myths that people with disabilities might have more sick time, or time away from work. That a person with a disability might not be able to perform all the duties of the job. (These) are perceptions that are very difficult to change."
Rankin firmly believes that disabled persons are underrepresented in London. "The unemployment rate for people with disabilities is more than double the employment rate for the typical Canadian," he said.
According to Rankin, the typical disabled employee in southwestern Ontario is working an average of 17 hours per week, in the sales and service sector. They make little more than minimum wage.
"Typically, wages are low," he said, "(and) turnover is high." According to Rankin, sales and service offers little opportunity for fulltime work, benefits, or advancement.
To battle this discrimination, CLL advocates with all three levels of government with regard to employment legislation, by lobbying with both MPs and MPPs.
"We market the abilities of people with disabilities," said Rankin.
CLL continues to do its best to assist people with disabilities to take their rightful place in the labour force.
Liberal MPP
Deb Matthews
agrees that discrimination against people
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Deb Matthews, Liberal MPP for London-North-Centre |
with disabilities is a big problem, but thinks the government plays an important role in challenging that. "We have to be very, very proactive to make employers understand that there really are great potential employees out there. A large, untapped potential labour force is out there. If they would just broaden their ideas about what it means to have a disability..."
But Matthews also believes employer discrimination is not the only issue.
"I am a very, very strong believer that a lot
of people with disabilities aren't working because we've made it really hard for them to work," she said. "And I can tell you that I and this government are really, really committed to getting them able to work to their ability. It's important to recognize that there are a lot of people with disabilities who will not be able to work. But those that can, should be given the opportunity to."
Matthews links the disability-unemployment problem to the Ontario Disability Support Program
. She believes that previous program rules prevented potential disabled employees from working.
"A lot of people with disabilities were very afraid of losing their drug benefits and therefore were afraid to do anything in the labour market," she said.
Matthews hopes to have taken away that fear, by changing the rules regarding ODSP. As of November 2006, disabled persons with drug cards are allowed to keep them while they work. "It frees them to work," Matthews said. "And it's brand-spanking new. I think it's going to make a real difference."
The government also tweaked the rules about how an individual's monthly employment earnings affect their ODSP income.
But this isn't all the government has done to curb this problem.
Last spring, Matthews was proud to announce the
Employment Innovations Fund
, in which
the government
asked local employers to make proposals to the government about how they could use money to increase labour participation for people with disabilities. "It's really stimulated some terrific proposals," she said.
Matthews does not believe that London has enough employment opportunities for disabled persons, but insists she is working hard to create more.
"We all get a lot more than a pay-cheque from working," she said. "We get a sense of purpose. There's an inclusion in our society. There are friends that you make from work. Lots of people - their friendship networks are their work networks."
"I know there are a lot of people who would like to be working who aren't able to, and I think there are good things we can do, and are doing, to open up those opportunities. But I want you to know - there's a long way to go."
Ann Blue, meanwhile, remains hopeful that the social stigma attached to disabled persons will soon change in London. In her experience, she said the majority of her time in the workplace has been delightful.
She believes the opportunities are there for disabled employment. Now, it's just up to London's employers to realize it.
Related Stories:
Reporter Ryan Maloney gets up close and personal with Robert Denamy, a 24-year-old Londoner with cerebral palsy. Through Community Living London, Denamy landed a job with Ovation Food Services at the John Labatt Centre. For him, the job has meant everything. Hear his story.
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