Advocates rally to highlight issues affecting disabled community

Dozens took the the Vancouver Art Gallery Saturday afternoon to highlight issues of accessibility within the city, with advocates calling on the government to improve the lives of people with disabilities.

Margaux Wosk is a regional director of B.C People First, an organization that advocates on behalf of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Wosk says people in the disability community often get talked about, but their voices aren’t always included in the conversation.

“So that’s why ‘nothing about us without us’ is such an important theme of pretty much all the work that we do,” Wosk said.

“So we just would really like to see more funding and see real change being enacted soon, versus waiting for something bad to happen and then changing things. We need to be at the forefront of that transformation.”

Wosk, who is a small business owner living with autism, says those in the community face accessibility issues in everyday life, such as having to deal with improper sidewalks and other infrastructure that is not wheelchair-friendly.

“The infrastructure in the city, also not just mobility, but communication, are things that we really need to work on in improving and if we’re able to improve them it doesn’t just improve the lives of disabled people but it really improves things for everybody,” she said.

“We really would like to have a large change come about, more funding, more insight, more recognition, and we also want to make sure that people are considering this as something that is really a priority.”

Amanda Lockitch is a community organizer with Disability Without Poverty B.C., an organization that aims to expand eligibility for the Canada Disability Benefit. She says the benefit is supposed to be a supplemental top-up to existing support.

“We’re looking at eligibility criteria, making sure that the most people that are eligible have access to eligibility, and no clawbacks of any kind, not just dollar-for-dollar,” she said. “[Other issues include] the bus pass, the ability to be married to somebody and not be kicked off benefits. All of those issues.”

Statistics Canada suggests 27 per cent of the population reported having at least one disability in 2022.

“It’s the largest minority that anyone can join at any time,” Lockitch said.

“It is an equal opportunity minority.”

With files from Monika Gul.