This year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities centres on “fostering disability inclusive societies for advancing social progress.”

The theme recognizes persistent barriers faced by disabled people: disproportionate poverty, employment discrimination, inadequate social protection and the denial of dignity and autonomy in care systems.

In 2022, the disability rate for people aged 15 years and over in Canada was 27 per cent. Nearly eight million people identified as having one or more disabilities, an increase of 1.7 million people over 2017, when the disability rate was 22 per cent.

The United Nations’ latest review of Canada’s implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities praised Canada’s progress in adopting the Accessible Canada Act and accessibility legislation at the provincial/territorial levels.

At the same time, the committee identified several areas of deep concern, such as the expansion of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) for disabled people whose death is not foreseeable. The report warns that inadequate supports risk normalizing death as a “solution” to poverty, lack of services and discrimination, and that the concept of choice can create a false dichotomy, enabling death without guaranteeing support.

All policies convey narratives and stories that carry values. They deal with questions of “why” as well as “how.”

Narratives distil and reflect a particular understanding of social and political relations. A story about disability as a phenomenon can be told from different perspectives. A medical model of disability views disability as a personal problem, a social model focuses on removing the barriers, and a human rights model introduces a language of rights and their protection. We often........

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