CSUN Conference Question Or Inquiry

 

This year, Jeffrey Stark the chair of the CWDO technology committee will be attending the International Conference On Technology & Disability and has offered to take your questions, interests and other requests to the participants of the conference. Do you have a specific question you'd like to ask a vendor or manufacturer? Is there a specific piece of technology or equipment you are interested in knowing about? Is there a specific task or barrier that you are looking to see if a technology solution exists to resolve?

Feel free to submit your request, question or topic

 

 

 

 

Citizens with Disabilities-Ontario in partnership with The Council of Canadians with Disabilities presents: The Youth Activist Forum

Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario
June 2- 5, 2011

Calling on all youth between the ages of 16 to 30! You are invited to attend an exciting three-day event in Ottawa.
 

Learn more about

The Youth Activist Forum (YAF)

 

Read and comment on our members' blogs:

• Mobility Plus Left Me Minus Mobility - member Fiona Watson's blog documenting her struggle to be accommodated on specialized transit.
• "We asked CWDO's President, Terry Green, to write a blog.  "Keep it brief" we said.  Being a lawyer, he wrote a brief instead.  So we worked with him a bit. (Everyone is trainable.)   Find out what's on Terry's mind this week."

 

CWDO welcomes blogs from members.  Contact us if you are interested in writing one.

Last September, the provincial government posted a draft regulation.  It was called the Integrated Accessibility Regulation.  The new regulation would cover accessibility for three key areas: information & communications, employment and transportation. 

 CWDO hosted three webinars (one per topic) and surveyed our members for their opinions on the proposed new regulation.  The response CWDO sent to the government is based on what our members had to say.  Please click on the attachment link below if you want to read the submission.

Since we wrote, the government has posted the regulation again, with some changes based on what they heard from us and others.  Read the latest version of the regulation.  CWDO is planning to respond once again.

On January 28, 2011, CWDO's appeared before Ontario's Standing Committee on Finance and submitted our recommendations for the next budget.  Click on the attachment link below to read our brief.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) launched a survey in November, 2010 to learn more about the human rights issues and barriers people with mental health and addiction disabilities face. The survey kicks off a broader consultation process on human rights and mental health-related issues.

The purpose of the OHRC's questionnaire is to collect personal accounts of lived experiences, rather than the collective knowledge or expertise of organizations, advocates and researchers. They have designed two surveys: one for individuals, and one for family and friends.

• Individual's Survey (English, Word version)
• Individual's Survey (French, Word version)
• Family and friends' Survey (English, Word version)
• Family and friends' Survey (French, Word version)

The OHRC will use these stories to identify key issues for policy development and for future OHRC projects involving human rights and mental health. 

The survey can be accessed in three ways:

1. Online at: www.ohrc.on.ca

2. Printed out and sent by mail to:

Ontario Human Rights Commission
Human Rights Mental Health Policy Consultation
Policy, Education, Monitoring and Outreach Branch
180 Dundas Street West, 8th Floor
Toronto, Ontario
M7A 2R9
Fax #: (416) 314-4533

3. Filled out in a Microsoft WORD document and sent back by email to: consultations@ohrc.on.ca.

We need your help to share the survey with people you believe would like to tell us their stories. If you know people who would like to fill out the survey but do not have access to the internet or email, we would appreciate it if you could print it out and/or send it to us on their behalf.

CWDO has provided WORD attachments of the surveys, but if you would prefer to receive hard copies please contact Vicky Masellis at 416-314-4526. The survey should be returned to the OHRC by the end of February 2011.

The OHRC thanks you in advance for your assistance. If you have any questions, contact the OHRC at consultations@ohrc.on.ca.

• Position Papers - CWDO's submission on the proposed amendments to the Election Act.
• Archived Webinars - Find out what you missed!  You can access almost all webinars here.
• Planned Webinars - Find out about webinars CWDO is planning for the Winter/Spring.
• Technology news - YouTube is launching auto-captioning technology.
• Human Rights page - Canada ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on March 11, 2010.  Find out why this is such a big deal.

• CWDO became recognized as Ontario's representative on the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) in June, 2009.  We're honoured and proud to represent our members at this national table.

Citizens With Disabilities – Ontario held an Arts Contest this past winter to invite our members to tell us, in graphics, poems and/or prose, what “Accessibility Means…” to them.

We were looking for that Wow! factor: a glimpse of what our world would be like if it was completely accessible for persons with disabilities. We were blown away by some of the submissions. Our thanks goes to everyone who prepared an entry for the contest.  They were all
very memorable!

1st Prize went to Alicia D’Souza for her artwork and poem, “The Hand That Holds Mine.”
2nd Prize went to Wenyi Li for her poster, “Embrace.”

Honourable Mentions went to (in alphabetical order):

• Michelle Asgarali for her poem, “My Way of Life.”
• Sandra Carpenter for her poem, "Cripple.”
• Neil Mercer for his pair of posters, “When Minds Change, then Perhaps We Will See…”
• John Rae for his prose, “True Accessibility”
• Brooke Wayne for her image and prose, “Kaleidoscope.”

Congratulations to the winners!  Click here to see the winning Arts Contest Entries.