David Lepofsky - Person A (Christina Tang) David Lepofsky is a blind Canadian lawyer and the chairman of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance, who have suffered from vision loss. Blind for much of his life, Lepofsky understands the hardships that people with disabilities are forced to go through daily in society. As a lawyer and chairman of the alliance, his goal is to advocate for new laws to help disables overcome the barriers faced upon society such as unequal access to services, discrimination, and emotional stress. Lepofsky led a campaign in 1994 to win the enactment of the AODA. One of the legislations he had won for disabled citizens was to have the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) announce all transit’s next stop as it approached it through an automated …show more content…
This employee was required to undergo numerous surgical procedures, take medication, and suffered from mixed personality disorders. This caused her to miss 960 days of work between January 1994 to July 2001 when she was employed at Hydro-Quebec. Because of her disabilities and conditions, her employer was obligated to adjust her working conditions and provide her with light tasks but she was eventually dismissed from her job in July 2001, due to being absent since February of that year. During those months, her medical doctor recommended that she stop working for an indefinite period, which allowed her employer to dismiss her on the grounds that she unable to work on a regular basis and that no improvements of her attendance was possible. The grievor filed a complaint to the Quebec Court of Appeal as she alleged that her dismissal was unjustifiable, but her case was dismissed as the Court ruled that an employer can terminate an employee if their contract was violated. The employee appealed her case at The Supreme Court of
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is not the best method of transportation in the city of Toronto, because it’s unreliable, inconvenient, and unsanitary. First of all, the TTC is unreliable because of many delays. The TTC buses often come late and there are many subway breakdowns and signal problems. These problems can cause longer wait times and result in the rider being late. Additionally, the TTC is inconvenient because it is difficult for the rider to get to his or her destination without a few transfers. In addition, there are very few direct routes and limited area coverage. For example, there are some areas where passengers have to walk long distances just to get to the bus stop. These problems can result in many transfers and cause
Disability is a ‘complex issue’ (Alperstein, M., Atkins, S., Bately, K., Coetzee, D., Duncan, M., Ferguson, G., Geiger, M. Hewett, G., et al.., 2009: 239) which affects a large percentage of the world’s population. Due to it being complex, one can say that disability depends on one’s perspective (Alperstein et al., 2009: 239). In this essay, I will draw on Dylan Alcott’s disability and use his story to further explain the four models of disability being The Traditional Model, The Medical Model, The Social Model and The Integrated Model of Disability. Through this, I will reflect on my thoughts and feelings in response to Dylan’s story as well as to draw on this task and my new found knowledge of disability in aiding me to become
She was the company’s payroll and benefits coordinator. She had difficulty working with Spar and noted in the lawsuit that she frequently had irrational outbursts; particularly when she felt something made her look bad on the job. While on the job, Ayon discovered that an employee who was a friend of Spars misused the company credit card and was possibly stealing from the ranch. Ayon also saw evidence that Spars misused the company funds at times. According to the lawsuit, when she brought her concerns regarding the misuse of company funds/theft from the company to Spars, her concerns were dismissed and Spars was angry with her for bringing it up at all. This situation was followed by a sudden change in behavior on the part of the HR director who suddenly began yelling at Ayon and ridiculing her in front of her co-workers. Soon afterwards, Spars told Ayon to go the company’s workers’ compensation doctor for hives, nightmares, headaches, etc., but he advised her that the stress was not work related (Jan. 2015). But while he deemed the stress not “work related,” he also did not release her to return to work due to “extreme stress.” Ayon returned to work in the summer of 2015 at which point she was given back her job duties plus additional duties. She was also asked to complete payroll entry in one day rather than the week she was formerly allowed for the process. As the company continued to require Ayon to finish all her normal job duties plus the additional job duties they added as soon as she arrived back on the job, she became extremely stressed once
He has helped me come to realize that my excuses are invalid. Weihenmayer was blind. One of the most important senses was missing from his life and he never let it slow him down. He wasn't about to settle for some simple, safe life. Proving to the world that blindness doesn’t determine your life, Erik has motivated many disabled people throughout the world to accept what their life has given them and learn to do the things that they would without their disability. This story provides inspiration for different people in all kind of ways.
This trend is evident in many aspects of society, including the recent advancements in the treatment, perceptions and rights of those with disabilities. If you look back a mere one hundred years to the beginning of the 20th century we find evidence of how people with disabilities were treated as inferior and institutionalised for most if not all of their usually short lives. This was especially the case for those who suffered from a congenital disability such as cerebral palsy or Down syndrome.
More than a century ago, being diagnosed or being born with visual impairment meant one was condemned to a life of disability, confinement and a feeling of being alone. The visually impaired people have had minimal chances of living an ordinary life and achieving their goals over the past few decades. The visually impaired people face many challenges in their attempts to receive the much-needed education or to even get employment in order to survive in this world. In the last one hundred years, numerous changes have been implemented to improve the way the visually impaired community live their lives and to also increase the number of opportunities made available to them. These changes include new legislations, change in perception of the visually
‘“Now it’s my turn to make it better for generations that come after, which is why I’ve become, involved in disabilities issues”’ (Open University, 2016a).
According to NIB study,which analyzed potential reasons why walloping 70 percents of blind people are not employed, they found that “hiring managers, most respondents (54 percent) felt there were few jobs at their company that blind employees could perform,...Forty-two percent of hiring managers believe blind employees need someone to assist them on the job;.. 34 percent said blind workers are more likely to have work-related accidents.’ These statistics shows us the the condition of being blind is associated with being incapable, clumsy, and unproductive in the workforce. Sontag teaches us when when we give meaning to a disease like blindness, we constructed it in a way that is punishing to those afflicted with the disease. The reality is blind people are capable individual who can carry out the job as well as a normal person in the workforce. This reality is often hidden from managers by negative stereotypes of the condition of being
In July 2015 a Winston-Salem North Carolina health care company was ordered to pay an employee $48,000 to settle an EEOC pregnancy discrimination lawsuit. According to the EEOCs complaint the company interviewed the former employee and hired her in May 2013. In early June 2013 the employee submitted a request for approximately 4 weeks of maternity leave that was to begin in August 2013. After the request was approved and preparations were being made to cover her, the employer fired her in late June 2013 after the companies owner was notified of her request. It was concluded by the EEOC that the employee was fired due to her pregnancy and leave
The World Health Organisation, WHO, (1980) defines disability in the medical model as a physical or mental impairment that restricts participation in an activity that a ‘normal’ human being would partake, due to a lack of ability to perform the task . Michigan Disability Rights Coalition (n.d.) states that the medical model emphasizes that there is a problem regarding the abilities of the individual. They argue that the condition of the disabled persons is solely ‘medical’ and as a result the focus is to cure and provide treatment to disabled people (Michigan Disability Rights Coalition, 2014). In the medical model, issues of disability are dealt with according to defined government structures and policies and are seen as a separate issue from ordinary communal concerns (Emmet, 2005: 69). According to Enabling Teachers and Trainers to Improve the Accessibility of Adult Education (2008) people with disabilities largely disa...
Keller’s abilities had attracted a great attention from many people around the world. However, the most important reason that contributed to Keller’s international reputation was at all the works she had done for the society. Before anyone had ever heard of Helen Keller, people that were blind, deaf or handicapped were treated very harshly. They were sometimes an embarrassment to their families, and were often sent off to be cared for away from the rest of the family. No one ever cared if they could learn and be productive people. However, thanked to the example of Helen Keller and her victory over deafness and blindness, everyone realized that everyone has something positive to contribute to the world around them—if they are given the chance. In addition, Through Keller’s fundraising efforts for deaf and blind people, AFB continues to assist blind people in the areas of technology, education, independent living, literacy, and employment, which was a big advancement for those who misfortuned. Overall, if Keller had hadn’t challenge, she would haven’t well known, and therefore deaf and blind people would haven’t had chances to improve their
Transit problems in Canada are not localized to one region or one city. Rather, in recent times such problems have produced calls for politicians to begin to redress some of the issues that have become liabilities for the economic well-being and health of those affected (Agrell, Perreaux, Stueck, & Wingrove, 2011). For example, the Toronto Board of Trade has noted that Canadian municipalities have fallen well behind on transit issues when compared with other cities, and this has created a need for transit experts to explore alternative answers (Agrell, Perreaux, Stueck, & Wingrove, 2011). This situation is perhaps more dire than one might expect in his or her daily commute because there
While these three authors have different reasons to write their essays, be it media unfairness, ignorance, or ethical disputes, they all share a basic principle: The disabled are not viewed by the public as “normal people,” and they are unfairly cast away from the public eye. The disabled have the same capacity to love, desire and hurt as any other human being, and deserve all of the rights and privileges that we can offer them. They should be able to enter the same buildings, have representation in the media, and certainly be allowed the right to live.
Blindness can be so much more than the state of being unable to see (Dictionary.com). Both the 2008 movie Blindness, directed by Fernando Meirelles and based on a novel by José Saramago, and the short story The Country of the Blind written by H. G. Wells in 1904, put blindness at the center of the plot. What can blindness mean in our society? And what can blindness mean regarding my future profession in design? In the movie Blindness, to be blind leads to losing all that’s civilized; in H. G. Wells’ The Country of the Blind, blindness can be interpreted as a symbol for ignorance; finally, in graphic design, blindness could be to only focus on the aesthetic part of designing and forgetting the practical aspect of the design.
Sometimes I wonder how it feels not to know what the world looks like, or how green the grass might be, or even getting the full experience of tasting the foods in the world that bring such comfort to one 's heart. But it is sad to say that this happens to be a blind person’s interpretation on life every day. But with the new technology coming out every day, the blind will no longer have to feel excluded from the world. Dr. Dennis Hong, the founder and director of RoMela, came up with the thought of,” What if a blind person could physically drive an everyday vehicle?” When I saw this TED talk it automatically touched my soul to the point that I knew I had to research more. To make the blind be able to drive a real life car a reality, it is