The AODA and the Lack of Enforcement

In, "Ontario must enforce equality rules for disabled: Editorial" the article states that the government is not enforcing the AODA law. In that article is a point that states they (the government) can only work within the framework of the law. I don't buy this feeble excuse. Here's why.

Just recently the government restructured the funding for people on a low or fixed income to get Physiotherapy. New constraints were added so funding for people who can't pay for it, has been cut off in some areas.

Next, funding to pain clinics, who primarily treat pain caused by spinal cord injury and advanced diabetes is under threat.

On top if that, pharmacological treatments for pain is under attack.

Policies were set to minimize back or neck surgery when one has an impinged nerve, so these pain clinics and the Physio (traction) were the remaining reasonable recourse.

When the use of pain medication was demonized years ago, the government acted VERY quickly and shut the clinics down. They also revoked the licenses of the doctors who ran them. One example is what happened to Dr. Frank Adams from Kingston.

He lost his license and the patients were left without needed treatment, pain management, or care. The Customer Service law and the Medicine Act are supposed to protect the patient, but they don't.

With the LHIN's health care dollars can be distributed differently in each Region. Kingston has chosen not to provide much funding to physiotherapy for adults who can't pay. The funding mostly goes to seniors.

Customer service and enforcing the AODA should help, but as you found out, the oversight is gone.

Other examples include, when decisions were made to no longer fund subsidized housing, wheelchair accessible apartments became in very short in supply. The accessible units are now all earmarked for seniors. Affordable apartments are rare. If they exist, they go to those with mental health issues or seniors.

My apartment is not accessible. I used to be able to still manage but, without needed Physiotherapy, treatment of the herniated discs in my neck, less home care service, and no enforcement, I now have to eat in fast-food restaurants or eat frozen dinners. Meals on Wheels is ONLY available for shut-ins which I most definitely am not.

To date my apartment still has no accessible stove, oven, or laundry machines. The apartment is, however, declared to officially be accessible. Counters are lower, wall plugs are higher, and a space exists under the sink. Grab bars exist, but that's it. A cooking range can't be lowered. Counter top stoves must be added instead. An oven needs a side-opening oven door. Front loading washing machines can't be built up in platforms. Well, they can, but only if the buttons are moved to a place that can be reached from a wheelchair.

What I'm saying is, if the government wants to act, they can. They just did this by swiftly cutting down funding for physiotherapy, spinal and neck surgery, physiotherapy, pain clinics, and home care services.

That's why I don't buy their argument that they can only work within the framework of the law.

By cutting down these needed supports for people with disabilities, the government has trapped us in a way that is almost akin to torture. I'm on ODSP only because too many barriers still exist and I can't get into most of the places I would qualify to work in. It's very hard to accept that, because funding is now being directed toward seniors that I must become more disabled because I can no longer get the needed physiotherapy for my neck. The only choice left, as far as I can see, is surgery. How costly is that?

They have also violated our human right to access health care and to receive the much needed disability related supports.

It's time all people with disabilities, and those who love them, speak out and demand that the AODA be strengthened and enforced.

Please read my other Blogs.
Transportation: http://wheelchairdemon-transit.blogspot.com
Health Care: http://wheelchairdemon-health.blogspot.com

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