This e-magazine, though an academic requirement for a degree programme in Bachelors of Social Work, is also partly inspired by my experience of working with people living with disability (PwD).
Having worked both as a front-line staff and as an administrator in the disability support sector in Canada and the UK, I have continued to be inspired by the courage and brilliance of the many PwD I have come in contact with. But I have also been struck by how much richer our world could be if only we would do more to flip the status quo of oppression that PwD continue to face. And this project is designed to help the Canadian public understand some of the issues around disability and the need for more action.
Working with PwD has opened my eyes to see a lot about the complex world of disability and society's views and interaction with PwD. I have also scoured academic research, policy reports, public surveys and other resources on this topic. This project is a product of all these along with my reflections and application of ideas from the field of Social Work.
I have seen the incredible abilities that PwD have. For instance, I have met a PwD who has a very shrill way of whistling, though they are nonverbal, quadriplegic and blind. Yet, whistling is a skill that I am totally incapable of even after trying to learn it for years. I have seen PwD perform arts at prodigious levels, lead communities and even nations, and work at the cutting edge of science and technology. For PwD, it seems that limit is nothing except the ones that society unfortunately imposes.
If only we would fully appreciate the fact that disability is a category that potentially applies to all of us and that it might just be a freak accident away or just an allergic reaction away or even a decade of aging away, then we would realize that treating PwD fairly is just the same as looking out for ourselves. It is like signing up for an ‘abilities insurance premium’.
I hope you will find some of the insights in this magazine useful. And I hope I can count on you to do your part in flip the status quo that currently work against
PwD. Thank you.
Introduction
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Olajumoke 'Jummy' Asiyanbi