Disability Groups Come together to Improve the Lives of People with Disabilities

The Disability Matters: Vote 2016 campaign has started a movement towards making disability issues a priority in Manitoba. This joint initiative, between Abilities Manitoba and Barrier Free Manitoba, is designed to raise awareness and educate audiences on how to support Manitobans with disabilities in making informed voting decisions during election periods.

The Disability Matters campaign has placed a prominent spotlight on five key areas for Manitobans to consider and work towards:

A Fully Accessible Manitoba - supporting all Manitobans right to participate in all aspects of public life, including work, studies, shopping and recreation.

Fair Wages - currently, disability support workers are among the lowest paid human service workers in Manitoba, earning a starting wage of $12.06/hour. 

Timely Access - Manitobans with disabilities are forced to wait for services - which can take months to years to come through - that can significantly improve their quality of life.

Unleashing Employment Potential - there are over 35,000 Manitobans with disabilities, between ages 15 to 64, that are either unemployed or not actively seeing paid employment.

Dignified Income - Manitobans with prolonged or permanent disabilities cannot work full-time; therefore, they're dependent on the Manitoba Government's Employment and Income Assistance program to meet basic needs. Alternative income programs to serve individuals with disabilities have already been launched in Saskatchewan and Alberta - Manitoba should follow suit and implement an alternative income program, too.

International Day of Persons with Disabilities

The Disability Matters campaign, Human Rights and the efforts of many disability groups in Manitoba were recognized and celebrated on Saturday, December 3, at the Canadian Human Rights Museum. Enabling Access Inc. was a proud sponsor at the event, where Manitobans came together to share stories, contribute to a collective mural, and listen to live music. 

This event brought people together, from all walks of life, to build a community that advocates for change. To help make our community stronger and our initiative for change more powerful, visit www.disabilitymatters2016.ca  to discover all the different ways you can help.