Please note: Appendices containing supplementary information and data in support of the Alberta Disability Strategy are available under separate cover by contacting the Premier’s Council office.

Equality for all citizens, regardless of their race, creed, background or abilities, is a fundamental right in Albertan and Canadian society. But equality doesn’t exist for the half a million people in Alberta who have a disability.

Persons with disabilities are not free from intolerance and discrimination. They do not have adequate personal or financial supports to live a life of dignity. They cannot go everywhere in the province and have ready access to buildings, offices or public facilities. They are not treated equally when vying for employment and educational opportunities.

Full citizenship for persons with disabilities is possible. What’s needed is a commitment to turn government policies into practice, to better enforce regulations, to set quality standards for services and programs across the province, and to ensure seamless delivery of those services and programs across regions and organizations. The Alberta Disability Strategy, developed in 2002, is a foundation for how this can be done.

Recommendations

The Premier’s Council believes that, given the proper support and commitment, persons with disabilities will be able to participate in all aspects of Alberta society. The Alberta Disability Strategy contains recommended strategies for change that will enable this vision to become a reality. Major recommendations for immediate implementation are:

1. Albertans should be made more aware of the rights, needs and aspirations of persons with disabilities.
2. The Government of Alberta must ensure that the needs of persons with disabilities related to daily living activities are met.
3. A commitment should be made to embrace the principles of universal accessibility and a process put in place to remove physical barriers from public spaces so that all Albertans can fully participate in all community, employment and business activities.
4. The Government of Alberta’s current system of appeals should be governed by the rules of administrative law (quasi-judicial), and become more transparent and respectful of individual need.
5. The Government of Alberta should create a single, province-wide program that integrates current disability support programs and funding under one philosophy and set of criteria. This Community Support model would provide individualized support, enabling persons with disabilities to have choice in the marketplace and independently make decisions about their needs and service providers.
6. The Government of Alberta should improve access to all levels of education by linking and integrating education resources, setting standards for special education programs, ensuring all education facilities are physically accessible, reviewing the enrolment appeal process at schools, expanding counselling support, and monitoring implementation of the recommendations of Alberta Learning’s Review of Special Education in Alberta.
7. The Government of Alberta should separate income support programs from personal support programs so that individuals are not automatically penalized for earning an income and becoming part of the workforce.
8. Alberta employers and governments should provide long-term support and commitment to persons with disabilities attempting to enter the workforce and to participate on public boards, commissions or committees.

Implementation

Creating an environment within which all Albertans can enjoy full citizenship requires significant personal, learning, financial and employment supports. Full citizenship cannot be achieved without these core supports because they provide the tangible elements needed for persons with disabilities to become independent, make choices, and access opportunities that evens the playing field and enables individuals to contribute to society.

To begin the process of achieving full citizenship for all Albertans, the Premier’s Council recommends government develop an action plan to implement this Strategy and its recommendations. In addition, government should actively encourage various stakeholders to support the Strategy.

Accountability

The Premier’s Council has developed an Accountability Framework to help ensure personal, learning, financial and employment supports are well coordinated and responsive to the needs of Albertans. The framework includes a Disability Lens that would better ensure inclusion of the interests of persons with disabilities in the development of government services, programs, legislation and policies.

Acceptance of Strategy

It is recommended that the Alberta Government accept the Alberta Disability Strategy, develop an implementation plan, and establish the Strategy as the foundation for future legislation, government policy and direction concerning persons with disabilities.

Alberta Disability Strategy

Citizenship gives every person the right to be included and actively involved in all aspects of Canadian society. Many Albertans with a disability still do not enjoy full citizenship. A commitment in recent years by the Alberta government to ensure equal opportunities for all Albertans has not significantly changed this reality.

The Alberta Disability Strategy, developed in 2002, provides a foundation for attaining full citizenship for the one in six Albertans (about 500,000) who have a disability. Full citizenship means being treated fairly and without discrimination by individuals, companies, organizations and governments. It means having adequate supports to live a life of safety, security and dignity. It means having the chance to pursue educational and employment opportunities. And it means having the opportunity, choice and ability to participate in all aspects of Alberta society.

Currently, 11 provincial government Ministries administer 34 disability related programs for persons with disabilities at a cost of about $1.7 billion per year. These programs, and funding to support them, are channelled through a myriad of government departments and agencies, and governance organizations. This fragmentation of delivery means inconsistency in policy and program development, wide variations in services and supports, unnecessary bureaucracy and expense, and lack of coordination across programs, regions and organizations.

The result is that Albertans with disabilities continue to experience large inequities and fragmentation in service and support. They encounter inaccessible work and learning environments and have difficulty finding affordable, suitable housing. Adaptive technology and assistive devices required by persons with disabilities to be active are available but difficult to obtain and for many, impossible to afford. Access and inequity issues are much worse for Aboriginal people, as they have nearly double the disability rate of other Albertans.

The overarching change being recommended within this Strategy is for government and other service providers to take a more inclusive, holistic approach to disability issues, needs and services. This requires ensuring that all Albertans have the opportunity to exercise their right to make decisions about their own lives, to provide them with choice, and to enable them to live as independently as possible in the community. It also requires a commitment to provide the on-going support persons with disabilities may need in order to reach their full potential. Fundamental to this on-going support is satisfying basic living, safety and security needs that allow individuals to be healthy, secure, mobile, active and involved in their communicates.

The pressing need for a more coordinated approach by government for disability supports and policy in Alberta was affirmed during the Premier’s Council’s discussions with stakeholders in 2000.

Development of the Alberta Disability Strategy involved a series of open houses and focused discussions with individuals with disabilities, stakeholder led organizations such as the Alberta Disabilities Forum, a number of government departments, and Council subcommittees. The subcommittees studied and provided recommendations on each core support. An Aboriginal Advisory Committee was also formed to study and provide input on disability issues affecting First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples.

Of concern to Council in drafting this Strategy was the lack of up-to-date data on persons with disabilities. There is a significant planning need in Alberta for more research on the needs and activities of persons with disabilities. The last full study on health, activity and involvement levels, called the Health and Activity Limitation Survey, was done in 1991 by the federal government. This national survey has been repeated and updated data is expected in 2003.