This Chapter will examine how persons with disabilities encounter the law, based on the processes and approaches identified in the previous chapter. As a first step, the meaning of the term “law” as it is applied in this project will be outlined. The foundational documents for the law and persons with disabilities will then be briefly identified and described. The context in which persons with disabilities encounter the law will be briefly considered. Finally, the Chapter will examine key themes in the law as it affects persons with disabilities, which must be taken into account in identifying, defining and interpreting principles for this area of the law.
A. “The Law as It Affects Persons with Disabilities” – What Do We Mean?
In understanding the relationship of persons with disabilities with the law, it is essential to first understand that every law of general application that affects the population at large will also affect persons with disabilities. Laws relating to consumer protection, family formation and dissolution, zoning, voting rights, rental housing, protection of privacy and access to information, labour relations – all of these and many others are part of the law as it affects persons with disabilities. Some of these laws of general application may affect persons with disabilities or some group(s) of persons with disabilities differently from others. In some cases, this may be because the law does not take into account the particular needs of persons with disabilities. For example, if laws relating to voting and elections do not take into account accessibility barriers, persons with disabilities may find it more difficult to exercise their democratic rights than others. Because persons with disabilities may be invisible in the development of laws of general application, they may in this way be inadvertently disadvantaged through the law.
There are also a very large number of laws that are specifically targeted to persons with disabilities or some group of persons with disabilities. These laws aim to recognize particular circumstances connected to the experience of disability, and to address them. A review by the LCO early in this project identified over 150 Ontario laws and regulations specifically referencing persons with disabilities in general, or some particular group of persons with disabilities. The LCO’s June 2009 Preliminary Consultation Paper provides an overview of these targeted laws.[42] They range over a broad spectrum of social areas, from income support, to education, to assistive devices to decision-making. Some have disability-related needs as a core focus, while others are directed to the population at large but provide specific supports or accommodations to persons with disabilities. Some provide supports or enhance opportunities, while others restrict roles or opportunities based on specific capacities or abilities. Many of these laws have very profound effects on the opportunities and well-being of persons with disabilities, the provisions for special education under the Education Act and of the Ontario Disability Support Program Act providing two obvious examples. A number of these laws are implemented through very complex policies and practices and large bureaucracies.
In understanding the law and persons with disabilities, the central analysis often, understandably, focuses on a careful review of the wording of the statute and regulation. From the beginning of this project, however, the LCO heard that while there were concerns with the provisions of particular laws, it was also important to pay attention to the ways in which laws are implemented. Laws may be neutral or even positive on their face, but may in practice have negative effects on persons with disabilities, as a result of problematic implementation. This was one of the key motivations behind the LCO’s expansive spring 2010 community consultations: without hearing from those directly affected by the law or directly involved in its implementation, it would not have been possible to truly understand the operations and effects of the law as it affects persons with disabilities.
Connected with this are concerns related to the ability of persons with disabilities to access their rights and responsibilities under the law. One aspect of the gap between aspiration and implementation of laws is access to justice for persons with disabilities. Unless the law is actually implemented and enforced, and is a living reality, it has little meaning for those whom it is intended to benefit. One element of access to the law is access to the legal system, which includes the ability to acquire information about one’s legal rights and responsibilities, to obtain competent legal advice and representation as required, and to access existing legal dispute resolution mechanisms. However, access to the law can be ensured in many other ways: for example, through advocacy organizations such as ombuds offices, administrative complaint mechanisms, or proactive monitoring and auditing structures.
This project therefore includes, as part of the law as it affects persons with disabilities, both laws of general application and those specifically targeted to persons with disabilities. It includes law both as written on the page and as implemented in policy and practice, and considerations related to the ability of persons with disabilities to access rights or responsibilities under the law.
Given the LCO’s mandate as a provincial organization, the focus of this project has been on Ontario laws. However, the LCO has considered federal laws insofar as they interact with provincial laws, and has of course taken into account the key relevant international documents. Because of the conceptual level of this project, there is a potential for the
Framework to have applicability or influence beyond the borders of Ontario.
The following Case Example provides an illustration of how an examination of the law as it affects persons with disabilities must include not only the provisions of the statute and the regulations, but also the lived experience of the implementation of the law, in order to fully understand the effect of the law on persons with disabilities, and thereby the degree to which it advances substantive equality for this group.
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CASE EXAMPLE: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE LAW
Ontario Disability Support Program Processes
The Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), as governed by the Ontario Disability Support Program Act, its regulations, and extensive policy guidelines, provides essential income supports to persons with disabilities, who are often excluded from or marginalized in the labour force due to a range of barriers, including negative attitudes and stereotypes, a lack of accessibility and accommodations, the cumulative effect of barriers in education, and others. The supports provided through ODSP are essential to the fundamental security of many persons with disabilities and to their ability to live in basic dignity, and the Act recognizes the shared responsibility of government, families, communities and individuals to provide these supports.[43]
However, the program, in addressing diverse goals, includes multiple procedural requirements, which can reduce its ability to meet its purpose of providing a program that “effectively serves persons with disabilitie