But too many of these technologies come with high prices that form even more barriers.įortunately, my voice software costs only around $100. Voice-recognition software then magically-or so it seems to me-causes my words to pop up on the screen, more often than not spelled correctly, pleasing the editor in me to no end. I authored this column by talking into a microphone plugged into my laptop. Since then, “liberation technologies”-software, equipment, vehicles-have made it theoretically easier for disabled people to find work. (This was back in my limp-lurching period, when I needed the chair only for specific situations, before an abrupt deterioration in the state of my spinal cord brought increased limitation.) I would use it to call the receptionist, who would dispatch someone to haul the wheelchair out of my trunk.

In the late 1980s, the editor at Toronto Life arranged to install an early cellphone in my car.

I have been fortunate to find relatively well-paid work (for a journalist), and I have had (mostly) mindful bosses who understand my needs. In its most recent survey, the federal government found that there are 2.3 million Canadians between the ages of fifteen and sixty-four with disabilities, yet the overall labour-force participation rate for this group is in the woeful range of 50 percent, and sinks even lower for people with severe disabilities-an incredible waste of human potential. Among the causes of such barriers are fear, ignorance, lack of money, hollow political promises, and failures of imagination. Still, there are barriers I haven’t yet figured out how to get around, but they are minor compared to the ones that prevent far too many Canadians with disabilities (physical, intellectual, or otherwise) from more fully participating in society. I am supposedly the brains of the operation, a role that is at the core of the philosophy of independent living-I make the decisions about what I need to do and accomplish on any given day. PSWs are one way of getting me around barriers: I need them to brush my teeth and hair, feed and wash me, help me with the bathroom, and complete all sorts of chores.

Parkour wheelchair game