Women And Accessibility

Posts Tagged ‘women and accessibility’

Celebrating National AccessAbility Week

Posted on: May 16th, 2024 by Nellie's No Comments

Every year, starting on the last Sunday in May, Canadians celebrate National AccessAbility Week (NAAW) — an opportunity to recognize Canadians with disabilities, while also raising awareness of the need for greater accessibility and inclusion in our communities. This year, Nellie’s is marking the occasion with a powerful art exhibit featuring the inspiring works of our Women on the Move clients.

Designed to address the gap in services for women with physical disabilities who have experienced abuse, our Women on the Move program relaunched in November 2023 with a new cohort of 25 women enrolled in the program, with a consistent 10 participants. The twice-monthly program provides an opportunity for women to come together and chat in a safe space with their peers. Co-led and developed by Lucy DaCosta, a long-time facilitator in the disability advocacy space, the program features educational workshops, special activities like healing art projects, and social outings to attractions such as the Art Gallery of Ontario.

While we’re only about six months into our revived program, the response has been overwhelming — we already have another 25 women anxiously waiting to join in. Our goal is to provide care to as many women who need this counselling, and then become a leading advocate in the disability sector by training staff in other shelters throughout the GTA as well. Women with disabilities are up to 10 times more likely to be victimized than able-bodied women, and the gap in services for these women is immense. We’re proud to be helping lead the change.

Throughout their sessions, Lucy encourages participants to acknowledge their strengths and celebrate their successes which don’t get recognized or validated living in an ableist society. One of the ways she accomplishes this is through expressive art projects, such as those being displayed at the Women on the Move Art Exhibition. “[Art projects] are very validating, and connect with you at a much deeper level than simple words ever could,” explains Lucy.

For this exhibit, the goal of the participants was to express their feelings, lived experience, and hope for change through art — while also bringing this conversation to a public space where people can learn about the experiences of those with disabilities.

Please join us at Metro Hall (55 John St. in Toronto) on May 28, 2024 from 1-6pm to view these inspiring projects — there will also be a special presentation and reception at 5pm. Attendant services will be provided. To RSVP, please email Lucy.

Introducing Nellie’s Social Justice Series

Posted on: January 26th, 2012 by Nellie's No Comments

Nellie’s mission reflects our vision for social change through education and advocacy, to achieve social justice for all women and children. This year we’re very excited to launch a new blog series that will focus on this work through the action and accomplishments of Nellie’s Social Justice Committee.

The Social Justice Committee is comprised of staff and community volunteers who bring a wealth of knowledge and experience in areas such as feminism, anti-oppression training, counselling, education, advocacy, business, law, program management, and journalism. Members meet every month to: discuss relevant issues; conduct research; develop Nellie’s position papers; plan and attend social justice community events and action; work with various community partners to build coalitions; engage in public policy consultations; and raise awareness on racism, classism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, colonialism, and sexism and how these issues impact women and children.

In 2011, some key committee accomplishments of the committee included:

– Attendance at Community Events including Take Back the Night, International Women’s Day March and Fair, Dyke March, and Toronto Pride Week

–Community Election Forum and Poverty Reduction Forum for women at the shelter and in the community

– Presentation of Nellie’s Women and Mental Health Position Paper at the Psych Out Conference in New York

-Research and writing of Nellie’s Women & Accessibility Paper that is scheduled to be released in April 2012

All the work done by the committee is rooted in the community and informed by the experiences of the women and children we work with. The events we participate in and plan seek to engage and empower residents and clients of Nellie’s to use their voice to speak out and participate in change, all while moving towards our goal of economic and political equality for all women and children.

This year Nellie’s Social Justice Committee will be providing a formal blog update once a month on Thursdays. Our first blog series will be out in February for Black History Month.

Stay tuned! If you want to make sure you don’t miss any of our posts, you can subscribe to our blog by clicking the link on the right.

International Day of Persons with DisAbilities

Posted on: December 3rd, 2011 by Nellie's No Comments

December 3 is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. This day aims to promote an understanding of disAbility issues and mobilize support for the rights and well-being of persons with disAbilities. It also seeks to increase awareness of the oppression and barriers that people with disabilities face each and every day.

Here are some facts about women with disAbilities in Canada that highlight WHY this is such an important issue:

16% of all women have a disAbility
DisAbled girls are twice as likely to be sexually assaulted.
The unemployment rate for Women with disAbilities is 74% and the most inescapable reality for Women with disAbilities is poverty. The median employment income for a disabled woman is $8,360 (Canadian). The median employment income for a disabled man is $19,250. (Health and Activity Limitation Survey, Statistics Canada.)

The 2011 theme for this day is “Together for a better world for all: Including persons with disabilities in development.” We believe everyone has a role to play in advocating for the rights of people with disAbilites, including Nellie’s. For the past year, Women and Accessibility has been our theme for service improvement. Some of the steps we’ve taken to improve accessibility at our organization include:

1) Completed extensive training on Inclusion and Access: What Does This Mean for Nellie’s with Springtide Resources. We learned how the AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act) and Customer Service Standards apply to our work at Nellie’s and we discussed practical strategies for making space and programs more accessible for women with disAbilities and deaf women.

2) Wrote a position paper on Women and Accessibility, which provides a framework for staff when working with women with disAbilities and deaf women. It will also provide context and understanding of the social barriers that oppress women with disAbilities. It is our hope that the position paper will be used as a resource for other organizations working with women with disAbilities. It will be available on our website in 2012 – stay tuned!

3) Facilitated our Women & Accessibility Group for women with disAbilities who have experienced violence. Held in partnership with Springtide Resources at our accessibile Community Support & Outreach Office, women met once a week for 8 weeks this summer to discuss issues of violence and oppression and to develop strategies to eliminate barriers to the full inclusion of women with disAbilities in society. Participants in this group enjoyed peer support and an opportunity to network and we are excited to run this group again in 2012.

(Our Women & Accessibility Group enjoying an outing to the movies)

Today marks the International Day of Persons with DisAbilities. Please reflect on the facts and commit to our role in supporting accessibility. For more information, including statistics, visit the DisAbled Women’s Network (DAWN).