Latest / Podcasts By Donna Jodhan / Remarkable World Commentary Episode #4: The Accessible Canada Act Enacted Is Remembered

Transcript

Remarkable World Commentary Episode #4: The Accessible Canada Act Enacted Is Remembered · Podcasts By Donna Jodhan

• 0:00
  [Music]
• 0:13
  Greetings. Donna J. Jand, LLB, ACSP, and MBA invites you to listen to her bi-weekly podcast, Remarkable World.
• 0:19
  Here, Donna shares some of her innermost thoughts, insights, perspectives, and more with her listeners.
• 0:23
  Donna focuses on topics that directly affect the future of kids, especially kids with disabilities. Donna is a blind advocate, author, sight loss coach, dinner mystery producer, writer, entrepreneur, law graduate, and podcast commentator.
• 0:34
  She has decades of lived experiences, knowledge, skills, and expertise in access technology and information. As someone who has been internationally recognized for her work and roles, she just wants to make things better than possible.
• 0:49
  Hello there, it's Donna J. Jand, advocate, author, blogger, sight loss coach, denim mystery writer and producer, entrepreneur, law graduate, and podcast commentator.
• 1:07
  I want to share with you another very memorable day in my life, a day that I will never, ever forget. Despite having been out of the country when this took place, I followed it on social media. Thanks to my good friends Anthony Tibs and Albert Ruel, I knew exactly what was going on on that day.
• 1:31
  It was July 19, 2019, and it was the day that the Accessible Canada Act was born. But you know, someone may be asking, "Well, why is this so important to me?" It is extremely important to me because I was the one who led the charge to kickstart a campaign to convince the Canadian government to enact an Accessible Canada Act. Until then, Canada had not had any sort of act like this in place, and it was an embarrassment to us, to our community.
• 2:03
  As part of the developed world, Canada had failed to enact an Accessible Canada Act. But 25 years after the United States had brought in its ADA, and the UK had done a similar thing, and Europe had done its thing, Canada finally did it. You know, it was a campaign I would never, ever forget. We started in 2015, and thanks to the sheer strength and energy of David Lovsky, I was able to lead this campaign of 25 organizations coast to coast, where we fought like dogs and worked really hard to develop this campaign. We got the city of Toronto to issue a press release and the mayor of Halifax, Nova Scotia to do the same.
• 2:44
  It was not an easy task, but from 2015 to 2019, we fought and fought and fought. Everyone came together and everyone did their part. I was just a cog in the wheel, I was just there to lead this team.
• 3:00
  But on that particular day, July 19, 2019, I sat at my workstation far, far away in the Caribbean, watching and listening as the Act was born. And I know that many persons with disabilities, many Canadians with disabilities, were in the gap to listen as the Governor General of Canada, Julie Payette, introduced the Accessible Canada Act.
• 3:34
  What a day. I am not ashamed to tell you that the tears came streaming down my face because finally, we had done it. And then I looked across at my mom and said, "Mom, it's done." She knew exactly what I was talking about, and she did her little dance around our kitchen. This needs to be more than just an act, more than what it is, more than the Canadian government simply saying that you are mandated to do certain things under the new Accessible Canada Act. It has to be a buy-in from all federally regulated departments, regulated companies, regulated entities. It has to be teamwork. It cannot just be an act where one is penalized if one does not adhere to these regulations, regulations to make their processes and systems accessible.
• 4:25
  It has to be a convincing of stakeholders that it must be done. It has to be done because it's needed to protect the rights of Canadians with disabilities. It needs to protect the rights of a rapidly aging population, not just for Canadians with disabilities but seniors as well. Don't just do it because it is legislation; do it because it is the right thing to do. It is not a duty to accommodate; it benefits everyone, friends and family and associates of those with a disability, of a rapidly aging population.
• 4:55
  Let us keep this in mind. But we need more serious penalties to be enacted. And as David Lovsky keeps saying, these penalties need to be meaningful, not just a company or an entity saying, "Well, I'll just pay the penalty and be done with it." It has to be a penalty that really, really affects them. Okay, so it's not too late. 25 years later, Canada has done the right thing, and it's better late than never. It's not really an excuse, but it is as it is. I'm Donna J. Jand, wishing you a terrific day.
• 5:37
  [Music]
• 5:39
  Donna wants to hear from you and invites you to write to her at DonnaJand@gmail.com. Until next time.