It is easy to get discouraged about the state of disability support and the state of our own lives as we try and figure out our places within the world. We find ourselves easily overwhelmed, and it sometimes frustrated by the speed of change. The speed becomes our focus not the quality of the process that drives the change. If things happen too quickly we often say, that there was not enough study, there needed to be consideration of other issues and angles end there was not enough consultation. However, if the opposite is true and things happen to slowly we say there has been too much consultation, the time for study is over and it is time for the actions to begin. When I consider this within the context of disability policy in Canada I have to say, I'm not sure where I stand and my responses to whether we're moving too fast or too slow might change hourly depending on my experiences any given day.
As a social worker people always tend to think that my professional goal is to solve the world's problems. While social workers do comment on the social nature of society. I'm always greeted with shock when I tell people that I'm not going to solve their problems, I'm going to help them sort through the issues so they can have the strength and find resources to solve their own problems. So here is the challenge, why can't we solve policy problems in the same way individual problems are solved? Sheer will and conviction.
The truth is that movement of the policy and program agenda in disability is not unified and is caught up in a series of short-term gains. That's not to say that there have not been significant strides over the time 30 years since the Obstacles Report came out in 1981, Canada's signing of the UN convention and the Accessibility of Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) (2005) in Ontario.as important as those strides are there are still struggles ahead in the implementation of both those initiatives. Perhaps, the devil is in the details and mustering patience and the courage of our convictions is what makes the waiting, and the wading through the discourse bearable. but beyond that people with disabilities are on some level, inherently optimistic and believe that the wait will be worth it someday.
In 2005, I attended a session on the newly announced AODA, upon hearing about its 20 year implementation period a colleague of mine remarked that he wasn't sure how to feel because being in his mid-50s he remarked that it was unlikely that he would see the full effect of the legislation because by the time it was fully enacted he suspected he would be dead or long past caring. His feeling was echoed by many others.
We can only hope that processes of slow consideration mean strength in implementation because after all this work is a labor of love. And love by definition is patient and kind.
