L’azile

As was recently announced in Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin, the federal government has published partial data from its latest Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS 2006). According to this latest survey, an estimated 4.4 million Canadians, one out of seven people in Canada, reported having a disability in 2006, an increase of over three-quarters of a million people in five years. The article from the bulletin indicates:

Data showed that the number of people who reported a disability increased 21.2% from 3.6 million in 2001, the last time the survey was conducted.

In 2001, 12.4% of the population reported a disability. By 2006, this rate had increased to 14.3%.

Statistical reports are somewhat useful though not terribly interesting in themselves, at least not to me. And besides, as I often say, math makes me nervous. But there are a few things I would like to comment on.

Continue reading… show me the data

I know I have already written about the STM’s crappy service when it comes to Paratransit and I might be tempted to apologise to my handful of readers because really, this is not what I want this blog to be about. But yesterday was an all time record in corporate stupidity and utter lack of consideration for those of us who rely on this service to get around the city.

So, yesterday morning, I wait and wait for the gawd-damn taxi or minibus or whatever it was supposed to be to show up. After a half hour (which is the requisite time I am expected to wait before contacting them to ask “where is the transport?”), I call. After waiting on the line for about 10 minutes, I am told unceremoniously that my reservation has been cancelled. Just. Like. That.

Needless to say that I was quite pissed off. I mean, wtf?! But I did not have time to debate it with the woman on the phone nor to ask the reason for this decision as I was going to be late for a meeting. So I did the only thing I could do and called a taxi and high-tailed it to the office, arriving 10 minutes late for my meeting, pissed off and stressed out. Thankfully, the guy I was meeting with was really nice and understanding, not to mention hilarious, and we had a really fun and productive meeting so at least that was something.

Continue reading… foiled by the STM’s Paratransit service yet again

Today, when I called the STM Paratransit Service to make my reservations for the next three days, I was told unequivocally that I would not get any service tomorrow because Montréal is expecting a “big” snow storm and all transports have been cancelled (except for dialysis patients and long-standing medical appointments).

Indeed, unbeknownst to me (because I am usually pretty oblivious to small talk such as in “some weather we are having, eh?”), it seems that the southwest region of the province is expecting anywhere between 15 to 30 centimetres of snow by tomorrow (although, as of 21h50, I have yet to see my first snowflake). So today, as a preventive measure (for whom, I wonder), Paratransit refused all new reservations and has unceremoniously cancelled everyone, even people who are travelling to go to work or school. Just. Like. That.

Continue reading… white-out

A friend sent me the link to what I must admit are some of the cutest ads (Flash required) I have seen about disability. Produced by Leonard Chesire Disabilty, a voluntary sector organisation in the UK that provides services in support of people with disabilities, these ads are not only visually beautiful but, I am sure, will do wonders to give people a warm fuzzy feeling about disability.

But you know, being me, I can not help but wonder about some things. I mean, all that is really nice when you are in the comfort of your own living room, watching the late evening news, your feet all warm and cozy in your favourite phentex slippers and a nice cup o’tea by your side when an ad flashes briefly across the telly screen. “Ah, look at that, dearie”, you will say to the wife sitting next to you, knitting you some phentex mittens, “such a sweet doggie!” (a sweet doggie just about to go bungee jumping, by the way). But would you feel the same if you encountered a 52 year-old man drooling on his shirt who can not use the loo without a bit of help, let alone skydive? (And please, do not get all PC on me, I am just saying, and I know what I am talking about, disability is not always cute, and sometimes, for all sorts of reasons, it can actually be quite, euh, discomforting.)

Continue reading… “watch me”

Last night I dreamt of a strange appartment building. The structure was very bizarre and dangerous but that is not surprising; I often dream of weird, defintely not up-to-code buildings where you can literally kill yourself by just milling about. In my dreams, I am usually living in them, often alone, or looking around because I am thinking about moving in. Anyway, in this dream, things were slightly different because the building was occupied and I knew a couple of the tennants (people I know in real life). And although I was not moved in yet, I had been invited over to dinner by some other tennants I did not know and spent most of the evening spilling my wine on the tablecloth (ok, that is not really different; I spill stuff on a regular basis).

Before I left, my hosts showed me photos of various parties that had been organised in the building over the years. As I looked at the photos, I remember thinking that was a lot of parties and a lot of people. I was also rather baffled to note that Leonard Nimoy was in almost all the photos, invariably standing alone yet surrounded by dozens and dozens of people, his arms folded across his chest, a look of astonishment on his face. When I asked about him, I was told he had been asked to move out but that he was not very happy about it and insisted on taking all his stuff with him.

What struck me the most about the dream was that when I left to go home, I was using my power wheelchair. This is kind of strange because, notwithstanding that I have not used it in over two years, in most of my dreams, if I am not vaguely walking, how I get around is usually not emphasised. But this time, I distinctly remember slipping into something familiar, comfortable, comforting even. I remember putting it into fourth gear, like I had so many times before when I was just about to take off. As I turned the first corner, I landed on Saint-Laurent Blvd and came to a sudden halt as I viewed the throngs and throngs of people on the sidewalk. And, as I often have, I remember thinking, quite annoyed, “man, I gotta find a side street fast because there is no way I am going to put up with all those mindless bipeds walking into me every few feet”.

Continue reading… I hold these truths to be self-evident

Thursday night, I attended a euh, I guess you could call it a gathering, organised by University of the Streets at the Santropol Roulant. The theme of the evening was “Beyond a handicap: Are you and I really that different?“. Michael alerted me to this event and I was curious so despite being dead tired after a very long day and just really looking forward to ripping off my prosthesis as soon as I could, I made my way to St-Urbain street and participated in my first “conversation” (that is what all the cool kids are calling it these days).

About a dozen people participated in the evening: from what I could tell, four or five persons with disabilities, including myself and the two guest speakers, and about eight individuals without disabilities who had for the most part some kind of relationship with people with disabilities, whether professionally or personally.

It was all very pleasant and polite, which I guess is a good thing for these types of things. And I appreciated my evening and left with the sentiment that it had been worthwhile to go. Plus it was really nice seeing Michael again. But… I also felt frustrated by a few things and hopefully I can explain why without coming off as arrogant or insensitive or just odd.

Continue reading… same difference

I have been meaning to write about this but stuff got in the way. I read on the Fagstein blog a couple of weeks ago that there will be a new television channel in Canada: The Accessible Channel. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) will require that the new channel, which should be launched in April 2008, be carried in all packages by cable and satellite providers and it will mean a very slight increase in fees for subscribers (2.40$ a year). An article on VoicePrint explains:

(…) the recent approval by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for The Accessible Channel, a national, English-language digital specialty service that will feature only “described” as well as “closed-captioned” programming, is a major breakthrough for Canadians with diminished vision or hearing.

Continue reading… a new television channel for the blind and visually-impaired

As I mentioned recently, I have had a flickr account for a couple of years now. I do not get a ton of traffic and actually, that is fine with me. I mean, it is nice to get comments, especially from people I know, or to have people favourite a photo of mine once in a while. But at the time, I started my photoblog more as a way to work through some stuff and there is still always a part of me that feels a bit unconfortable about what I put out on the Web anyway (which is one of the things flickr is useful for, i.e. figuring out how I feel about what I put out there).

It has been a lot of fun at times and not so fun at other times. And it certainly has been a learning experience. I am by no means a great photographer. I am not even a good one. Sometimes, I am happy about a certain photo I took because I think it is pretty or because I think I actually succeeded in conveying whatever it was I was trying to convey. But most of the time, it was just a lucky shot either way (especially considering what a really crappy camera I have; I have dropped that thing so many times I am amazed it still works). But I see it more as a personal visual log and I do not expect other people to find it interesting. So I am often perplexed by what some people find interesting in my photos. Or what could have possessed them to favourite something I posted.

Three days ago, I posted a few photos to flickr. Nothing special, or so I thought. A random picture taken in a post office, one of the black squirrel I have kind of befriended and throw peanuts at every morning and one of a rather ordinary poster I photographed during my last visit to the rehab institute. Of these three, the photo of the rather ordinary poster received an insane amount of traffic and it took me a few days to figure out why.

Continue reading… the sum of my parts

As a wheelchair user, naturally I use the Montreal Paratransit Service of the Société de transport de Montréal to travel to and from places that are just too far to get to using my own power or that of my power wheelchair. I have been using this service for almost 20 years now and it has often been the bane of my existence, to the point that I have always tried to find apartments that were close to work and to all the goods and services that I am likely to need on a regular basis. Unfortunately, there are times when I need to use adapted transit services as I do not drive and after all, Montreal is a big place.

I often get remarks from non-disabled people concerning adapted transit that eloquently reflects how clueless people are regarding this service. Things like: “Oh, you are so lucky, you get door to door transportation, like a limo service” or “There may be a few hassles once in a while but at least it is free, right?” or “Ok, maybe you have to pay a fare like us but it is far below the real cost of the service you get”, etc., etc.

Continue reading… mini-buses trying to disguise themselves as surveillance vehicles

Not much into blogging these days, got a lot of [unfun] stuff going on, but I did want to underscore the upcoming week dedicated to persons with disabilities in Québec. Indeed, from June 1st to 7th, people will get out their love of persons with disabilities during “la semaine québécoise des personnes handicapées“. This special week has been around in Québec since about 1996, after the federal government decided to drop its equivalent “semaine nationale pour l’intégration des personnes handicapées” (or the SNIPH and that we somewhat affectionately called “the sniff sniff”).

Anyway, I could write a long rant about what I think of these kinds of thematic weeks or days or whatever but, aside from not having much time or energy at the moment, I guess I have to respect that some organisations for persons with disabilities see some value in these kinds of initiatives, if only to perhaps squeeze a little more much needed funds out of the relevant government agencies. And besides, I had already touched upon my feelings on this sort of thing last year in this post (in French) for the United Nations’ International Day of Disabled Persons.

Continue reading… persons with disabilities week in Québec