Lots on deck for Disability Awareness Week
Courtesy Connecting Horizons
For Iris Phillips, advocacy coordinator for Connecting Horizons, next week’s Disability Awareness Week activities are an important part of the organization’s efforts in advocating and educating.
“We hope that people who would want to take part are interested. We do have a lot of people say things like ‘my child had noticed somebody in a wheelchair, and they were asking me some questions. I don’t know how to answer those questions.’ It’s more for general awareness and general everyday interactions. We really do want the community to know that people with disabilities are just people like everyone else,” said Phillips.
“One of our big missions is to change the mindset, to show that people just need to have the accommodations. For example, with an automatic door, they can do it on their own, they don’t have to ask for help.”
One event that is particularly geared toward changing the mindset towards accommodation for people with special needs is the Wheelchair Challenge on Wednesday, where volunteers from different organizations in town will spend the day in a wheelchair to see life from the perspective of a wheelchair-bound person.
Those organizations include K1037 Radio, the Kahnawake Youth Center (KYC), Kahnawake Shakotiia’takehnhas Community Services (KSCS), and the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) – Council chief David Diabo will be the one in the chair.
“It’s designed for them to get a unique perspective of what it’s like to do their day-to-day job in the chair, what kind of challenges and barriers there are in their office, how they could fix things themselves, how they can make a positive change,” said Phillips.
She said that it is not just about sitting at your desk all day, but also doing the regular things you may not give a second thought to but could be challenging in a wheelchair without the proper accommodations.
“You have to go to the washroom, you have to have lunch, you have to go outside, you have to go to your car to grab something. There are little tasks that are involved with this. You actually have to move around and do certain tasks, and they have to be checked off,” said Phillips.
The start of the week on Monday will be a big push on social media for the aptly named Media Monday. That will include a video featuring about 30 words said in English, then in Kanien’kéha, and finally through sign language by an interpreter.
“It’s something that’s meant to bring the two communities together, the hearing and the non-hearing, the verbal and the non-verbal,” said Phillips.
Tuesday will be Incognito Day, where some members of Connecting Horizons’ team will go around town to see what places in town are accessible, if parking spots reserved for those with special needs are respected, and so on. They will also have an information booth at the Services Complex that day.
On Thursday, Connecting Horizons along with K103 will be holding a giveaway contest for a $100 certificate to the O.Noir restaurant in Montreal, where diners eat in complete darkness and are served by visually impaired waitstaff.
“We’re giving people the opportunity to try this out and then give us feedback on how they liked it,” said Phillips.
Friday will be the Building Review, already a part of Connecting Horizons’ advocacy efforts in making public places in town more accessible, whether it’s by making changes to already existing accommodations or adding more, for example for people with sensory issues, not just physical special needs.
Phillips is hoping that Connecting Horizons’ efforts to continue advocating for those with special needs, whether these events or in everyday occurences, will be echoed by others.
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“We need our champions, and a lot of times they come from the MCK Council, or they come from other higher up organizations. We need political clout. We need them to join us and collaborate with us, to say yes, these issues are important, and yes, we need our champions to come out and support us and make the change so that the entire community can benefit,” said Phillips.
