Through a close examination of employment, education, transportation,
telecommunications, and health care, this survey explores the landscape
of disability rights in Canada and finds that, while important advances
have been made, Canadians with disabilities still experience significant
barriers in obtaining their human rights. Using the stories and voices
of people with disabilities, the consideration argues that disability is
not about "faulty" bodies that need to be fixed but about the
institutional, cultural, and attitudinal reactions to certain kinds of
bodies, contending that neoliberal ideas of independence and
individualism are at the heart of the continuing discrimination against
"disabled" people. Asserting that achieving disability rights is
possible--but not through efforts to "fix" certain kinds of bodies--this
analysis suggests that it can be achieved through universal design,
disability supports, social and economic assistance, and a sense of
belonging--in short, through the foundational social transformation of
Canadian society.