COVID-19 - Information for People with Disabilities

CWDO has compiled information for people with disabilities about the virus, resources available and what we can do.

NEW! Order a print version of CWDO's COVID-19 Guide for People with Disabilities. Funding for this booklet is courtesy of the Canadian Red Cross.

Read our online COVID-19 Guide for People with Disabilities (updated October 20, 2020) and send us additional info we should add to make it better.

CWDO recently had the opportunity to provide advice to the government on Bill 175 – Connecting People to Home and Community Care Services Act. The Act was passed very quickly on July 8, even though several organizations along with CWDO raised concerns about the Act.

Read CWDO's submission on Bill 175 – Connecting People to Home and Community Care Services Act.

Immediately afterward, proposed regulations were released for community consultation. The deadline for submission was July 24. This gave very little time to organizations like ours who do not have a legal department poised and ready to pounce on any draft regulations the government of the day sees fit to issue. Still, we did our best.

Read CWDO's submission on the proposed Regulations under the new Act.

CWDO has a new board in place for the coming year!

Tracy Odell continues as President and we say goodbye and THANK YOU to Melissa Graham who served on the board for 12 years as a Director, Secretary and Vice-President at various times.

Donna Jodhan re-joins the board and we welcome brand new board members, Laura Dawson and Elizabeth Mohler!

Read the full bios of all CWDO's Board Members.

Read CWDO's Accomplishments Report (2019).

Stay tuned for news about Action Groups you can join!

Access Awareness Week 2020

Long term care home residents have been out of sight and out of mind from the general public for far too long. What they have endured represents the least and worst of what our society is willing to offer to people with disabilities.

Read CWDO's editorial by our President

COVID-19 - Information for People with Disabilities

CWDO has compiled information for people with disabilities about the virus, resources available and what we can do.

Read our COVID-19 Guide for People with Disabilities (updated October 20, 2020) and send us additional info we should add to make it better.

COVID-19 - Equal Access to Treatment

If we run out of ventilators, will you be ineligible for one on the basis of your disability, underlying health conditions or your score on the Frailty Scale? Read Ontario's Heath's Triage Protocol guidelines to find out. Note: Link goes to an inaccessible PDF. (WARNING: Content may be upsetting.)

See also The Framework for Ethical Decision-Making by the Canadian Medical Association and Guidelines to US states on Avoiding Disability-Based Discrimination in Treatment Rationing developed by people with disabilities. The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) and the ARCH Disabilities Law Centre countered quickly. See OHRC's Policy on Equal Rights during the pandemic and ARCH's Open Letter.

CWDO Writes the Premier

CWDO wrote the Premier asking for disability-related and accessible information to help us cope with COVID-19. Read our letter to the Premier about our concerns regarding COVID-19. No response received to date.

Virtual Public Forum on the COVID-19 Crisis - Recording Now Available

The AODA Alliance and Ontario Autism Coalition jointly hosted a virtual public forum on the COVID-19 crisis and describes specific concerns our community implores the government to address.

Watch the recording of the Public Forum and note issues that impact you. Follow up by contacting your local federal, provincial or city representatives. Tweet under #disabilityurgent. Ask them to watch this video. Let them know we are not expendable nor invisible. Our lives matter, too. (Note: Video runs 2 hours,11 minutes, is captioned and ASL interpreted)

Our Nothing About Us Without Us: Empower U, Learn to Access Your Disability Rights webinars series has ended. Watch all ten Empower U webinars on-line.

More Empower U Webinars will be offered to people unable to attend a face-to-face session. The second webinar will focus on using human rights to challenge systemic institutionalization of persons with disabilities in Nova Scotia.

Date: Thursday, April 30 at 12 noon EDT

Speaker: Vince Calderhead, Human Rights Lawyer

Vince Calderhead has been a lawyer since 1986. In 2017, he joined Pink Larkin, a union-side labour law firm in Halifax, where he has a pro bono practice restricted to strategic anti-poverty litigation.

Vince's presentation will focus on an eight-year battle to address the systemic discrimination experienced by people with disabilities in the area of their right to community living.

YOU MUST REGISTER IF YOU WANT TO ATTEND. ASL and closed captioning will be provided.

ARCH Disability Law Centre presentations on Your Rights to Attendant Services are now online!

Session #1: Foundation to Legislation Framework presented on February 25, 2020.

Session #2: Contracts and Quantity of Services presented on March 10, 2020.

Session #3: Direct Funding and Other Services presented on March 24, 2020.

Then, complete an evaluation for each webinar.

10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Getting a Service Dog is an informative blog by Sinead Zalitach, CWDO Board member.

If you are thinking about getting a service dog (or you know someone who is) do yourself a favour and learn from Sinead's experience.