Massive de-institutionalization of people with disabilities in the 1970s in Canada dramatically shifted this population as the government sought to economize in a mask of humanitarian effort: ⁷

Even when physical barriers can be overcome, other barriers creep back in where the gaps allow total access to leak out. In discussing train travel as relatively accessible for a woman in a wheelchair, Cheryl Gibson reflects on her experiences and how attitudes reinforce some physical barriers: "I wanted to take my children on a holiday and found that Via Rail refused to accommodate me. Or the time I tried to attend a conference for Health and Welfare Canada and Via Rail informed me that the train was fully booked months ahead with tourists and they didn't have to keep any seats for people who couldn't travel any other way.

The time I was in a wheelchair and asked for a cup of tea, only to be told to get my own tea on the other side of a wheelchair inaccessible room, has to near the top of the pathos scale. Major setbacks or minor insensitivities can make even a tough 'cripple' like me wonder if it is all worth it."⁸ Attitudinal barriers in research for women with disabilities have been pointed out by Margaret Lloyd who claims that most research on disabilities has ignored the needs of women. Jenny Morris and Helen Meekosha add to this argument, claiming even feminist research has overwhelmingly ignored the area of women with disabilities. However, things are changing as the Council for Canadians with Disabilities and the Disabled Women's Network (DAWN) have begun to address this gap.⁹

Attitudes directed toward people with disabilities may not be specific to any particular individual, but rather to the limitations that individual represents. In this respect, attitudes towards people with disabilities have often focused on their inabilities. For example, in a society where production, independence and accumulation are valued, a person with restricted means of production, independence and resources will be viewed as less valuable. Many people who rely on social assistance are stereotyped as burdensome, useless and expensive, but many of these people have disabilities and rely on state funded social assistance in order to survive.

Mothers

Motherhood, with all its unpredictable circumstances, is sometimes taken for granted when "accidents happen" and poor health is not a threatening concern. Pregnancy for women with disabilities is rarely taken for granted. To begin with, women with disabilities often face a difficult decision in planning pregnancy, and if unplanned, carrying pregnancy to term.¹⁰

In recent years men and women with physical and mental disabilities have had their appeals heard in Canada's courts regarding their right not to be forcibly sterilized. Canadian law has not yet outlawed forced sterilization; however it is unlikely we will see a repeat of earlier times when 2,500 Albertans were sterilized with the expressed intent of improving the quality of the human race.¹¹ Women with disabilities have been encouraged from all sides, including from the medical community, to avoid pregnancy, marriage and motherhood, and have experienced the restrictions to medical services, especially to reproductive technology, for years.¹²