The attitude which once restricted people with disabilities has created new challenges, and perhaps more work, for instructors and program coordinators. However, the benefits of being productive in society are beginning to show. People with disabilities are still among the lowest educated in this country but slowly, over the present decade, these statistics are changing. The National Educational Association of Disabled Students, which works to ensure accommodation for students with disabilities in post secondary institutions, reports there are 112,200 students with disabilities attending post secondary institutions. ¹⁸ These students represent 7.4% of the post secondary population at Canadian universities and colleges.

Solutions and Conclusions

Elizabeth Kutza states that the majority of private and state programs which address the needs of people with disability do not meet the needs of women.¹⁹ Government funding and support could encourage research designed to specifically investigate pregnancy, reproductive technologies and disability. It could also make existing information available in alternative formats such as braille, large print and sign language. More funding could provide services to women and ensure that social and health agencies are qualified to respond to the needs of their clients.

Physical access to health care, social agencies and educational facilities creates barriers to women with disabilities achieving their potential as stay at home and/or working mothers. Additional funding dollars could be directed towards building modifications, adaptive on sight equipment and accessible transit. Needless to say, education dollars in the direction of post secondary institutions I would benefit in the long run.

Attitudinal barriers have prevented women from following their gut feelings when it comes to mothering and career, and attitudes are the most awkward to resolve. Negative attitudes which suggest people with disabilities are less valuable, less productive and less capable are still today deeply embedded and systemically institutionalized as state funding has overlooked, ignored and denied many of the basic needs of people with disabilities. Financial resources play a vital role in bettering the situation by having dependable quality programs in place. Low end job training and temporary band-aid solutions often only set individuals up for failure, which contributes to the assumption that social assistance recipients and people with disabilities will fail at whatever they do.

For many women with disabilities, the option to enter the paid labor force does not exist and as a result they are involuntarily confined to be homemakers. Support is limited and disappearing daily as both the federal and provincial governments plunge backwards, creating situations which greatly limit options and choices for both men and women with disabilities to maintain independent and dignified life-styles. Major advancements in employment equity have materialized briefly in legislation, only to be struck down by the conservative "pro-business" agenda. People with disabilities have sporadically proven their abilities in the paid labor force and these people, along with the limited numbers of gainfully employed men and women with disabilities, have succeeded in breaking down barriers. However, they are a small proportion compared those who wish to support themselves and live with dignity and independence.

Heather Furminger-Delisle is a visually impaired mother of two daughters who is presently attending McMaster University and expects to graduate in April of 1997 from the BAIBSW program. She serves on the Disability Training Advisory Group Inc., and is the Ontario Representative and Vice President Internal of the National Educational Association of Disabled Students.