Right to Education

Through education, women with disabilities may become independent altogether. Through education, perhaps, they may retain some dignity and self-preservation. Many women with disabilities have no access to education due to financial, physical or systemic barriers; however, as society seems to consistently ignore, everyone has a legal right to education-at least, to date.

Nowhere in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1981) or in the Bill of Rights (1960) is any member of society excluded from participating in the education process. Article 26 states: "Everyone has the right to an education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality. ... Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.^{,, 9}

Neither does any place in the Charter specify what careers individuals must pursue, whether able or disabled. But (from noted personal observation), rehabilitation workers, counselors and teachers, among others, tend to insist that a woman with any type of disability should live in a limited way or be limited in career choice-if she chooses any career at all.

One reason behind such attitudes in rehabilitation work may be that "The outcome of the rehabilitation process is evaluated ... using return to the labor force (that is, 'non-disability') as the criterion. Too often, in our opinion, the fact that successful remediation of an impairment does not return an individual to the labor force is attributed to a 'lack of motivation' or a 'poor attitude' on the part of the rehabilitation client. A more realistic explanation in many such cases is that the client, for a variety of reasons not related to his impairment, is not very employable.’’¹⁰

It is time that rehabilitation service agencies realize that return to the labor force for women with disabilities is possible only under modified circumstances. When an individual does not succeed in permanently maintaining a job, it is often due to many more factors than just the disability itself. Medical modifications (eg. medically approved chair), and mobile availability (eg. accessible transportation) are but two important considerations in accessing full-time employment.

Equal Rights and Freedoms

As individuals who have no disabilities are free to choose their careers, why not extend those same rights and freedoms to women with disabilities? Why should someone with a disability not have the same freedom to choose how to financially maintain themselves? Often, rehabilitation services only provide "quick" training programs that place an individual back into the work force without any assistance with medical modifications, transportation, child care, etc. is this because most disabled today are women and their concerns are therefore irrelevant?

As with other important are as where women have fought for choice, such as health (abortion), marriage (single/divorced), sexuality (lesbian/bi/straight), women should have a choice regarding their education. Is it not justice, then, that all have access to equal rights and freedoms? When will society and all its institutions realize that this is not just about verbal political correctness but about practice too? in other words, when will the world realize that women with disabilities also have a place and a right to live in our society?

Although some might say that some progress has been made, there still is much to be clone in the area of equal access to education and employment for women with disabilities. Over the last few years, many more female students with disabilities are turning to educational studies; however, very few universities have made adjustments to allow for better access and those that have are inadequate. For example: "Students who are visually impaired [or learning disabled] often need talking textbooks. These cassette tapes must be requested four months prior to the date they will be needed! Some universities don't allow students to plan this far ahead.