Every year, the Government of Canada's celebrates people with disabilities and highlights issues that impact disabled Canadians. This year's campaign, taking place between May 29 and June 4, 2022, promotes the importance of being "Inclusive from the Start," which focuses on building communities where persons with disabilities are holistically included from conception to completion and not merely accommodated after the fact.
The Government of Canada first launched National AccessAbility Week in 2017, although similar campaigns have existed for decades. When the Accessible Canada Act was enacted in 2019, National AccessAbility Week was officially recognized as starting on the last Sunday in May each year.
All week long, accessibility and disability stakeholders, persons with disabilities, as well as provincial and territorial governments, are organizing activities and events to highlight the valuable contributions of Canadians with disabilities, and the efforts of individuals, communities and workplaces to actively remove barriers to accessibility and inclusion. Be sure to check out what's happening in your local community and to follow #InclusiveFromTheStart and #NAAW2022 on social media for more updates.
The Qu茅bec Government, through it's Agency on disability affairs () also holds it's week-long awareness campaign around this time of year: (Qu茅bec Week of People with Disabilities). From 1-7 June 2022, the week is an opportunity to share the positive actions taken, whether they are individual or collective, to promote accessibility and inclusion. And because even now, there is still much work to be done, the week also highlights the obstacles and challenges of today.
With the motto "Contribuer 脿 100%", the website contains (in French) on how we can all contribute to creating an inclusive society. So don't forget to look into what's happening in your local community regarding the SQPH and to follow #SQPH2022 on social media for more updates.
As for McGill's Equity Team, we would like to use these campaigns as an opportunity to highlight what we have been doing for the last year to support and elevate students, staff and faculty with disabilities at McGill. We will be publishing regular updates on the Equity Office's Blog so watch this space.
To kick things off, we would like to spotlight our efforts to develop McGill's own Accessibility Strategy. Like many other higher education institutions across North America, we recognize the value of strategic action to tackle ableism and systemic barriers. We also understand the importance of gathering input, ideas, and recommendations from all stakeholders to ensure a shared vision of a disability-inclusive university.
To that end, we are putting together a Working Group to help guide our work on the McGill Accessibility Strategy and are inviting students, faculty and staff with disabilities to contribute as members of the Working Group. For more information, see the related blog post.
If you are organizing accessibility or disability-related activities during the next 10 days in observance of these campaigns, please let us know in the comments section or write to catherine.roy7 [at] mcgill.ca (Catherine Roy).