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I became disabled just shortly after I arrived in Canada as an immigrant and my choice was,
I suppose, to go back home to Ireland and I decided not to go back and stay here because
I thought, and still believe, that conditions for persons with disabilities was significantly better.
Now that is not to say that it is – everything is good for persons with disabilities
in this country, because it’s not. And I became very involved with the disability rights
movement within a short period of time after becoming a person with a disability.
I still believe we have a lot of progress to make. Certainly we have made some great progress
with accessibility. We have made great improvements also with transportation.
But there’s still a long way to go and we have much progress to make.
One of the areas that I became very involved in and still am is, I always believe, you know, to acquire,
you know, another level of equality is to have people, you know, lifted out of poverty because
the reality is for persons with disabilities, poverty is one of the biggest challenges.
You know, in spite of the challenges you have about accessibility and access to services.
Employment, you know, which brings, you know, lack of employment brings on poverty and a lot of people,
the statistics on persons who are employed with having a disability is still very, very low.
We still experience disability, experience unemployment rates, you know, of sixty - sixty
and seventy percent. And it’s a great equalizer when somebody, you know, happens, you know,
to be able to find suitable employment, you know, to be having, contributing to society, you know,
to be able to buy and buy things they need, and to be able to live independently
or buy the supports they need. It’s a great equalizer for people and I think that’s
an area that we, you know, still have a long way to go. But I think we’ve made a lot of progress
but still miles to go.