A Spotlight on the youth perspective

Official title: Federal Accessibility Legislation - Technical analysis report

Many Canadian youth with disabilities participated in the Consultations—hundreds responded to the online engagement questionnaire, while 115 youth from across Canada participated in the National Youth Forum. In this last section of the report, we throw the spotlight on the youth perspective. The findings presented below are based on a review of the Youth Forum proceedings, as well as a detailed age-based comparative analysis of the online engagement questionnaire data.

What is remarkable is not how much the views of youth differ from those of other Canadians, but rather, how similar they are. Indeed, consistency of views across all of the consultation methods is one of the key themes of our overall analysis. The relatively few differences that we do see between the views of youth and those of other consultation participants tend to be small; a question of degree of emphasis rather than contradiction.

In is also important to note that some of the difference in the points made by youth reflect the fact that the Youth Forum focused on a more limited and specific set of issues, compared to the online engagement. Most significantly, the young people who participated in the Forum focused on issues revolving around education, training and school to work transitions, as well as youth leadership.

Overall, the youth perspective is very consistent with the views of other Canadians on every key issue, including:

• The need for raising awareness and changing attitudes, and suggestions for achieving this: Like others, youth see attitude change as necessary for real long-term progress on accessibility. They also suggest that it is important to focus considerable effort on children and the education system. In terms of message content and objectives, the “normalization” of Persons with Disabilities is thought to be key. That is, evolving attitudes to a place where Persons with Disabilities are no longer seen as apart, special or different, but rather simply viewed as part of Canada’s diverse society, in the arts, in the classroom, on the street and in the workplace.

• Areas of focus and the role of the Government: Everyone who participated in the Consultations, including youth, see the Government as uniquely positioned to lead the charge on accessibility and the removal of barriers (example: as leader, model, legislator, policy maker and monitor).

  In terms of where to focus, the interconnectedness of barriers in areas such as education, training, employment, transportation and poverty was noted by youth, as it was throughout the Consultations. Youth suggest that the Government work with the provinces and territories to improve access to education, as well as to training and programs that would help young people make a successful transition from school to work. As part of this, they suggest measures such as, grants, scholarships and student loan forgiveness. There is also strong support for programs that provide opportunities for young Persons with Disabilities to develop their leadership skills.

  Like other Canadians who participated in the Consultations, youth suggest that the new legislation cover as many organizations and facets of life as possible. They also support the use of broad definitions of “disability,” which would include “invisible” disabilities. Additionally, it is also hoped the new legislation and resulting policies help provide order and clarity to Canada’s many and varied accessibility laws and regulations. Like other Canadians, Forum participants also called on governments to remove some of the onus that is currently placed on Persons with Disabilities to seek recourse.

• Monitoring and enforcing the new legislation: Young people support a mix of incentives and penalties, but with perhaps more emphasis on incentives (example: for employers and educational institutions). They see it as important that employers do not view disability and accommodation in a negative light/as a penalty—reinforcing the salience of promoting inclusion as a social norm, so that everyone can participate fully.

  Similarly, they hope that organizations would be able to access information, tools and programs to help them remove barriers and become more accessible (example: through a virtual information hub and by accessing a workplace accommodation fund . Like other Canadians, youth want to see effective monitoring and enforcement of the legislation. As part of that, and linked to the issue of awareness-raising, young people highlight a need to educate Persons with Disabilities about their rights and redress mechanisms.

  There were five questions in the online engagement where we see some statistically significant differences in the views of the under 35 years of age cohort. Specifically, the responses of younger people are more likely to:

  • place an emphasis on education and the education system as a way for the Government to raise awareness and change attitudes
  • indicate unqualified support for the legislative goal as outline on the Discussion Document and online engagement questionnaire preamble
  • offer views on how the terms “accessibility” and “barrier” should be defined in the legislation
  • suggest that organizations be given more flexible timelines for legislative compliance, and
  • suggest more frequent Government public reporting on legislative effectiveness (for example every quarter)