Summer is about to kick off, and with it, SCIO has some exciting initiatives up ahead that were each created to improve the lives of the disability community in Ontario, and indeed, Canada.
Peter Athanasopoulos, Director of Public Policy
#PeeForFree
If you have been part of our community for a while, then you likely remember our work related to the coverage of intermittent catheters and urinary supplies.
For the month of June, we will be focusing on a Fundraising Campaign led by our Board of Directors to support SCIO to engage government in addressing and resolving inadequate coverage for urinary supplies across the country.
We are encouraging our community to get the word out there by sharing the landing page, encourage donations, and participate in any social media posts about the campaign over the next 30 days.
At your place of employment, you can also participate in a corporate challenge to support the campaign. We have toolkits available for you to self-organize a pay-to-pee awareness event. The toolkit can be found here.
The more awareness we spread, the better our chances of achieving real change.
On-Demand Accessible Transportation
For nearly a year now, SCIO has been working on a grassroots initiative with a small coalition to tackle on-demand accessible transportation, starting with the City of Toronto, with the intention of influencing policy in other municipalities across Ontario.
We participated in numerous rounds of public consultations, launched a petition that collected over 1500 signatures from our community, and continue to be in discussion with City representatives on bringing accessibility back to the table for a debate.
In the latest development, the topic of accessibility was postponed to focus more driver wages, and it is our intention to articulate the importance of the growing disability population in Ontario, that requires access to the same standard of on-demand transportation as everyone else.
We encourage everyone to engage in a letter writing campaign – we have created a template for your convenience along with a list of contacts within the City of Toronto, including Mayor Chow.
If you haven’t had a chance to sign the petition yet, you can so here.
Accessible Air Travel
Air travel continues to present an abundance of barriers, both physical, psychological and emotional, to passengers with disabilities. From broken wheelchairs, to humiliating experiences that have no place in the present day, flying is the source of many people’s nightmares. That is why SCIO is involved with numerous research committees to help make air travel safer, more consistent, and accessible for people with disabilities.
Grant Submission to Improve Access for Medical Supplies and Assistive Devices
Medical supplies and assistive devices are crucial when it comes to quality of life for people with disabilities, but many life-saving devices are still not fully covered, forcing an already financially vulnerable community to reach into their pockets.
We are in close collaboration with the Lawson Research Institute and other disability organizations in Ontario to address this very issue. We are in the midst of pursuing various grants to help push this work further from a government relations standpoint and achieve better coverage for medical supplies and assistive devices.
While we continue to push for change on a larger scale, we also have some platforms available for the public.
SCIO Marketplace: Available through Facebook, this page is for the disability community to post items for sale as well as browse them. The majority of posted items are disability related, and include things such as wheelchairs, walkers, commodes, accessible sporting equipment, and more.
Possibilities Project Plus: Developed in partnership with the Lawson Research Institute, this platform was created for those wishing to donate equipment to the disability community. Users can browse equipment as well as post it, and if there are individuals who require support to post an item, you may reach out to us at [email protected] and we will get you in touch with an agent.
