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Your Move, Ontario: Understand the Issues

Advocate Toolkit: Understand the Issues

Get informed! Take a look at the four urgent issues we’re trying to advance as a community. You’ll also get access to our most recent policy report, quick stats, community stories and general information about spinal cord injury.

The Problems

  • The pandemic has amplified the fractures that people with SCI and other disabilities face in accessing services, supports and funding.
  • People with SCI and other disabilities’ human rights are being violated too often without resolution.
  • People are suffering from a lack of access to medical supplies, assistive devices, and other basic health care making it difficult to live independently at home.
  • People with SCI and other disabilities’ equity and inclusion to societal rights like accessing a restaurant or recreational venue continue to fall short.

The Solutions

  • SCIO needs a bolder presence to address and resolve systemic barriers that impact the quality of life of people with SCI and other disabilities.
  • SCIO needs advocates like you, in every provincial electoral riding, to create change through sharing their views and lived experiences with their local Members of Provincial Parliament.
  • The government needs to prioritize the essential needs of the disability community and address systemic challenges faced by people with disabilities in Ontario.

Urgent Issues

Access to
Mobility Devices

Mobility devices for those with a permanent disability should be considered a human right over their lifetime.

Access to
Medical Supplies

There should be an efficient province-wide medical supply coverage program for those with permanent needs.

Access to
Attendant Services

Clear processes and supports must be in place to ensure optimal health care for people with a spinal cord injury.

AODA
Commitment

Ontario should be fully accessible by 2025 but we are off course. We need a government that will make accessibility a priority.

Show your support and help us fund these vital advocacy initiatives.

33%

longer hospital stay for those with a disability with COVID-19

77%

more likely hospital readmission for those with a disability with COVID-19

95%

of our community believe assistive devices should be a human right not a medical need for home use

79% 

of Ontarians not on social assistance are unable to afford the co-payments on wheelchairs

$0

government funding for transfer devices and standing devices in Ontario

1 in 3

people had an attendant not show up at their home during the pandemic

2025

government target for AODA compliance significantly off track

33,000

people use intermittent catheters every day in Ontario

Up to $2,500

monthly out of pocket cost in bladder management supplies

1x

intermittent catheters are single-use medical devices in Canada

Some of the above statistics are taken from the SCIO Policy Report: A Path to Modernize Public Coverage in Ontario for Intermittent Catheters and Related Supplies. Click here for full report.

SCIO Resources

We want you to feel very comfortable sharing SCIO’s story. Below are links that provide more information about SCIO, its history, what we do, and the impact of your support.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

―Margaret Mead

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