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News on the Accessibility Committee from the Table des groupes de femmes de Montréal
During their annual general assembly held in May 2000, la Table des groupes de femmes de Montréal (TGFM) adopted an accessibility policy which stipulates that their activities will be made accessible to women with disabilities. A work committee was then set up to see that this policy be implemented.
This policy is based on four well-defined principles: the feminist principle of equality, universal accessibility, diversity, and inclusion. Presently made up of five women, this work committee (supported by the staff of the Table) aims to integrate the concerns of women with disabilities into the TGFM's mandate.
Concretely, what this means is that, the activities of TGFM must be made accessible to women with disabilities. This implies, in particular, that the proper funds must be found to allow any disabled woman- officially chosen by one of the Table's member groups- to participate in their activities. Furthermore, the Table must organize most of their training sessions and all of their committee meetings in an accessible location equipped with all the necessary adapted material. Our objective: to make all the meetings of all the committees within the Table accessible to women with disabilities.
Money is often the first barrier faced by groups and individuals concerned with accessibility. Therefore, the Table will work to make its members better aware of the importance of considering accessibility needs when applying for funding. Another challenge: that a global budget be created which would encourage accessibility in Montreal women's groups.
To make our concerns better understood, the accessibility committee met with two representatives of l'Office des personnes handicapées du Québec (OPHQ) on the 29th of May 2002: Ms. Bernabdelkader, regional director and Ms. Chénard, regional representative on women's issues. They were very interested in the Table's approach to accessibility citing, in particular, its feminist viewpoint on this issue and the participation of disabled women as part of the community at large.
Moreover, members of Action des femmes handicapées de Montréal - in conjunction with the work of the committee - attended meetings which resulted in the Table advocating for the inclusion of women with disabilities' concerns during the fusion of Montreal's municipalities. They advocated that more women with disabilities be hired and that their needs and concerns be taken into consideration in the new City of Montreal.
Last summer, the Table also hired Sujata Dey as project coordinator to do a survey on the accessibility of our members' activities to disabled women. The survey rated accessibility on several points, such as:
- accessibility and how physical accommodating the building was
- the publicity surrounding an event
- The attitude of employees toward women with disabilities etc. With a response rate of 72 per cent, the Table's groups' participation was excellent.
As a sequel to this survey, a meeting was organized within the context of International Day of Disabled People. The purpose of this meeting was to make members of the Table better aware of the reality of living as a disabled woman and to share our diverse experiences with accessibility. This activity was held on the 3rd of December with 25 women attending, each from very different environments.
On the agenda:
- overall results of the survey
- certificates of acknowledgement awarded for accessibility
- several personal accounts from disabled women, namely one by Martha Twibanire, head of a single parent family
- Lise Veilleux and Andrée Dumouchel's introduction of Projet Traces involving four dancers (two blind women and two non-blind women) followed by a video presentation.
- Maria Barile's description of the mandate and work of AFHM.
All this was followed by a very moving discussion on the reality of living as a disabled woman causing us to reflect on how we can do things differently and deal with our time constraints. This meeting enabled the Table des groupes de femmes de Montréal to make bridges between different women and to establish a greater sense of solidarity.
Finally, a "How-to" document was written on how to make the activities of the Table more accessible to women with disabilities. This first attempt, Mode d'emploi pour l'accessibilité de nos groupes, was drawn up by the accessibility committee; we hope to have a more complete version available in the coming year. From now on, we will always include a budget for accessibility in all of our funding requests. And above all, we continue to sensitize people; changing attitudes is the first step to opening people's eyes to the realities of women with disabilities' lives. The more we speak out on the life and reality of ALL women, the greater our solidarity will be.
There still remains a lot of work to be done but things are progressing well; I think we can say that the activities of the Table des groupes de femmes de Montréal will one day be totally accessible to women with disabilities.
Members of the accessibility committee:
Maria Barile, Louise Baron, Diane Chaurette, Sujata Dey, Diane Heffernan
Translated by Marie Soudre