Survey : Physical Accessibility not the Only Challenge

by Sujata Dey

During the summer of 2002, the Table des groupes de femmes de Montréal surveyed its members on their attitudes, policies, publicity, accessibility and procedures regarding accessibility .

This survey by the Table showed that physical accessibility is not the lead factor in determining whether women with disabilities participate in women's groups.

To women with disabilities, this is counter-intuitive. For years, we have fought to make spaces accessible throughout our community encountering frustration when most spaces are not accessible.

Well, take these statistics: in the sample of 44 member groups, 22 were accessible and 22 are not. So basically, we are talking about the same number. Out of the accessible groups, 12 had women with disabilities participating in them. And out of the inaccessible groups, there were nine groups who had women with disabilities participating in them.

While there is a difference, it is slight. Now, it could be that these women had disabilities that do not need to be accommodated by architectural accessibility. Unfortunately, the survey did not break down the participants by type of disability.

But the point is that accessibility alone doesn't necessarily ensure the participation of women with disabilities. For some groups reported that despite the fact that they were accessible, they had never seen a woman with a disability use their service.

Obviously, we can't forget physical accessibility; it is crucial. However, the survey gives us cause to believe that there may be other factors that influence women with disabilities' participation.

When we asked groups whether accessibility was a priority for their organization, the results become more interesting. Sixty-five per cent of groups who said that accessibility was a priority for them had women with disabilities participating in their group. But when we take the groups who said accessibility was not a priority, only 18 per cent of them enjoyed the presence of women with disabilities in their groups.

Other factors

And when we look at other statistics such as the presence of women with disabilities as employees, whether the group has a policy on accessibility and whether the groups wishes to become accessible, we see that the groups with these factors are also likely to have women with disabilities in them. It is unclear whether the women with disabilities were there first and these policies followed or whether these policies encouraged women with disabilities to attend. I would guess that both go hand in hand most probably.

Attitudes

In my interviews with the groups, I encountered some groups which were completely accessible but had outdated attitudes- attitudes that women with disabilities didn't use their service because they only served mothers or women looking for work, and that people with disabilities "had their own services".

While this attitude was rare, we must challenge this attitude by encouraging the idea of equality of women with disabilities as women and as feminists. We must advocate for the idea that welcoming women with disabilities in feminist groups is not and act of charity but of equality- an act that opens the feminist movement to all women.

For many groups expressed a wish to become accessible but felt that it just cost too much. These groups often didn't know what the pictograms for accessibility were and didn't indicate if their group was accessible. And these are actions that cost absolutely nothing! We have to show people that accessibility is not just a money problem but a question of will. And if we have the will to be accessible then physical accessibility and participation follow.

I must thank the members of the Table des groupes de femmes de Montréal for their openness. More than 72 per cent of their members responded to the survey and 80 per cent of them wished to become accessible. On the 3rd of December, we had a satisfying workshop where we presented the results and gave tips on how to become more accessible.

Some interesting stats

22 had an accessible entry (16 by the front and 6 by the side)
13 had an accessible entry and an accessible bathroom
10 groups had documents in alternative formats (mostly by demand only)
21 had members with disabilities
2 had a TTY
6 used sign-language interpretation services
4 groups indicated accessibility on their publicity
28 groups (80 per cent of the respondents) wished to become accessible
73 per cent mentioned a lack of financial resources as a barrier to accessibility; only 7 per cent indicated a lack of interest

Table of contents
Accessible Montreal | Access Concordia