The darker side of the picture

I am afraid that being an active advocate and accessibility and special needs advisor often subjects and exposes me to the darker side of the picture of the landscape and why am I saying this?

I truly believe that advocacy is not for the faint of heart.  Advocacy is where you get to see some of the worst attitudes of society!  How regular folks view those with a disability.  Where society as a whole believes that if they throw a bit of money at us we would stop complaining.  Where much of society would only react if they are either directly affected by a disability or if a loved one is affected.

For me, it is painfully embarrassing each time I feel the need to take a large organization to a Human Rights Commission or even more embarrassing is when we end up in court fighting for rights which are rightfully ours.  It is a darn shame when I  see large organizations deliberately choosing to use dirty tactics to try and wear us down with the hope that we would eventually give up and go away.

They use their deep pockets to try and squash us to bits!  They refuse to take responsibility for their actions.  They refuse to fix glaring glitches and infractions.  They prefer to pay hundreds of thousand of dollars to their high priced lawyers rather than negotiate with us in good faith and to collaborate with us for the greater good.

Then when they realize that we are not going to go away they have the nerve to pull out their cheque books to try and pay us off and even more humiliating is when they say that in return for their dirty money we need to sign a confidentiality agreement.

When you have tele communications companies blatantly offering that they are unable to provide audio descriptions of prime time programming because they are technically disabled, you ask yourself this question:  Is this for real or is it just another way of them using an impotent excuse to cut costs?

Or when you have a large Airport telling us that they are not really responsible for Human Rights infractions, that it is the responsibility of others, and then they attempt to use their deep pockets to frustrate the legal system:  You ask yourself this; seriously?  Are you for real?  You show up at mediation sessions and everyone hopes that you are here in good faith but truth be told all you want to do is to shut us down!

Or when you have an organization that has recklessly and wilfully infringed upon your rights to vote and tries to excuse themselves from said infractions, you ask yourself this question:  Seriously, is this really happening in a country that is supposed to be a developed country?

This sort of behaviour can only be described as condescending, patronizing, and downright nasty!  No organization, entity, or individual should be allowed to use their deep pockets to bully those who are in a much lesser position.  This is called brazen bullying!

My parting message is this!  I will do everything in my power to encourage and motivate others to keep on fighting.  We cannot give up and we must not give up!  We are fighting for ourselves, for each other, but most of all for the kids of the future!

We are fighting for what is rightfully ours; legally, as Human Beings, and as members of society!  No one should be allowed to take away our dignity, our rights, and our well being!  We must not let this happen and I encourage those reading this to stand with me and to share this with others!

Just my two cents for today!

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