A Human Rights-Based Approach to Addressing Accessibility with a Social Justice Lens: The Experience of York Region District School Board

Poster Abstract:

If there is one indisputable truth that emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is the glaring reality of disproportionate consequences and the adverse impact on vulnerable and marginalized populations. Planning and responding to the pandemic has in many ways highlighted the degree to which organizations and systems have too often spoken of inclusion, but have failed abysmally to articulate its meaning or bringing it to fruition. The aged, persons with disabilities, Indigenous peoples, racialized populations and corresponding intersectionality of each or all has confirmed that a systems approach within a social justice lens is vital in reimagining a duty to accommodate to be married with and extended beyond the individual and embedded at an organizational level beyond legal compliance for addressing and eliminating barriers.

The recognition of a social justice lens that fully incorporates a human rights-based approach to inclusion has been the approach of the Human Rights Commissioner’s Office (HRCO) at York Region District School Board (YRDSB) for addressing accessibility issues impacting staff, students and the greater YRDSB community. This paper details evidence of the HRCO’s research and practices for fostering accessibility premised on a human rights-based approach and within a social justice lens.

With human rights obligations at the heart of its work, the HRCO approach is designed to empower staff and students to participate in co-constructing a barrier-free culture by holding duty-bearers accountable through the dual objectives of:

1. Empowering rights-holders (persons with disabilities) to claim and exercise their rights; and

2. Strengthening the capacity of duty-bearers (decision-makers at the Board) who have the obligation to respect, protect, promote, and fulfil human rights.

While rights-holders are individuals and populations deemed to have particular entitlements, duty-bearers are the system leaders who have an obligation to respect, protect, promote, and fulfil the human rights of rights-holders. A social justice lens recognizes the engrained nature of inequity within systems. The ideal condition wherein all members of society are accorded basic rights, protections, opportunities, obligations, and social benefits neither exists nor does the impetus for change. A social justice lens assumes that:

- Disability is a largely the result of assigned statuses - social, legal and economic

- A broad set of factors come together to contribute to exclusion and the loss of human rights, particularly within the educational system

- Respect and valuing diversity contribute to well-being

- Staff and students of differing abilities must be supported by affirming policies, functions and practices in order to fully exercise their rights

- Staff and student need a sense of fairness in bringing accessibility concerns

With Ontario 's Human Rights Code as its legal and moral compass, the HRCO approach to accessibility is contingent on justice having a fundamental social purpose that is vital toward advancing equality through equity. Additionally, it proposes that all interactions within YRDSB’s organizational culture must accord accessibility as a cornerstone in creating a welcoming environment in which inclusion is about who we serve.