Advocacy Library
Speak Up and Get Things Done
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For Rob Sleath of Vancouver, it’s dangerous rapid transit stations. For Margaret Thomson of St. John’s, it’s doctors who don’t introduce their medical students. And for Craig Nicol of Toronto, it’s the need for accessible bank machines.
These pet peeves cause all three CNIB clients to say, “Don’t get me started!” But “getting them started” has led to major improvements for disabled people in their areas.
Rob Sleath was in sales and marketing in the insurance business before losing his sight to diabetic retinopathy in 1991. He now brings the talents he used in his work to a full-time lobbying career as president of Advocates for Sight Impaired Consumers (ASIC), a B.C.–based lobby group. ASIC has a three-stage approach: education, communication, and, if necessary, litigation. “There’s a huge need to educate the decision-makers,” he comments. “They don’t know what they don’t know.”
Rob has helped get descriptive video into movie theatres, tactile edging on Vancouver’s SkyTrain platforms, and accessible pedestrian signals at Vancouver’s busiest intersections. He now helps educate transit drivers about the needs of blind and visually impaired passengers.
The easiest campaign was with the Famous Players movie chain, he says. He’d found that a U.S. theatre chain offered descriptive video and wondered why Canada’s didn’t. Famous Players had just upgraded its theatres for people with physical disabilities, so he wrote congratulating them on these improvements and asking about their plans for people with sensory disabilities. Their reply thanked him for the acknowledgement — period. So he persisted, followed up, and followed up, and eventually Famous Players said they would invest $1 million nationally to install descriptive video in their theatres.
Margaret Thomson of St. John’s is very busy even though she took early retirement from her job as a human resources officer with the federal government in 1996. Her group, the Coalition of Persons With Disabilities, plans lobbied candidates in the recent provincial election about the need for an Assistive Devices Program like Ontario’s. She’s also on the CNIB Library Board, which has been actively lobbying the Canadian Library Association to get more public libraries involved in partnering with the CNIB Library, and to get their support in lobbying the federal government for funding. As chair of the CNIB Client Services committee, Margaret works with representatives on the Mayor’s Advisory Committee, helping make the city safer and more accessible for people with disabilities.
Margaret gets impatient with the slow rate of change but does see a gradual change in attitude towards people with disabilities. Her husband completely supports her “rabble rousing,” as he calls it, and even joins in on occasion. Once, at an appointment with her doctor, he interrupted to tell her that there was a student in the room who hadn’t been introduced. Margaret now gives workshops for health-care professionals on treating vision impaired patients with respect. “Little things count,” she comments. “Like telling hospital patients that their lunch has been delivered.”
Craig Nicol of Toronto was a construction superintendent until he began to lose his sight to retinitis pigmentosa at age 50. A member of the CNIB’s Advocacy Committee, he had heard that there was a plan to develop a standard for accessible bank machines, but didn’t know who was responsible. The Canadian Bankers Association had produced a report on the machines, so he asked to critique it. When he sent in his response, he found that they had asked the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) to create a standard for such machines, so he applied to become a consumer representative with the CSA. That got him onto the CSA’s Technical Committee on Barrier-Free Design. He’s also served on the Toronto Transit Commission’s Advisory Committee on Accessible Transport.
Craig likes the committee approach to advocacy: “It’s a more formal, structured way of handling issues. People listen more. It helps your credibility when you’re not just advocating for yourself.” He too gets frustrated with the pace of change but believes in getting results. “Where we’ve made changes in the Building Code, everyone benefits. Strollers as well as wheelchairs can go up ramps; automated doors open for everyone.”
What advice do these highly effective advocates have for those who want to get things changed? Rob Sleath says the most important thing is to speak up. “Authorities tell me, ‘We didn’t know any of this. We hear from people in wheelchairs, but not from people who are blind.’ ” And don’t assume that someone else will do it: “We get messages from people saying, ‘Thank God you’re looking after this, because this really affects me.’ Well, if it affects you, join in!” One voice will get a note put in a file, he says, “but 10 voices will get someone to look into it, and 50–100 voices will get something done.”
Reprinted with permission from The Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Copyright © 1996-2004 The Canadian National Institute for the Blind. All rights reserved.