This International Day of Persons with Disabilities, I had the very unique privilege of spending the day with the UK High Commissioner and the British High Commission team to discuss how Canada-UK relations can and must centre disability inclusion and accessibility in multilateral diplomacy, similar domestic and foreign policies, economic growth and trade resilience strategies, and international leadership on critical security issues.
While I could give you a play-by-play of the day (which honestly felt more like a Make-A-Wish than my actual Make-A-Wish) I want to try something different.
I genuinely believe we as a society have finally reached a level of disability awareness that enables us advocates to go beyond basic awareness-raising and into tricky, complicated, unresolved issues.
International Day of Persons with Disabilities means a lot of things to a lot of people. For me, quite honestly, it usually means hiding in my bed, scrolling through socials, tracking who even acknowledges the day, and who ignores it outright.
It means watching ‘progressive’ organizations and activists fail to include disability in their version of intersectionality. It means watching the frenzy of last-minute, we-forgot posts flood in around 3pm. It means I’ll be reminded that for some, disability remains an afterthought at the very best.
On the other hand, it means rolling my eyes at stock images of disabled people the poster has never met. It means yelling out loud to myself when I see outdated language. It means typing angry comments and deleting them over and over. It means holding my tongue when service providers emphasize our economic productivity and labour potential without addressing the legislated disability poverty crisis.
In short, it means a lot of things.
But I want it to mean something different. I want the International Day of Persons with Disabilities to reflect our everyday realities, that can champion our potential without shying away from the barriers we face.
I want IDPD to be an encouraging and effective call to action for disability allies – one that teaches them about our rich history of fighting for civil, social, economic, political, and cultural rights. One that demands progressive movements include disability in all aspects of their work. One that addresses all of the systemic forces of oppression at play to keep disabled people in place – out of work, out of school, out of the community.
But above all, I want IDPD to be a celebration and continuation of the disability rights my disabled ancestors fought for. The rights that I was born with, the rights I grew up with, and the rights I choose to fight for today.
We are beyond disability awareness. We are starting to understand disability inclusion. But we are not going to get anywhere without disability rights.
And for me, in practice, realizing disability rights requires engaging in the tricky and complex debates most people assume disabled people have never even considered. Realizing disability rights requires that we make ourselves seen, heard, and known in all aspects of life.
Realizing disability rights requires that we get involved in all aspects of political and policy debates, including military and economic security.
I know! Curveball! Where did that come from! (Got you, we just talked about this…)
While I don’t often bring it up, my undergrad in international development and conflict studies has deeply influenced my approach to advocacy – but I could never figure out how to share those influences without it feeling too academic-y.
Since starting grad school just a few months ago, this struggle to connect my academic life to my advocacy work has been viciously gnawing away at my brain.
I realized that if I was going to be able to mentally cope with momentarily taking a break from the grassroots, I had to find a way to ensure whatever nerdy stuff I got up to would somehow find its way back to – and benefit – the community.
It wasn’t until writing this blog that I realized I had to do the same with my undergrad too.
I’ve also been acutely aware that with the new national government, my federal (non-partisan!) advocacy work was going to have to shift to meet evolving political priorities.
One of the main reasons that I’m an advocate and not an activist is because I genuinely believe that working with people in positions of power will be the most effective way of delivering real, impactful, and desirable change for the disability community.
The values, aims, and ends of my advocacy remain the same – I just communicate it to certain people in new ways. The goal will always be the full realization of disability rights at home and abroad – but the way we’re gonna get there will naturally shift with time.
So, I hope you guys can appreciate this new experimental approach, and that little behind-the-scenes of my advocacy work.
At best, we all learned something new. At worst, I do the usual “what IDPD means to me”/“disability rights revamped” blog-gy bit at the end.
Be brave.
As I prepared to spend the day with the UK High Commission to celebrate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, I found my usual speaking points weren’t resonating the way they used to.
While I had spoken on international disability rights, I’d never taken a crack at specific bilateral disability relations. After about a year of silently feeling stagnant, this was the challenge I needed to revitalize my own advocacy work.
While the whole military and economic security thing felt a little out of my wheelhouse, it was now or never – since the UK High Commissioner and his team were stuck with me for what felt like a Make-A-Wish-y amount of time. (And yes, I told the entire team this.) So, I spent hours developing some points on disability-inclusive diplomacy, defence, development, and trade.
Here goes:
As we know, the world is rapidly shifting under the escalating polycrisis of climate change, conflict, economic inequality, democratic backsliding, and so much more. As Canada and our allies seek to strengthen our militaries, economies, and people, disabled people cannot be forgotten.
In fact, I believe that disability inclusion can play a critical role in promoting meaningful, transformative change that not only improves overall efficiency and adaptability, but addresses deep-seated issues of inequality and barriers to access.
Here’s just a few ways how:
Economic Growth
Canada, like other G7 countries, is facing relatively slowed productivity. Simply put, our economies have reached a level of development that resists further innovation and adaptation. After years of stagnation, our positioning in the global economy grows increasingly precarious. But, as mainstream economics has begun to realize, our countries are full of untapped, skilled, ready potential.
Many disabled people want to work – in fact, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognizes the importance of meaningful work and the need to remove barriers to participation. However, the labour market remains inaccessible. With the majority of accommodations carrying zero financial cost, and the remainder of accommodations averaging out to about $300-$500, these are minor investments in unlocking massive potential.
Trade Resilience
Us Canadians have seen firsthand just how quickly a long-standing, cherished relationship can (literally) go south. Today’s unanticipatedly unstable global economy is a wake-up call for countries to diversify trade partners, encourage domestic manufacturing, and to leverage economic concerns to meet social and security aims.
We know that disability and neurodivergence-inclusive workplaces are more productive, more flexible, and more adaptable. Disabled and neurodivergent workers experience the world differently, and their experiences and resulting insights contribute to more agile workplace policies and practices.
These agile and reflexive firms are better prepared to adapt to acute and chronic macroeconomic shocks, and could provide a foundation for building an inclusive economy that meets the needs of all Canadians.
Democratic & Diplomatic Representation
To make the most effective, relevant, and practical decisions – we need the right people at the table. From trade talks to peace talks, we know that the right guest list is the very foundation of strong and effective negotiations that deliver tangible and impactful change.
Yet, too often, when we talk about disability – disabled people themselves are left out of the conversation.
Having champions of the disability community with lived experience actively participate in critical negotiations and debates is essential to informing policies and programs that actually reflect and meet the needs of all Canadians.
Canada has long been a leader on the international disability rights stage. Whether it’s the protection of child soldiers, prohibition on land mines, drafting the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, or guiding its ratification on the Committee – Canada has a long, but often forgotten, history of championing international disability inclusion.
Canada also has, in my opinion, the most sophisticated youth disability delegate program in the world. As a former delegate myself, I witnessed firsthand how having youth embedded in governmental delegations transforms the agenda and encourages candid discussions on emerging disability issues.
As our generation inherits an increasingly troubled world, I want to encourage all CRPD delegations to ensure youth participation. Youth are not the future – youth are now. We must be provided with critical opportunities to develop our skills, networks, and voices to champion intergenerational change.
Domestic Human Security Approaches
As our countries pivot towards more security-oriented agendas, we must remember that security is not exclusive to the international realm – and that human security must start at home.
If our societies are to respond to an increasingly complicated and unstable world, we must have the internal capacity and resilience. A human security approach prioritizes meeting a population’s basic needs – such as health, education, nutrition, and sanitation.
This may sound obvious. But for the disabled recipients of disability assistance programs legislated into poverty, they struggle to meet their basic needs everyday. They are forced to choose between keeping the heat on, or putting food on the table. And sometimes, this legislated poverty prevents them from either.
To build a united, resilient, adaptable society prepared to respond to unimaginable circumstances, we must first ensure all members of our communities have their most basic needs met. Addressing this completely resolvable issue would foster individual belonging, community inclusion, and societal participation. When our individuals feel secure, when our communities feel connected, when our societies feel united – only then, can we band together to face the daunting challenges ahead.
Disability-Inclusive Development Aid & Post-Conflict Reconstruction
Official development aid has plummeted to a previously unimaginable low. Now, the most marginalized are asked to do so much more, for so much less. Given the current political context, it is unlikely Global North countries will increase their ODA anytime soon.
In this drastic context, disability-inclusive development aid stands as an innovative tool to deliver improved health, education, and employment outcomes to the most marginalized. Disability-inclusive development requires, by design, human-centred development that supports local populations of all abilities in designing the services and programs they deem most essential. When we design with disability in mind, we deliver for all ages, abilities, and backgrounds.
The 2025 Global Disability Summit’s Amman-Berlin Declaration recognizes the transformative power of disability-inclusive development, and calls on donor countries to commit 15% of ODA to disability-specific programming.
The United Kingdom has signed on. Canada has not.
A Particularly Uncheery IDPD Post
This may seem like a particularly uncheery IDPD post. But I believe that IDPD is about so much more than including disabled people and recognizing our accomplishments.
I believe that IDPD is an incredible opportunity to acknowledge the disability community’s historic fight for recognition and justice, and to honour it by ensuring that disability rights and disabled people are meaningfully included in all aspects of our lives.
Disability rights, and all human rights, are not “nice to have.” They did not emerge because they are “the right thing to do.”
Disability rights emerged as we tackled the systemic killing of disabled populations in Nazi Germany, the institutionalization of those labelled with intellectual disabilities, the disproportionate rates of casualties and fatalities in humanitarian disasters and conflicts.
Disability rights emerged and envisioned a better future for all. One where work is always voluntary and meaningful. Where healthcare is always appropriate and responsive. Where education is for everyone, and everyone has the right to live with dignity, autonomy, and respect.
On this IDPD (or, more likely, the days after it), I ask you all to go beyond surface-level acknowledgements that we exist.
Beyond glossy stock photos of a person in a wheelchair that you have never met going up a ramp. Beyond the aspects of disability you find comfortable, or positive, or marketable.
Because disability is so much more than that.
Disability is, quite literally, everything.
Honour our agency, our autonomy, our fight for progress by pledging to fight alongside us.
We are all aware of disability. We are all only going to become more aware of disability. So move beyond awareness, and towards solidarity.
Challenge yourself to think of disability beyond the usual realms of employment and education – to include disability in the important conversations you may deem too “intense” or “irrelevant” for us.
And yes, that includes defence, diplomacy, and development. That includes economic security and trade negotiations. It includes everything you can imagine, and then, probably, a whole lot more.
Nothing About Us Without Us. Nothing Without Us.
Thanks for reading and letting me try something new <3