It’s Your Right (Disability Issues)

Members  with  disabilities  want nothing  more  than  the  opportunity to do their jobs – just like any other school board employee. It really is that  simple. The law facilitates that very basic human impulse: Under Ontario’s Human Rights Code, employers must accommodate employees with disabilities, unless doing so would require operational changes so drastic that they would endanger the viability of the enterprise. The Act  states that employees with disabilities must be accommodated to the point of “undue hardship.”

Many  members  who  live  and  work  with disabilities are  unaware of their legal rights to accommodation. They may  also  be  reluctant to come forward and initiate the process to put these accommodations into place. Unfortunately, stigma  against individuals with disabilities, however subtle or unintentional, is a reality in our  workplaces. The following  two  scenarios illustrate how the process of initiating accommodations might work.

Scenario  1

You are a new teacher, and you also happen to have a  learning disability. When you were at university, there was  an accessibility office which ensured that  students with  disabilities – physical disabilities, sensory and learning dis- abilities;  disabilities related to  mental  health; and all other types of disabilities – received the assistance they needed to overcome the barriers they faced in their academic lives. In your case, this meant that the university arranged access to  special  software, and  gave  you  additional time to write some of your exams. You successfully completed your studies and were hired by a school board. In addition to taking on the  responsibilities of your new job– and we all understand how steep a learning curve that is– you appear to have landed in an environment in which barriers are everywhere and help is nowhere in sight.

Scenario  2

You are a teacher with 15 years of teaching experience, and you have recently been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Business as usual in your job is no longer possible. You want to continue teaching. You  know that you are a good teacher who can do an excellent job, but your work environment is nearly impossible to navigate and you face pain and obstacles every day. The solution is the same in both these cases. You can contact your local ETFO office and ask about the supports available to members with a disability. (Contact information is available on our website etfo.ca. Click on Links in the upper  right-hand  corner.)  Alternatively, you can call the provincial office (416-962-3836 or 1-888-838-3836) and ask for the Professional Relations Services person on-call. The  PRS  staff  person will  ask  you  about the difficulties you are facing at work and will explain  what  information  you  may  need  to supply about your disability. You will receive the support you need to help ensure that your rights are being enforced and your needs are being met. Your rights are real, including your right to keep doing the job you love.