Social Democracy and Physical Disability: How we can change

Reading through our group's blog posts, it may seem quite obvious that there needs to be at least some sort of change within society so everyone can begin to benefit from the policies in place in the Canadian welfare system.  Although society may discriminate against people with physical disabilities, physical disabilities do not discriminate among people and can affect anyone at any point throughout their lives; older persons, women, indigenous people, LGBTTQ*, etc.  A physical disability can very easily disrupt many activities, opportunities, and freedoms that should, and could, be available to all people no matter what their circumstances are.  However, we live in a society where people with physical disabilities cannot gain access to many buildings, have difficulty with transportation, are often judged as inadequate, and are therefore denied many opportunities that able-bodied people take for granted everyday.

To give a dramatic example, picture this: the number of people who reported having a physical disability in Canada in 2006 is more than the population of the whole state of Kentucky (Statistics Canada, 2007; U.S. Census Bureau, 2009).  We may know the government is aware of these unfortunate circumstances brought upon people with physical disabilities, but there is not enough direct incentive that will benefit them, and the rest of the able-bodied society to produce any meaningful changes.  In my opinion, the only reason any changes are taking place in the government system that benefit people with physical disabilities is to gain more sympathetic votes, to make them look better in the eyes of the public, or to "shut them up" by saying the government is trying to help them.  I feel like people are losing sight of what is really important and, instead, are getting caught up in making money or enhancing their reputation.

I believe the most effective way to bring about enough change that is necessary to improve the lives of people with physical disabilities is to adopt a social democratic frame of mind.  Mullaly (2007) states that in order to strive for equality within society, there needs to be "progressive tax systems, full employment policies, and well-developed social welfare programs" (p. 122) to provide people with physical disabilities the same opportunities in life that able-bodied people have.  The difference in our liberal Canadian welfare system right now is that people are provided with the equal opportunity to succeed, which in the end is not very equal at all.  From what I have learned in social work, society does not necessarily need everyone to be treated as equals because some people do not need help, and some need more help than others.  One of the main tenets of the social democracy ideology is "from each according to his/her ability, to each according to his/her needs" (Mullaly, 2007, p. 116) which is simply saying we need to help the people who need our help.  Through adopting social democratic ways of thinking and behaving, our society could begin to work together to produce change that will help the people who need help, and can therefore work to benefit and improve the overall health and happiness of all Canadians.

References:

Mullaly, B. (2007). The New Structural Social Work (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.

Statistics Canada. (2007). Retrieved December 1, 2010, from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/071203/dq071203a-eng.htm

U.S. Census Bureau. (2009). Retrieved December 1, 2010, from http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=uspopulation&met=population&idim=state:21000&dl=en&hl=en&q=population+of+kentucky

-Avery F