tuation threatens to the basic principles of democracy since certain categories of Canadian population do not have access to the benefits others can normally use. It is an obvious violation of principles of participatory democracy as it excludes disabled population from the normal, social, political and economic life of the country.
Consequently, disabled people feel deprived of the principle of equality and they perceive their disability as the main cause of such a situation along with indifference or at least low interest of the government and society in their problems.
Not less serious is the problem of poverty. Unfortunately, nowadays material or physical disability is still an object of discriminating attitude. Long human history approves that poor and handicapped people were always oppressed and condemned to sufferings and violation of their rights because they were and still are the weakest and the least protected part of the society. Actually, it is not surprising that since earliest ages people respected two things force and power, given by wealth. For poor and disabled are deprived both of them they logically remain in the lower part of a social structure, such people do not have the same opportunities to realize their abilities as people of middle or upper. Thus, for many people physical disability and poverty are synonymous notions.
As a result, such people against their own will become marginal and do not have equal possibilities to realize their civil rights and personal aptitudes. What is even worse is the fact that they practically do not have a chance to change the situation for better because they cannot compete with those who have better opportunities to realize their life chances.
The reasons for this are quite obvious. Firstly, poor or disabled people do not have a real chance to receive a good education though there may be some exceptions but not numerous. But even if they study they cannot do it like others do. For example, handicapped students need some special conditions and very often special equipment as well as they need specially trained teachers who could work with them. As for poor people, it is really difficult to study when you don’t have any prospects and when you are not sure that you could attend school next day because you had to earn money to live. One may say that government or educational establishments must provide equal opportunities for all students but in real life there are the most prestigious schools and universities for upper classes and schools in suburbs where education has a superficial character.
Practically the same problems are with the employment. It is evident that the main factor for an employer to hire or dismiss an employee is his or her ability to provide the most effective work with the least investments in conditions of work. Consequently, they do not want to bother of such things as accommodation of a disabled worker or other problems of that sort. The last hope to protect the employee’s rights is the court but it is also influenced by traditional stereotypes and tends to ignore such demands and many of such cases are won by employers and a juridical explanation may be as follows: investing costs in making workplace equally accessible to a disabled person makes the civil right coming into conflict with the employer’s property right. For poor people the situation is not better because the rate of unemployment is quite high while their level of qualification is not very high all this make such people less compatible on the market and, consequently, more discriminated. Thus, the myth that everything depends only on a person’s abilities, intelligence and cunningness is just a myth and has nothing in common with the real life
Unfortunately, the problem of dis
