People living with disabilities win leadership awards.
by Jody Dallaire, Dieppe Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunity between Women and Men
Recently, New Brunswick celebrated Disability Awareness Week (DAW) for the 25th time. This year, DAW fell on May 27 to June 2 with a theme "Ready and Able to Work." Galas held during May and June celebrated the achievements of local individuals with disabilities.
As Martin Luther King Jr. said so well: "A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus." These leaders are doing exactly that in their day-to-day lives: molding consensus around the critical issue of accessibility.
The first is one of the eight award recipients at the recent Women of Distinction Awards Gala held in Moncton by the YWCA. Sylvie Lirette, whom I have had the privilege of working with, was recognized for her work in the non-profit and public sectors. Sylvie Lirette has devoted countless hours to advocating on behalf of people and causes such as accessibility for people living with disabilities, gender equality and the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals. She has been actively involved on two Dieppe City Advisory committees (Accessibility and Equality between women and men). She also tutors high school and university students living with disabilities.
e Paul Harris Fellowship Awards ceremony organized by the Dieppe Rotary Club honoured, among other deserving recipients, Jamie Vautour, a 17 year-old Mathieu-Martin High School student. Jamie Vautour worked to include a position for a student with a disability on the high school student council. He succeeded in his quest and in the process, redefined what leaders look like at his school — a change other high schools should adopt if they wish to ensure diversity on their student councils.
Vautour served as a member of student council for academic year 2011-2012. His leadership and that of the school brought them accolades. In March, he was recognized as one of l'Acadie Nouvelle/Radio Canada's personalité de la semaine (personality of the week) for his work. His high school, Mathieu-Martin High won a Disability Awareness Provincial Award from New Brunswick Premier's Council on the Status of Disabled Persons.
Speaking of the Premier's Council, they also recognized Robert Melanson, a former longstanding member of the Dieppe Advisory Committee on Accessibility, for his work in making his community more accessible for persons living with disabilities.
Disability Awareness Provincial Awards are given out every year to individuals and organizations that have made significant efforts to improve the opportunities available to persons living with disabilities, to enable them to fully participate in their communities and to lead more independent lives.
These three individuals, and several others throughout the province, are living in their day-to-day lives Martin Luther King's definition of leadership, molding our communities to their vision by ensuring that everyone can fully participate and contribute to their community.
The New Brunswick Premier's Council on the Status of Disabled Persons produced a fact sheet for employers with common myths (otherwise known as stereotypes) about persons living with a disability.
Here are three of the myths:
Myth: Individuals with disabilities are not able to contribute to society.
More than anything, individuals with disabilities are restricted not by their abilities, but by society.
Fact: More than anything, individuals with disabilities are restricted not by their abilities, but by society.
Myth: Considerable expense is necessary to accommodate persons with disabilities.
Fact: In reality, with proper planning and knowledge, most accommodations are simple and inexpensive. Accommodations mostly have more to do with creativity, flexibility and sound management practices than expensive structural modifications or specialized technology.
Myth: Individuals with disabilities are more sensitive than other people, more courageous, kinder, more creative, more admirable or more conscientious.
Fact: Individuals with disabilities do not possess any special characteristics. They are just like other persons.
In conclusion, I wanted to say that I believe that our differences as individuals make our society stronger and that it is important that we embrace and celebrate these differences. The Premier's Council on the Status of Disabled Persons does an important public service by continuing to profile organizational and individual leaders in this area. We all benefit from increasing people's awareness of the need to make our communities more accessible and inclusive.
About Jody Dallaire
Jody Dallaire lives and works in Dieppe New Brunswick where she writes a weekly column on women's equality issues and matters of social justice.
Email: jody.dallaire@rogers.com.
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