Disabled Ontarians denied access to assisted devices
Want to spike your heart rate? Lose your cellphone. All of a sudden, life seems impossible.
But think of what life is like for disabled Ontarians who can’t access wheelchairs or hearing aids, or safely monitor their sugar levels as diabetics. Think of trying to walk without your prosthetic leg or communicate without the device that allows you to hear or speak.
Losing one’s cellphone is frustrating, but losing one’s ability to function is traumatic and dehumanizing. Yet, this happens every day in Ontario, and it’s been made worse by emergency measures invoked during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Why? Because the Ministry of Health did not designate Ontario’s Assistive Devices Program (ADP) as an essential service. The ADP is the body empowered to approve applications for the devices disabled Ontarians need, but ADP officials stopped answering calls since COVID-19 began. Only recently did they start to answer emails.
A judgment call was bound up in that decision. Someone in government thought disabled Ontarians in need of crucial equipment could wait out the pandemic.
That leads to the plight of Michael Wilson, a Kitchener man who was homebound for weeks when his power wheelchair broke down. His plea for a new chair went unheard, so he crawled around his home until media reports brought action.
There is also the story of Ten Morgan, a teenager who has been bedridden for the better part of a year as she waited for ADP to approve a power wheelchair. Her wait was prolonged by the shutdown of ADP’s offices.
But long before COVID-19, disabled Ontarians have endured lengthy waits for essential equipment. They have been burdened with huge costs (like $10,000 for a power wheelchair) and pricegouged by vendors whose markups are obscene.
As a review from the auditor general in December 2018 noted, the ADP is in dire need of reform. It operates with a goal of answering applications within eight weeks, but 46 per cent of its decisions take longer than that. The ADP has two staff members to audit thousands of vendors, who serve more than 400,000 people.
Three weeks ago, the official opposition at Queen’s Park wrote Premier Doug Ford and insisted he meet immediately with grassroots disability leaders to rectify the ADP and several other serious problems. So far, we’ve had no response at all, and that’s unacceptable.
By fixing the ADP, the Ford government can correct the impression that people with disabilities are second-class citizens during COVID-19. The government’s relationship with people with disabilities can begin to be repaired if the right decisions are made.
Let’s recognize the ADP as an essential service in Ontario, eliminate its wait times and flaws, and put much-needed funding behind it. People with disabilities deserve nothing less. Joel Harden