![]() Tegan: Could you talk a bit more about that? Why a person might not identify themselves as having a disability? It's a question of acceptance or a question of perception depending on our experiences. But it doesn't mean that the person would recognize himself or herself as having a disability or being part of that group. And that's what can be included in persons with disabilities. All those things are affecting us as human beings, either for an episode of our life or permanently. And think about things like learning disability, mental health challenge, or even pain, chronic pain or hypersensitivity to the environment. But there's a lot of invisible disabilities, there's a lot of people where you will meet the person and you could not know that they have an activity limitation. So you'll know that I'm visually impaired or there's something different. Tony: You see, immediately, when you meet someone, like you will see that I have dancing eyes, if you see me, you'll notice that my eyes are different. What do you mean by invisible conditions? Tegan: 1.5 million Canadians aged 15 years and over have a seeing disability, like Tony. And I'm visually impaired since I was born. I'm the Director for public sector Statistics Division at Statistics Canada, and I'm also the champion for persons with disabilities in our organization since 2002. We mean people with visible and invisible conditions that may affect them in their daily life or in their daily work. Tony: Well, it can mean many things for many people, and some people will will have activity limitations and probably will not even think of themselves as being a person with a disability. So what do we mean when we say persons with disabilities? According to the 2017 Canadian Survey on Disability, more than 6 million Canadians aged 15 and over report having a disability. Welcome to the very first episode of Eh Sayers, it's a podcast from Statistics Canada, where we meet the people behind the data and explore the stories behind the numbers. We've all been working hard on it, and I hope you enjoy. To celebrate National AccessAbility Week, we're sharing a preview of our first episode. It will be available in both English and French under the names Eh Sayers and Hé-coutez bien. Tegan: In September, we're launching StatCan's first podcast. Tony Labillois, StatCan's Champion for Persons With Disabilitiesĭownload: National AccessAbility Week 2021 (MP3, 19.38 MB) National AccessAbility Week 2021 - Transcript We sit down (virtually!) with Tony Labillois, StatCan’s Champion for Persons With Disabilities, to talk about the new challenges and opportunities experienced by persons with disabilities during the pandemic. "Any time you see somebody sitting on a bus or a SkyTrain and they're in a seat for seniors or people with disabilities, even if they're young, they may still be dealing with a disability," she said.New barriers and new freedoms: A conversation with StatCan’s Champion for Persons With Disabilities "When I'm out and about and I need to keep my social distance and make sure those people around me are vaccinated or wearing a mask, sometimes they may downplay the severity about catching COVID-19, or even just the flu or any respiratory illness," she says.ĭavidson says the most important thing she wants people to take away from her experiences is not to make assumptions about what someone might be going through, despite their outward appearance. It's often the people who downplay these disabilities who also downplay the risk of COVID-19, she says. The pandemic has in some ways made the issue more important, Davidson says. That can be really difficult for somebody who's actually going through it because research suggests that those who have a strong support network actually have better outcomes," said Davidson. "When people can't see, they tend to diminish the severity of the disability. ![]() This week marks Invisible Disabilities Week, which was started to address some of the barriers people with such disabilities face - like not being believed they have a disability in the first place. Woman with invisible disability left shaken after altercation over accessible parking spot.First Person I learned to conceal my invisible disability.
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