The Race to the Starting Line: What You Need to Know about the Accessible Canada Act for Making a Barrier-Free Society by Max L. Brault
Excerpt from Chapter Fourteen: When It Comes All Together, pages 163-166 © 2025
Introduction
(From the website)
Few laws since the Charter of Rights and Freedoms have had as much impact as the Accessible Canada Act. Passed in 2019, it aims to create a barrier-free Canada by 2040, addressing employment, infrastructure, communication, and more.
Despite its significance, many remain unaware of its impact and origins. In The Race to the Starting Line, Max Brault unpacks the Act’s key elements, introduces the federal offices enforcing it, and shares powerful stories of resilience. Featuring insights from top accessibility leaders, the book is both a roadmap and a call to action to remove barriers across Canada.
I am a very lucky person, in my life and career. But many people my age can’t say the same. I belong to a lost generation of people with disabilities. Some ended up in institutions. Many could only ever find short-term work. Perhaps new technologies passed them by or no one ever gave them a chance to prove themselves. Whatever the situation, society has largely left these people behind. I wish the Accessible Canada Act (ACA) could act quickly enough to save everyone, but the truth is what we’re doing now won’t help some people today. To change the future, we have to focus on the next generation. I benefitted from the work of advocates who came before me, and so it will be for people entering the workforce now.
Still, we can put most of our resources into the future while doing some things for people today. There are stop-gap solutions, like a universal pay benefits program. We also need to support the parents of people with disabilities, and not just when kids are young. Some of those grown-up children may need ongoing support. Parents may start a business that suits their child’s talents, but often those businesses have to be in the parents’ name, which means they don’t qualify as diverse-owned and so don’t get supports. These are just some of the issues that will have to be addressed beyond the ACA, but we’re not doing that yet.
Employment is about more than a job. Finding work is like a status symbol in the community because if you work it means you’ve got the other aspects of your life squared away. Just the extra time getting ready in the morning is an added barrier that no one sees.
We don’t talk enough about this gauntlet of challenges people with disabilities face just to maintain a working lifestyle. I call them the five Olympic rings.
How does a person with a disability get themselves ready to work? Increasingly, most jobs and careers require a university or college education. There’s a hurdle right there. Attending post-secondary education is not easy. Living on campus may not be possible, either because the facilities are not friendly to your disability or you need help with things that you maybe rely on family for. Remote learning is only now becoming more commonplace, but many academic disciplines are not set up for it. We can’t talk about employment if we don’t address the first ring: education.
Think about when you left university or college, or when you left home for the first time, and started to work. The second big obstacle, or ring, is housing. You most likely lived with colleagues, friends, roommates, whomever. But people with disabilities most likely end up staying at home. I’d say about 90 percent of people with disabilities are living at home when they get their first job. We don’t know for sure, because there’s no data for this, but it’s an educated guess. Those fortunate 10 percent or so who do go out there and find housing run into some very big problems. If you’re in a wheelchair, you quickly discover most bathrooms and housing aren’t accessible, so your options are limited and as a result, often more expensive.
Almost no one is lucky enough to have housing right next to their employment, and so, the third ring is transportation. We all need reliable transportation. Frankly, most people can’t afford a car when they first start working. It’s even more expensive to get a car that’s been designed for people in wheelchairs or adapted for other disabilities. So, we’ve got to rely on public transportation. Depending on where you live, which is already a tricky thing to navigate, your transit options may or may not work well for you. And special transit organizations for the disability community have long been plagued with issues about timeliness and consistency. We can’t battle the stigma of being “unreliable employees” if we can’t even get to work on time every day. Working means you have to be able to handle your personal life and take care of everyday things in your off hours. Work-life balance is even harder when you have a full-time disability to manage.
What if my father wasn’t available to help me? What if I didn’t have a wonderful wife and family today? This is the fourth ring. People with disabilities need attendant care services, somebody to help with the basics like waking up in the morning, dressing oneself, going to the bathroom, preparing and eating meals—all the things we need to live. I was fortunate in my twenties that my disability wasn’t yet that severe. I was still able to cook. I wasn’t a good cook—I pretty much lived on spaghetti—but I could at least do that. Every disability affects life differently, but many people cannot work or live alone without some attendant services. Without those, it all falls apart.
Finally, the fifth ring is community, and it’s something we maybe pay the least attention to—but we shouldn’t. Especially when you’re young, communities are where you learn who you are. They’re where you find love and acceptance, where you discover hobbies and passions. For many, they define you later on in life. Remote and online work is becoming the norm, and it comes with huge benefits. But people with disabilities are already at great risk of being isolated, physically and socially. Work is about more than money. We are social beings and want to be a part of things. Without a sense of community, I don’t know if any business or organization can truly thrive. Community is so undervalued when we talk about accessibility. It’s not just about getting a job; it’s about having a good life. I don’t have an easy solution, but we’re going to have to address all five rings if we’re to have true equity in the workplace.
About the Author
With decades of experience in both public service and consulting, Max Brault has played a key role in shaping accessibility policies across Canada. His work has contributed to major advancements in inclusion and barrier-free initiatives, earning him recognition for his leadership and impact. Read more about Max here.
Book Details
Publisher: Initiate Marketing (May 18, 2025)
Language: English (Canadian)
Genre: Current Events (News & Politics)
Page count (paperback): 208
ISBN: 978-0-97393-301-7