Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article misstated the total number of complaints received by the Quebec Human Rights Commission last year (837). This story has been updated to reflect the accurate figure.
MONTREAL — When Teri-Lee Walters made her last pay cheque, it was ten years to the day when she was hired out of college.
Working in radio and dealing with a variety of personalities who would duck in and out, she felt confident she could network her way back to full employment.
But as the calendar flipped, she grew increasingly concerned that a job offer wasn’t coming soon. She said she believes that the wheelchair she uses to get around has a lot to do with it.
“I started to lose hope.”
“I just felt helpless, I wasn’t getting anything back from all the CVs I had sent out,” she said.
“People who I had networked with weren’t getting back to me with any kind of job.”
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One problem she pointed to is an unintended side effect of rules designed to help the disabled: because of legislation regarding discrimination, employers will usually steer clear of questions regarding the nature of someone’s disability.
But the problem with that, employment counsellors say, is that it leads potential employers to assumptions which may be untrue and undermine a candidate’s ability to get hired.
“People are afraid of the unknown,” said Julia Stein, an employment counsellor who works at an employment agency that helps disabled people find work.
“So it’s important to talk openly about it.”
Part of the problem involves Montreal’s treacherous urban landscape, in which urban planners rarely have taken into account the plight of people with reduced mobility.
When Walters was working, she went from an apartment complex with an underground parking lot to an office building with an underground lot.
But others who don’t drive have a much more difficult scenario.
The city’s transit agency has a shuttle service that uses the OPUS card, but users and advocates say it is unreliable. Many of the city’s buildings aren’t set up for the disabled yet, and only seven of its metro stations are wheelchair-accessible.
“Every day we get complaints at the commission from disabled persons who suffer discrimination in employment, to get to employment,” said Jacques Fremont, the president of the Quebec Human Rights Commission.
The biggest problem, Fremont said, is that planners seldom prioritize people with reduced mobility.
“They say that it costs a lot.”
But at the same time, “we’re spending millions of dollars to build a bridge.”
The Quebec Human Rights Commission received about 840 complaints last year, and 280 of them — one third of the total– were made by people with disabilities.
Walters has been looking for work for more than a year now, perfecting a routine that governs when she gets up, goes to bed and social media sites she uses. She is hoping someone calls her to offer her a chance to show her skills, but concedes she may have to leave the province if the situation persists.
“My unemployment will run out,” she said.
“What do I do when it does?”
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