Environmental Justice has an intrinsic connection with Disability Justice. Both movements fight against the oppressions that disproportionately harms people from communities and identities pushed to the margins.

Both movements recognize and educate about the effects of economic injustices and isms like ableism, classism, and racism. Colonialism and capitalism, for example, are in favour of unimpeded economic growth and personal profit which leads to the devaluing the inherent worth of ecosystems, land, waterways, and people while exploiting them for wealth. Disabled people are devalued because we may not be as economically “productive” as others, thereby seeing us as without worth and value. Environmental Justice and Disability Justice fight back with the fundamental belief that people and land have inherent worth.

Join us to discuss strategies, both individually and collectively, that we can utilize to improve our interconnected future.

Discussion includes:

• How environmental injustices disproportionately affect marginalized communities.
• The similarity of disability denial and climate silence, both socially organized denial.
• Disabled people being more susceptible to environmental harms and why.
• Examples of environmental harm.
• The intertwined relationship between nature and health.
• Pushing back against the devaluation of lands and peoples.
• The severe and enduring negative impacts on mental health issues by environmental injustices.
• Utilizing Indigenous practices to better care for the land.
• Community care, justice, and sustainability are intrinsically interwoven.
• How to better utilize disabled people in the Environmental Justice movement.
• Prioritizing cross-movement solidarity to work together towards our joined liberation.

This workshop empowers participants to understand the importance of meaningfully integrating lived expertise into their organizations, services, and communities.

Drawing from knowledge and experience with systems, challenges, and barriers, this session explores how lived expertise can drive authentic change and create more equitable and responsive ways of proceeding in our work.

LET’S is unique in that all our staff, researchers, and educators are of the identities of the project we are doing (i.e. 2SLGBTQIA+ workshop facilitator is queer, accessibility auditor is disabled, etc.). For 20 years, LET’S that has been utilizing the personal experiences, stories, and lived/living expertise of our staff. We have also been entrusted with sharing the lived expertise of our members, an honour we don’t take lightly.

At LET’S, we share our stories to bring perspective to the educational opportunities we facilitate. Our speaking authentically and openly encourages others to find ways to share their stories and create more space to hear and contemplate stories from others.

It is vital to honour people’s stories and their opening themselves up to be vulnerable and relive emotional experiences. Hearing a person’s story comes with responsibility, whether personal contemplation and/or assessing how it can be applied to our environments (work, volunteering, family, friends, community, religious institutions, hobbies, activism, etc.).

Clients and workshop participants say that the stories we share give them more context and connection and make the material more memorable.

Our voices combined leads to transformational change in our communities, workplaces, and interpersonal relationships

Learning objectives include:
·      Understanding the difference between lived/living experience versus lived/living expertise
·      Creating authentic, ongoing relationships with people with lived/living expertise
·      How to move beyond the tokenistic consultation model
·      Learn how to create braves spaces that recognize people’s varying experiences in life
·      Understand the value and importance of lived/living expertise in creating more effective, equitable services and policies
·      Address barriers that prevent meaningful participation and implement enablers that support genuine sharing
·      How to address power dynamics and build trust

This workshop explores the history and ongoing journey of disability rights and experiences in Canada, spanning from the 1800s to today. We will explore major turning points, such as the creation and closure of institutions, the impact of eugenics policies, and the introduction of key laws like the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Accessible Canada Act. We’ll highlight the power of grassroots disability activism, showing how community organizing and lived expertise have driven policy change and challenged ableist systems

The workshop will also unpack how different ways of understanding disability – including the medical and social models, as well as reclaimed identities like “crip” and “mad” – have shaped public attitudes, government policy, and the disability rights movement. We’ll discuss how intersectionality and disability justice frameworks, such as the 10 principles from Sins Invalid, have broadened our understanding of disability to include the experiences of people who are also racialized, queer, Indigenous, or otherwise equity-denied populations.

Throughout, we’ll center disabled people’s autonomy, leadership, and ongoing resistance. By connecting the past to present-day advocacy and accessibility challenges, this workshop will help participants see disability history as a living, collective struggle for equity, justice, and community belonging.

Learning objectives:

• Explore the historical trajectory of disability policy in Canada from institutions to today’s accessibility legislation and laws.
• Find out about important court cases and legal decisions that shaped disability rights in Canada.
• Compare and contrast medical and social models of disability
• Understand the political nature and history of the reclaimed terms crip and mad
• Learn about the emergence and evolution of disability rights movements in Canada,
• Explore how how intersectional frameworks have expanded disability awareness
• Brief overview of SinsInvalid’s 10 Disability Justice principles
• Speak to current disability issues, ongoing challenges, and potential opportunities