Adapting the environment to people with disabilities: constitutional issues in Canada

Many problems experienced by people with disabilities can be ascribed to the effects of a disabling environment rather than personal deficiencies. Adapting the environment to make it less handicapping therefore has become a significant item on agenda of reforms sought by people with disabilities, but pursuit of this objective has wider legal, political and constitutional implications. Canada is one country in which all of these avenues have been explored in order to achieve progress in this sphere. This article, based on interviews with key informants, reports the constitutional and historical background to the Canadian experience and identifies various problems that have been encountered by the organisation and persons who have sought to secure appropriate changes. It is argued that this particular example, founded on a hard-won clarification of rights and entitlements under the Constitution, may offer a more promising way forward than alternative approaches focused on legislative or administrative regulations.