This Black History Month, we are reflecting upon the fact that Black liberation and disability justice frameworks have always been linked. Concepts of race and disability have been used to justify discrimination throughout history. Bodies and their perceived functionality were weaponized to uphold slavery in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade; false notions of black peoples’ inferior intellectual capabilities meant that Black people were legally considered less than human. Time and again, Black people have been harmed by medical and societal institutions[1].
Here in Canada, we have a similar history of the deployment of racism and ableism as tools to perpetuate harms. The Alberta Sterilization Act[2], repealed in 1972, predominantly impacted Black and Indigenous women with disabilities, and allowed for sterilization to occur without their will, knowledge, or consent. Today, Black and racialized people with disabilities have some of the highest unemployment rates[3]. Many are forced to live in legislated poverty with social assistance rates that are below the poverty line. Though these conditions impact Canadians with disabilities of all races, its impact can particularly be felt amongst Black and Indigenous Canadians with disabilities. Black and Indigenous Canadians with disabilities also have disproportionate amounts of fatal interactions with policing institutions and corrections, many of which start off as mental health calls.[4] Specifically, D’Andre Campbell[5], Abdirahman Abdi[6], and Soliman Faqiri[7] come to mind as examples.
Ableism also disproportionately impacts racialized people on a global scale. Across the world, wars and genocides in countries including Palestine, Sudan, and Congo will result in mass disability rates.
Black people with disabilities have always been leaders in resistance. Many Black freedom fighters, like Harriet Tubman, were known to live with disabilities that were often caused by their enslavement. In her case, she lived with a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and was instrumental in freeing hundreds of slaves through the underground railroad [8]. During the civil rights movement, the 504 protests occurred, where people with disabilities occupied a federal building for over a month to push for the adoption of legislation that would protect the public rights of people with disabilities. During these protests, the Black Panthers, a Black focused movement based civil rights organizations, supported the 504 protests by providing food and resources to the protesters [9]. The Black Panthers also focused on health and disability rights advocacy, leading nation-wide screenings for Sickle Cell Anemia in the Black community, inspiring calls for Federal funding and research for a cure [10].
Lastly, the creation of disability justice as a framework is an example of the link between Black and disability-based resistance work. Disability Justice as a framework was created by Black and racialized, disabled and queer artists in San Francisco. [11]. The creation of this framework paved the way for disability rights work to move away from rights-based analyses and created the move toward a justice-based analyses with inclusion-based frameworks in relation to disability organizing.
Racism and its historical context cannot be separated from systemic ableism and its historical context. This connection has also linked the struggles of Black and racialized disabled people throughout history and has forever linked Black liberation and disability justice organizing today, both in Canada and across the world. Black people with disabilities are a large part of the disability community. It is our role as advocates for racial and disability justice to acknowledge the intersections that continue to intertwine our movements for an ableism-free world together.
To learn more about these connections, check out the following books:
Black Disability Politics by Samantha Dawn Schalk
Black skin, white masks by Frantz Fanon
DisCrit : disability studies and critical race theory in education by David J. Connor, Beth A. Ferri, and Subini A. Annamma, editors.
The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability Hardcover by Jasbir K Puar
Blackness and disability: critical examinations and cultural interventions edited by Christopher M. Bell.
Embodied injustice: race, disability, and health by Mary Crossley.
This article was written by Robin Loxton, and originally appeared in the edition of DABC’s Transition magazine, Following Their Path: How disability trailblazers are guiding today’s advocacy (Fall/Winter 2025).
Read the full edition in PDF format here and in text-only format here.
If you’re interested in contributing to Transition as an individual or an organization, please email transition@dabc.ca.
This edition of Transition Magazine is dedicated to the late Pamela Horton. Pam served on DABC’s board of directors for close to thirty years. If you’d like to support Transition, we have set up a fund in Pam’s name. We so appreciate any contributions.
The Advocacy Access program of Disability Alliance BC (DABC) officially opened in 1989, at then-BC Coalition of the Disabled. I was one of the first two advocates to be hired and I continued to work with the program until 2016.
Over those 27 years, there were many victories, setbacks, happy moments and frustrations. I don’t feel comfortable calling myself a “trailblazer,” but here are some reflections on our advocacy work back then and what I think is still important today.
My reasons for becoming a disability advocate had a lot to do with understanding that the onset of disability is most often life-changing. We face loss of income, the need to repeatedly “prove” we have a disability to qualify for benefits, and a confusing muddle of information about programs that may or may not help us. All this, on top of living with a disability, can become overwhelming.
Today, technology has opened doors for many of us in the disability community. With a smartphone or laptop, some of us can get the information we need in minutes. But with the good news there are a number of concerns. Navigating the internet can be a headache, especially if we are not familiar with computers. Misinformation can send us in the wrong direction because we cannot tell the difference between the real and the fake. And we still don’t know whether Artificial Intelligence will save or doom the world in years to come.
Back when I first started with Advocacy Access, there was no internet, if you can imagine. Personal computers were expensive and not widely used. We recognized the importance of accessible, community-based information on benefits programs, so we created help sheets on key programs. The help sheets are still being updated and expanded by the program, and can be downloaded free from the DABC website.
Our program was concerned when more applications went online. We began to hear about access issues from people with disabilities, including applications for disability benefits. For many people, these forms were not any easier to fill out or send in. Too often, I heard reports of people believing they had submitted an online application only to find out it was never received. And, yes, I agree with those who would rather talk to a person than a computer when you’re looking for help.
One thing that has become much worse since I was with DABC is the availability of family doctors. There is a shocking number of us who don’t have a doctor at all or don’t have one who knows us. Maybe you’re one of them.
This is not only a a huge problem because our health needs are not being met, but it also means we have no one to fill out the forms to get health-related benefits and services. Accessing telehealth is better than nothing, but this is not the same as having a doctor who knows you and your history. For those of us who have a family doctor, one of the last things a doctor wants to do is spend time filling out lengthy forms. Government needs to do a better job of streamlining application processes and information requests.
My greatest concern as a disability advocate is the threat of poverty that continues to face our community. Over the years, we advocated more or less constantly for the government to increase the disability benefit rates.
Yes, there has been some progress. There are higher earnings and asset exemptions, and we have the new federal Canada Disability Benefit, the Registered Disability Savings Plan and sporadic increases in provincial disability benefits. But the reality is, for many of us, our incomes do not come close to keeping up with the rising costs of living and living with a disability.
The gap between income and daily living costs becomes more obvious each year because of the high cost of housing in British Columbia. The maximum shelter allowance for a single person on disability assistance is $500 per month. The average rent in September 2025 for a studio apartment in BC is $1,784.
No wonder so many of us are fearful of homelessness.
Now more than ever we need organizations like DABC to follow the path the community has been building over the last few decades. We also need DABC as a provincial cross-disability voice at the provincial level. Individuals continue to need information, advice and help around disability programs. And organizations and individuals are forging paths to expand disability advocacy into social justice arenas and intersectional work.
The job of an advocate is never done.
After leaving DABC in 2016, Robin moved to the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island. Living in a small town, after many years of city life, has been an adjustment. But I have come to love the vitality of this community, and appreciate and support the many people who advocate for social justice.
This editorial was written by Christine Gordon, and originally appeared in the edition of DABC’s Transition magazine, Following Their Path: How disability trailblazers are guiding today’s advocacy (Fall/Winter 2025).
Read the full edition in PDF format here and in text-only format here.
If you’re interested in contributing to Transition as an individual or an organization, please email transition@dabc.ca.
This issue of Transition honours some of the trailblazers in the disability rights movement in British Columbia.
The movement is not very old–only a couple of generations–and it has struggled to redefine disability as a social rather than an individual problem, and to wrest control of the definitions of disability away from the medical domain and lodge them squarely in the political and economic world where they rightly belong.
What makes a trailblazer? Generally, it is the force of circumstance which is encountered by individuals who are not content to live within the constraints imposed upon them. Trailblazers always have a clear vision of what the world could be. They are ingenious problem-solvers and fearless advocates. They lead by example and by taking action. In most cases, they are reluctantly thrust into the spotlight because there is a vacuum to be filled and they heed the call. Authentic trailblazers are usually not self-promoters.
In this edition of Transition, Roger Jones reflects on some of the people that he regards as trailblazers, while downplaying his own contributions as a lightning rod for galvanizing new approaches to assistive technology, accessible transportation, individualized funding and economic development. Roger has been an ambassador of the disability movement to power brokers and entrepreneurs and has mentored a whole generation of young people.
Robin Loxton describes the evolution of DABC’s Advocacy Access program and forgets to mention that he was the glue that held everything together for 27 years. His expertise in the byzantine world of disability benefits was unmatched and he applied it tirelessly not only for the individuals that he served, but also in pursuit of systemic changes that would lift people with disabilities out of poverty.
This edition is dedicated to Pam Horton. Pam was a quiet person with steely determination who never said no to an opportunity to speak truth to power. She volunteered for more committees than anyone could dream of and she took every one of them seriously.
Monica Gärtner shares some of her story of living with a genetic disability and evolving as an advocate, writer and performer.
Dave Symington was an artist at heart and he found a way to use music and performance to redefine public perceptions of disability.
Heather McCain’s article describes many home-grown trailblazers converted by the force of circumstance and applying their moral compass and sheer determination to make change.
What can we do to celebrate trailblazers?
First, we must be thankful for their individual contributions and appreciative of their sacrifices.
Then we must recognize that trailblazing means exactly what it says: creating a path forward. If we don’t use a path then we will lose it. A trailblazer’s most fervent wish is to change the world. They demonstrate the power of individual action to do just that. Trailblazers also teach us about the value of persistence which in itself is a synonym for hope. Lasting change must be constantly reinforced at its roots and never taken for granted.
This edition is dedicated to Pam Horton. Pam was a quiet person with steely determination who never said no to an opportunity to speak truth to power.
All of the trailblazers featured in this Transition encouraged and built collective approaches to changing the world. They help us to focus on the fact that individuals, no matter how gifted, are not enough. Sustainable change lies within developing coalitions, associations, organizations and inviting people to join in.
During these troubled and dystopic times, trailblazers might urge us to double down on moral clarity, strategic ingenuity, fearless collective action and the power of the voice of lived experience.
Christine Gordon has had a lifelong commitment to ground-up community development, and law and policy reform that shifts traditional power balances.
In her work with Disability Alliance BC and other organizations, she coordinated the decade long reform of the Adult Guardianship laws, helped to develop the Provincial Respiratory Outreach Program and engineered the creation of Technology for Living. she also coordinated the Equipment and Assistive Technology Initiative, developed the CARMA program and the Right Fit program, initiated the Individualized Funding project and mentored the BC Persons with Aids Society.
She has been actively engaged in health care reform including the Healthy Communities movement, the design of the Medicare Protection Act and the deinstitutionalization of the George Pearson Centre.
