Epilepsy Ontario :: The ARCH Disability Law Centre

The ARCH Disability Law Centre
Defending and Advancing the Rights of People with Disabilities for Over 25 Years

By Ann Martindale
Epilepsy Ontario's Representative, ARCH Disability Law Centre Board of Directors

Back in 1979 the Advocacy Resource Centre for the Handicapped (ARCH) was established in Toronto to defend and advance the rights of people with disabilities throughout the province of Ontario. In 2007, at ARCH's Annual General Meeting; outgoing board member Fraser Valentine shared some of his memories of ARCH's early years. He told an amusing story about a mouse that would suddenly dart out from between stacks of file boxes and dash across the warped floors of ARCH's first offices, startling staff & visitors alike. Eventually the staff & volunteers became accustomed to the little rascal; and considered him to be the unofficial office mascot.

Today ARCH occupies a suite of modern offices at 425 Bloor Street East. Staff & visitors no longer have to contend with warped floors or the pitter patter of furry little feet. The name of the organization was officially changed to "The ARCH Disability Law Centre" in October of 2005. But one thing has remained the same. ARCH is still a specialty legal aid clinic that is deeply committed to defending and advancing the rights of people with disabilities throughout Ontario. ARCH proceeds on the following premises:

• Persons with disabilities are confronted with unique legal challenges.
• Persons with disabilities must have control over their own lives.
• A cross-disability approach to advocacy issues is essential, but it is equally important to recognize and respect difference.
• Persons with disabilities may also face disadvantage due to other reasons such as their gender, race, age, economic status and sexual orientation; compounding their experience of discrimination or exclusion.

ARCH is a charitable organization with a provincial mandate. ARCH's membership currently consists of over 60 disability consumer and service organizations. ARCH's Executive Director reports to a consumer-controlled volunteer board of directors. ARCH fulfills its mandate in many ways including: through law reform initiatives, community development, the provision of summary advice and referral over the telephone, public legal education and test case litigation.

Test Case Litigation
ARCH engages in test case litigation on behalf of both groups and individuals. By test cases we mean those cases where a court or tribunal is looking at an issue for the first time, where an appellate court is deciding an issue that will affect a large number of people, or where there is a disability analysis that should be brought to the litigation.

Law Reform
As a community legal clinic, ARCH engages in law reform activities, which are often conducted with other disability groups, members of the community and legal clinics. Law reform involves legal analysis, writing and working in coalitions. We comment on the impact of current and proposed laws and practices from a disability perspective. ARCH's law reform activities include initiatives in the following areas of law:

• Human Rights
• Primary, secondary, and post-secondary education
• Taxation
• Employment
• Housing
• Services for adults with Developmental Disabilities
• Telecommunications
• Transportation, including para-transit services
• Film Classification
• Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP)
• Disabled person parking permit
• Policing
• Homecare services

Summary Advice and Referral
ARCH provides legal information, summary advice, and legal and non-legal referrals to persons with disabilities in Ontario. This service is mostly provided over the telephone. This service is also extended to lawyers calling on behalf of clients with disabilities who wish to discuss the disability implications in the case at issue. Among the areas on which ARCH provides summary advice are:

• Abuse
• Attendant services
• Capacity
• Disability – specific funding
• Education
• Employment
• Home care
• Human rights
• Mental Health
• Disabled person parking permit
• Privacy
• Policing
• Taxation
• Transportation

Community Development
ARCH staff and board members are engaged in working with various committees and coalitions, including:

• Legal Aid Ontario Accessibility Committee
• Law Society of Upper Canada Equity Advisory Committee
• Ontario Coalition for Inclusive Education
• Inter-Provincial Working Group on Housing
• ODSP Action Coalition
• Mental Health Legal Committee

ARCH also collaborates with other partners, including community and specialty legal clinics. For example, ARCH collaborated with ACE: Advocacy Centre for the Elderly and CLEO: Community Legal Education Ontario in the development of the Home Care Complaints and Appeals pamphlet and the Home Care Bill of Rights pamphlet. ARCH also collaborates with disability organizations, for example, ARCH co-hosted a provincial summit that brought together representatives of stakeholders in education to discuss strategies and approaches to ensuring that high quality education is available to all children with disabilities accessing the public school system. ARCH's partners for this project were the Canadian Association for Community Living, Community Living Ontario, and the Ontario Coalition for Inclusive Education.

Public and Continuing Legal Education
ARCH provides public legal education to persons with disabilities regarding legal rights and new developments in the law. ARCH provides education directed to the public to promote the views, interests and rights of persons with disabilities. ARCH provides disability law education to advocates and lawyers. ARCH gives presentations, workshops and seminars and produces written materials including the ARCH newsletter, ARCH Alert.

A Disability Law Primer
In 2003, with the support of the Law Society of Upper Canada, the Law Foundation of Ontario, and Pro-Bono Law Ontario, ARCH produced A Disability Law Primer: A Continuing Legal Education Program for Ontario Lawyers. The fundamentals of the client-lawyer relationship do not change because the client has a disability. Despite this, it seems that lawyers worry a lot about whether to, or how to, represent clients with disabilities. One of the aims of this project was to provide resources to lawyers in the hopes of relieving the worries and the fears many lawyers seem to have about representing persons with disabilities—worries which in themselves can amount to barriers for persons with disabilities. The unease that lawyers can have may arise out of a lack of familiarity with persons with disabilities, or with the law regarding disability. ARCH's goal was to provide specific legal information that is pertinent to the lives of persons with disabilities so that providing them with representation will become an ordinary aspect of practicing law, as a matter of course. ARCH prepared thorough information on several topics dealing with government programs or laws, as they affect disability. In conjunction with the written materials, ARCH staff provided lectures on the legal issues raised in the materials in Toronto, Ottawa, Kingston, Sault Saint Marie and Welland.

ARCH Alert and the ARCH Disability Law Centre Web Site
ARCH Alert is an electronic newsletter produced by ARCH. It is distributed free, primarily via e-mail, or by fax and mail to the Legal Aid clinic system, individuals in the community, ARCH's member groups, community organizations, private bar lawyers, Federal MP's, media, and the Ontario Government at all levels. There are approximately 2,800 people receiving ARCH Alert directly, and many more indirectly.

ARCH Alert provides timely, thoughtful, and informative news and analysis of legal and social problems related to disability. It also provides information about cases, legislation, and law reform projects that are important to the disability community. Interested individuals can sign-up for a free subscription to ARCH Alert online via the ARCH Disability Law Centre web site at www.archdisabilitylaw.ca

The web site also offers a wealth of information of interest to people with disabilities; and provides timely updates on ARCH's activities within the community.