If you pass a law to prevent discrimination against persons with disabilities, how do you know whether it鈥檚 being enforced, let alone making a difference?

Marcia Rioux (right), director of the 91亚色 Institute for Health Research (YIHR) and professor in the Faculty of Health鈥檚 School of Health Policy & Management, is working internationally, particularly with countries with limited resources, to develop a unique and innovation solution for the reporting requirements set out in the United Nation鈥檚 .

The United Nations requires all governments that have ratified its Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 鈭� as Canada did on , 2010 鈭� to provide information on the measures they have taken to integrate persons with disabilities into their societies. But this reporting is often limited to cataloguing laws, policies, and programs that may have little impact on the day-to-day lives of the people they鈥檙e intended to help.

Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI), a multi-year international collaborative project, is establishing a global monitoring system to address disability discrimination. The research project, based in YIHR, is led by Rioux and Bengt Lindqvist 鈭� a former Cabinet Minister in Sweden, former UN Special Rapporteur on Disability, and long-time activist on disability rights. The team includes a group of 91亚色 researchers and international colleagues who are creating a roadmap that will allow countries to evaluate their laws, policies and programs to comply with the United Nations鈥� standards.

鈥淐ollecting and reporting on evidence-based data forces governments to acknowledge that the challenges people with disabilities face are not just anecdotal,鈥� says Rioux. 鈥淥ur project allows evaluation to happen within the context of the experiences of people with disabilities to objectively measure where discrimination is now while developing and tracking solid trend data to determine if and how things are getting better.鈥�

In September, the Africa Regional Monitoring Centre opened its doors in Kigali, Rwanda and will act as a focal point for disability monitoring and reporting in the region. Agreements with centres in Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe and Latin America are expected in the near future. The (SIDA) awarded the research team over $2 million in 2009 to open the four regional centres.

Each centre will act as a focal point for monitoring disability rights in that region, and will play a key role in empowering local people with disabilities to lead disability rights monitoring projects. 鈥淩egional monitoring is most sustainable when local people are involved since it puts long-term roots into the community,鈥� says Rioux. 鈥淭he vast majority of disabled people around the world face endemic poverty 鈭� many don鈥檛 have jobs or go to school or have basic literacy skills. Engaging people with disabilities to lead this process is a more holistic approach to addressing the challenges they face, both as individuals and a collective.鈥�

When all four centres are operational, Rioux anticipates that hundreds of people with disabilities will be engaged in disability rights monitoring activities. The centres will host training on what disability means as a human right, how to collect data and conduct evidence-based research, and how to write and file human rights reports. Groundwork is also being laid to connect monitors with disabilities to other local rights-seeking groups, such as religious-based, race-based and gender-based, to get them coordinating their efforts together instead of separately.

"The Faculty of Health鈥檚 worldwide research aims to help people live healthier lives while co-creating rejuvenated health systems,鈥� says Harvey Skinner, dean of Health. 鈥淧rofessor Rioux's research is an excellent example of how 91亚色 University is on the front line of our increasingly complex, simultaneously global and local world."

Previous phases of this project focused on developing and piloting tools and methods to monitor disability rights. In 2006, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada ()鈥檚 Community-University Research Alliances program provided Rioux and her team with just under $1 million to fund Monitoring the Human Rights of People with Disabilities in Canada, which is currently in its last of five years.

In 2008, Rioux also received a two-year $40,000 grant from to research disability and social, economic and cultural rights. She has also received funding from the , and been invited to consult with governments and disabled persons associations around the globe to discuss disability rights. Recently, she and her team wrote the chapter on disability rights monitoring for the .

鈥淧rofessor Rioux鈥檚 disability rights research reflects both the value 91亚色 places on social justice and her expertise in leading large-scale collaborative research projects of international significance,鈥� says Stan Shapson, vice-president research & innovation. 鈥淭his type of knowledge mobilization is a crucial step in making governments more accountable for the social policies they set, and reflects the social input that鈥檚 possible when expertise is globally shared.鈥�

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

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Parekh is the winner of the inaugural Human Rights Prize for Master of Arts (MA) Major Research Paper in the Critical Disabilities Studies Program聽for her paper, "How Neoliberalism Impacts the Realization of Inclusive Education Both Internationally and Locally: A Study of Inclusive and Equitable Education Opportunities Within the Toronto District School Board". The award, created through donations from 91亚色 Professors Marcia Rioux and Geoffrey Reaume of the School of Health Policy & Management in the Faculty of Health, was presented to Parekh on Tuesday. "It was an interesting paper to research," says Parekh.

Parekh earned her MA from 91亚色's Critical Disabilities Studies Program with an interest in international development and disability, as well as education.

Right: Gillian Parekh (left) being presented the 2010 Human Rights Prize

For her paper, Parekh initially looked at the connection between government prioritization of market ideologies and the subsequent waning commitment to inclusive practices, homing in on inclusive education policies under varying governments in South Africa. Although South Africa boasts of having highly progressive disability policies, over time the push for economic returns聽has taken聽precedence over the protection of the rights of students with disabilities, and segregated learning centres聽have been聽maintained and expanded.

"An analysis of the evolution of inclusive education policies from South Africa is documented to encapsulate a clear example of the hegemonic relationship between rights and market principles while the right to quality education for many hangs in the balance," says Parekh.

She then turned to the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) to see if the same was true here. She examined student demographics at 85 secondary schools and whether they correlated with the availability of specific programs and services. "Social factors such as poverty, disability, language and parental education are compared to increased or decreased access to programming and services that lead to future enhanced marketability for the student," she writes.

Although Parekh taught special education for several years at schools within the TDSB, the fourth-largest school district in North America, she was surprised by what she found. "Overall, the higher percentage of parents with a university education, the higher the likelihood their children would have access to elite programs within their public school. The higher the percentage of students from low income housing, as well as the higher the percentage of students using special education services, the fewer programs were offered at their school," says Parekh. She knows the TDSB has attempted to address issues of equity and continuously works to offer equitable services and programming to all students, however, the current state speaks to a much more powerful force at work.

In comparing demographics between schools offering French immersion programs, what Parekh calls one of the board's most elite programs, and those schools providing vocational training, she found the difference in incidence of low income, special education and parental education staggering. When she looked at where schools providing vocational training were located, she discovered that they were largely running in Toronto's lowest income neighbourhoods, she says. Whereas French immersion programs were more likely to be found within schools in more affluent areas with greater numbers of parents having been to university.

Access to some programming was definitely related to geography, says Parekh. "The education system continues to sustain inequitable learning opportunities between social groups. Policies addressing the issues of inequity have not yet achieved fully inclusive or equitable educational opportunities for all." And that is true in both Toronto and South Africa.

Parekh largely holds the government accountable for continuing to move towards a private model of market ideology within its public school systems in which more advantaged students are met with greater opportunity

"What bothers me the most is that this disparity is often normalized. Not enough people think significant change is required," says Parekh. It comes down to erroneous thinking that certain people in society are more deserving of academic opportunities than others, she says.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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Co-edited by 91亚色 School of Health Policy聽& Management Professors and , along with University of Toronto health studies Professor Toba Bryant, the second edition of Staying Alive (Canadian Scholars鈥� Press Inc.) has been thoroughly updated.

It features a new chapter on research methodology; expanded discussions of inequality, women鈥檚 health, public health and public policy; more material on First Nations health; and a new discussion of the historical development of the Canadian medicare system.

"The first edition sold really well and there isn鈥檛 another source out there that covers the same material in one book," says Rioux, who also directs the 91亚色 Institute for Health Research. "A second edition was needed."

The collection also includes chapters on pharmaceutical policy, social class, race, gender and care, as well as the social construction of illness and disability. In addition, it looks at approaches to promoting population health that include insights into the impact of economic forces such as globalization and privatization.

Left: Dennis Raphael

鈥淐oncerns about health and the health-care system have reached a fever pitch in Canada in recent years,鈥� write the editors. 鈥淭he public is subjected to a daily onslaught of media stories about the causes and treatment of disease and the threats to the sustainability of the Canadian health-care system.鈥�

The book strives to bring together isolated yet important perspectives in identifying key issues in health, illness and health care, relating them to current policy environments as a means of identifying the complex origins of the problems identified and contributing in a meaningful way to their solution.

It focuses on the Canadian scene with relevant comparisons to the United States and other countries and is organized in four parts. The first part provides an overview and critical review of four major health paradigms 鈥撀爐he epidemiological, sociological, political economy and human rights perspectives 鈥� and a new chapter on research paradigms and methodologies.

Right: Toba Bryant

The second part explores the emerging field of the social determinants of health with a focus on social class, gender and race as indicators of differential access to the economic and social resources available within a society.

In the third part, a comparative history of the Canadian health-care system is provided, along with an overview of current attempts at reform and a detailed analysis of the effects upon the system and its participants of recent trends toward privatization.

Left: Marcia Rioux

The final part considers critical issues in health and health care that illustrate some of the key themes of the volume, including gender and its interaction with health and health care; the construction of illness and disability; health policy through the lens of pharmaceutical policy and the health-care system; and public health concerns of varying national jurisdictions.

Staying Alive is expected to be of interest to a wide range of readers in the fields of health studies, nursing and social policy. In addition to traditional health sciences and sociological approaches, the book provides human rights and political economy perspectives on health, focusing on Canada and the United States within an international context.

For more information, visit the Web site.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin

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Two teams led by 91亚色 University researchers have received $5 million in research funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Their multinational research teams, involving multiple universities and community partners in a large-scale collaboration, have each received $2.5 million to examine long-term residential healthcare and global suburbanization.

The funding is part of 鈥檚 $10-million investment in critical issues of intellectual, social, economic and cultural significance through the (MCRI) program, the largest award competition SSHRC currently runs.

The program contributes to the deeper understanding of people and society while providing graduate students with research training opportunities. Royal Galipeau, MP for Ottawa鈥揙rl茅ans, made the announcement in Ottawa this morning on behalf of Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology.

Pat Armstrong, professor of sociology in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and an executive member of both the 91亚色 Institute for Health Research and the Graduate Program in Health Policy & Equity, will lead a study to identify promising practices for understanding and organizing long-term residential healthcare.

Right: Pat Armstrong

Although many of Canada鈥檚 most vulnerable citizens live in long-term residential care, it is often characterized as a last resort rather than as a positive option where both providers and residents can thrive. Armstrong鈥檚 project seeks to learn from and with other countries to understand the approaches, structures, accountability practices, and ownership arrangements that create conditions prompting respectful and dignified treatment for both residents and caregivers.

Twenty-five researchers, eight partnering institutions, and 17 universities in six countries will work across disciplines to capture and share data and best practices. Armstrong is Chair in Health Services and Nursing Research, co-funded by the (CHSRF) and the (CIHR).

Roger Keil, professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, director of the City Institute at 91亚色, and director of the , is working with 44 researchers at 29 universities, and 16 partners in 12 countries to better understand the challenges suburbanization poses in a globalizing world.

Right: Roger Keil

Based on the experience of Canadian suburbanization, but ranging from North America鈥檚 wealthy gated communities to Europe鈥檚 high-rise-dominated suburbs, the exploding outskirts of Indian and Chinese cities to the slums and squatter settlements of Africa and Latin America, this project is the first to systematically take stock of worldwide suburban developments while analyzing their governance models, land use, infrastructure and suburban everyday life. The project also includes collaboration with the on documentaries about life in suburban high rises.

Of the four $2.5-million grants awarded, 91亚色 was the only institution with two successful projects, building on its strong track record in leading large, interdisciplinary collaborative research projects. Prior to today鈥檚 announcement, 91亚色 researchers held nine major SSHRC collaborative grants worth a total of $13.6 million in research funding.

鈥淎s the only institution to win multiple awards in this category, 91亚色鈥檚 researchers have clearly demonstrated their national and international excellence and leadership in large-scale, SSHRC research projects,鈥� says Stan Shapson, vice-president research and innovation. 鈥淟eading major research initiatives allows us to address key social issues facing our society. As global populations expand and age, suburban research and new approaches to long-term residential healthcare are increasingly important to the well-being of Canadians and nations around the world. These projects provide unique opportunities for Pat, Roger, and their research collaborators to conduct groundbreaking research with significant impact on real-world issues.鈥�

鈥淭hese grants highlight the excellence of our country鈥檚 talented researchers and recognize the importance of fostering international collaboration to keep Canada at the forefront of research, development and innovation in the 21st century,鈥� said Chad Gaffield, president of SSHRC.

91亚色's other major SSHRC-funded interdisciplinary collaborative research projects

• 鈥淎ssets Coming Together for Youth: Linking Research, Policy and Action for Positive Youth Development鈥�, led by social work Professor Uzo Anucha in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) is developing a comprehensive youth strategy that will outline how marginalized urban communities like Toronto鈥檚 Jane-Finch neighbourhood can use their community assets to support positive youth development.
• The , led by Professor Emeritus Wesley Cragg in the Schulich School of Business, is mobilizing the University鈥檚 business expertise by bringing University researchers together in dialogue with leaders and researchers in business, government and the volunteer sector.
• The , led by Professor Stephen Gaetz in the Faculty of Education enhances the impact of research on homelessness and the housing crisis by increasing collaboration and discussion among researchers, policy-makers and community workers.
• The , led by LA&PS聽social work Professor Susan McGrath, studies refugee and forced migration issues to find solutions to the plight of refugees worldwide.
• 鈥淢onitoring the Human Rights of People with Disabilities in Canada鈥�, led by health policy & management Professor Marcia Rioux in the Faculty of Health, monitors and records human rights violations to put together an accurate picture of the daily lives of Canadians with disabilities.
• The Toronto Immigrant Employment Data Initiative, led by聽geography Professor Philip Kelly in LA&PS, assists community organizations whose mandate includes the better integration of immigrants into Toronto's labour force by providing these organizations with free access to statistical data and analysis on various aspects of immigrant labour market integration.
• 鈥淪lavery, Memory, Citizenship鈥�, led by Distinguished Research Professor Paul Lovejoy, includes a team of more than 50 Canadian and international scholars who are researching聽the global migrations of African peoples under conditions of slavery and how the resulting racism arising from the exploitation of African peoples has shaped modern societies.
• 鈥淭he University as a Civic Change Agent: Community-Based Knowledge Mobilization鈥�, led by David Phipps, director of the Office of Research Services, is developing a community-focused input model for that seeks first to identify community knowledge needs and then focus university research expertise to help fill that need by creating a self-sustaining cycle of knowledge production and its uptake for policy, practice and community capacity building.
• 鈥淲ork in a Warming World鈥�, led by social science Professor Carla Lipsig-Mumm茅 in LA&PS, studies the challenge presents to Canadian employment and workplaces by examining seven Canadian employment sectors to seek policy, training, employment and workplace solutions to effectively assist Canada鈥檚 transition to a low-emission economy.

For complete competition results, visit .

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with photos courtesy of YFile 鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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