TORONTO — In several Toronto districts, disabled human beings are the target or unnecessary prejudice. Residents of certain communities feel that the introduction of rooming houses, often the only option of housing for disabled people living on their own, will decrease property value, and that the disabled people themselves will decrease the quality of the neighborhood.

The HomeComing Coalition is a Toronto-based non-profit that battles this prejudice and stigma. Last July, they, along with many other organizations, were pleased to see the Ontario Humans Rights Commission (OHRC) issue a statement reminding landlords that denying accommodation to those with disabilities violates the Ontario Code.

Then, in January of this year, they helped ensure that Toronto’s planning and growth committee introduce an order that would require all 44 wards in Toronto to draw up by-laws permitting the construction of rooming houses, where several disabled people could live together in one house, paying low-rent and being looked after full-time.

Article 25 of the UN declaration of human rights says, “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family.” Since rooming houses are often the only choice of housing for those with disabilities, it should known as a basic standard of living, and therefore a human right.

However, even with these cultural and political breakthroughs, the HomeComing Coalition remains wary of loopholes in the by-laws that may still be discriminatory. Since so many individuals across Toronto are concerned about property values, especially in tough economic times like these, the by-laws may take long to be drafted and passed.

The Coalition also fights prejudice towards aboriginals on the same grounds, that their introduction into a neighbourhood would decrease the overall standard of living, due to a stereotypical depiction of the group. Also, off-reserve aboriginals cannot access federally funded services that were previously available to them on-reserve.

The government is wary of aiding aboriginals in everyday society therefore, in urban centers, they must fend for themselves. They move to the cities in search of a better life, but are often the target of discrimination, leaving them without jobs and money.

Youths are the last of the three groups the HomeComing Coalition, along with other organizations like it, fights to defend. The introduction of youths into a neighborhood, residents believe, could pose safety risks, since the stereotypical view of low-income youth is negative. In reality, many low-income youth are students, without the necessary funds to live near campus or afford rent even with a roommate.

The next battle for the HomeComing Coalition and its partners will be to ensure the safety of those who do move into these neighborhoods. Aboriginals, youths and those with disabilities could be subject to verbal and perhaps even physical abuse, something that non-profits, along with the government, will have to prevent.

The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT), a disability coalition focused on accessible technology for people with disabilities, called on the government to delay the digital television transition, citing access problems for its constituent base.

“As the February date for the DTV transition approaches, a myriad of technical problems continue to surface for people with disabilities,” says Karen Peltz Strauss, founding member of COAT. “These include problems with receiving and displaying closed captions, difficulties with the pass through of available video description (narration added to visual program elements during natural programming pauses), and troubles with the hook-up of digital equipment. Consumers have experienced frustration in their attempts to obtain resolution of these issues from TV programming providers, equipment manufacturers and retailers.”

The thoughts were echoed by a prominent Deaf group also.

“Our members report missing and disappearing captions, overlapping captions, captions appearing in the middle of the television screen and blocking images, garbled captions, captions running off the edge of the picture, and captions either exceedingly small or too large,” said Rosaline Crawford of the National Association of the Deaf. “We are very concerned that the analog cut-off scheduled for February 17 will result in members of our community completely losing access to television news, information, and entertainment programming for an indefinite period of time.”

And the blind:

“People who are blind or with vision disabilities are experiencing huge difficulties, not only with hooking up the converter boxes but also serious problems with new digital TV equipment that is not passing through any available video description,” said Eric Bridges of the American Council of the Blind. “The lack of knowledge about how to resolve video description concerns is a major barrier to our community’s access to digital television.”

COAT blames the alleged problems on “any one of a combination of technical failures, including difficulties with local broadcast station signals or transmissions, cable network or provider transmissions, satellite transmission signals, poor adjustment of end user consumer equipment provided by cable or satellite companies, and/or improper encoding and transmission by caption providers.”

On February 17, television will stop being broadcast on analog signals. People using antennas to watch TV will have to use a converter box, but cable and satellite customers should notice no differences.