What does disability mean to you?

Kulbinder Saran Caldwell: I've never tried to define disability for myself. It's one of those things that you know about its existence, you see individuals that have challenges but on a day to day basis you don't really think about it as part of your life until it becomes part of your reality.

Nicole Rioux: I like to put ability instead of disability. I like to say ok, I'm disabled but with lots of abilities.

Ron Lessard, Learning Disabilities Association of Sudbury: All disabilities, people with disabilities have challenges because they either have a physical or a mental function which isn’t working just the way everybody else’s works.

Astra Milberg: Do you know what a disability is?

Peter Oliver, Owner, Canadian Tire, Lakeshore and Leslie Toronto: My impression of a disability is someone who may just need a bit more time or assistance.

Jim Sanders, Past President, Canadian National Institute for the Blind: In my view, a disability is an artificially created circumstance. I’m totally blind, and yet for most of the time, I’m not disabled. For example when I’m sitting in a restaurant and somebody hands me a print menu — which is usually what I get — I instantly become disabled. Some restaurants now carry a Braille menu, I’m no longer disabled.

Ben Shropshire: It’s easy for me to go to school, to run up the stairs, to go down the hallway, to buy a coffee — all those little things, and for someone with a disability it’s so much more than that.

Maya Jones: A disability is only a detour to where you want to get to.

Wilma Davies, Retired, Small Business Owner, Collingwood: And it doesn’t necessarily mean somebody in a wheelchair. It could be intellectual, it could be vision, it could be hearing.

Catherine Sholtz, Accessibility Coordinator, Breaking Down Barriers: Invisible or visible. Sensory, mobility, intellectual or mental health. That would be my definition of disability.

Ron Lessard, Learning Disabilities Association of Sudbury: We’re not talking about disabilities; we’re talking about people with disabilities. So it’s the person we’re talking about.

Guiddi Guron: I actually have never stopped myself since my disability of not going to a store, you know, women’s clothing, or the restaurant just because they have a step because I feel that I want them to see me, how I had to get in there, because I obviously had to get help to just bump me up that one step.