Disabled
Albertans who receive income from the longstanding Assured Income for the
Severely Handicapped (AISH) program are currently enduring a level of existential
fear that they have not known since the 1990s. Back then, it was Premier Ralph
Klein who triggered widespread existential fear among disabled Albertans with
his campaign to purge AISH rolls of presumed fraudsters in order to maintain the
long-term sustainability of the program. The present existential fear among
disabled Albertans receiving AISH is due to the UCP government’s declared
intention to arbitrarily move virtually all 77,000 of them onto the new Alberta
Disability Assistance Program (ADAP).
According
to the Government of Alberta, the purpose of ADAP is to "empower Albertans
with disabilities to pursue fulfilling job opportunities while continuing to
receive the financial, medical and personal supports they need.” In reality,
however, ADAP will force disabled Albertans who have already medically
proven—often multiple times, over years and decades—that they are unable to
work at a level which will allow them to survive into an employment landscape
largely characterized by inaccessibility and ableism. Hence, disability
advocates have come up with a more accurate repurposing of the acronym ADAP: A
Deadly, Ableist Plan.
ADAP is Deadly:
ADAP will reduce financial benefits that thousands of disabled
Albertans rely on to survive. Under the current AISH program, Albertans receive
$1,901 a month, along with a potential monthly allowance to care for children
and health and personal benefits. Under ADAP, monthly income benefits are
lowered to $1,740, because it is expected that individuals within the program
will be able to find either full-time
or part-time employment to supplement their monthly income. But the reality is
that ADAP will provide $161 less a month to everyone on the program, regardless
of whether or not they can earn enough to make up the difference. What’s more,
no consideration whatsoever is given to the persistent realities of systemic
ableism that is manifested in physical and attitudinal barriers both in society
at large and in the workplace. The reality of systemic ableism and the barriers
to employment that it creates is evidenced in consistently high national
unemployment rates among people with severe disabilities. ADAP will thus force
disabled Albertans—many of whom are already living in poverty, such that they
already have to decide between paying rent or buying food—into even deeper
poverty, thus jeopardizing their lives. The imminent prospect of such deadly
peril is already prompting some to consider MAID, while others are preemptively
surrendering their pets and service animals in order to spare their animal
companions from sharing the deprivations that await them.
ADAP is Ableist: At its heart, ADAP is based
on the ableist assumption that people with disabilities, especially those who
are not supporting themselves through employment, are burdens and drains on
society. Even the government’s promotions for ADAP do not bother to veil this
ableist assumption; rather, it touts ADAP as providing disabled Albertans the
“sense of purpose” that comes from employment. The not-so-subtle implication,
it seems, is that unemployed disabled people have no purpose. Consequently, they
also have no value in and to society. Disturbingly, the government’s messaging
around ADAP thus seems eerily reminiscent of the way that disabled German
citizens in the 1930s started being described by their government as “Useless
Eaters.”
Finally, ADAP is a Plan, albeit one that seems
very poorly thought out and haphazardly designed. Fundamental questions, such
as: “What criteria will be used to determine whether or not a person is able to
work?” or “What is the justification for abolishing appeal rights?” remain
ignored and unanswered by the UCP government. Nonetheless, ADAP is a plan that
this government remains hellbent on executing.
In response to the looming specter of ADAP, disabled
Albertans have banded together to form the People’s Alliance for Disabled
Albertans (PADA). (See what we did there?) The purpose of PADA is to mobilize
disabled Albertans and their allies to educate their fellow Albertans about the
existential threat that ADAP poses to disabled Albertans, and to try to
persuade the Government of Alberta to abandon the Deadly, Ableist Plan that is
ADAP.
PADA is holding a rally to protest the horror of ADAP on
October 30, 2025, from 12:00pm to 2:00pm at the Alberta Legislature. We
invite all Albertans who believe that Alberta can and must do
better by its disabled citizens to come and join us.
Heidi Janz, Ph.D.
