5 Barriers

A barrier is something that impedes access – i.e. that gets in the way of people doing what they want to do.  The definition of “Barrier” in the 2019 Accessible Canada Act “means anything – including anything physical, architectural, technological or attitudinal, anything that is based on information or communications or anything that is the result of a policy or a practice – that hinders the full and equal participation in society of persons with an impairment, including a physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication or sensory impairment or a functional limitation.”^[1]

There are countless everyday barriers that prevent people with disabilities from working, living, playing, and participating in the way able-bodied people take for granted.  Barriers can take many forms:

• Physical barriers, such as the inability to enter a building;
• Technological barriers, such as being unable to use the internet or access certain websites that able-bodied people can access;
• Socio-economic barriers, such as struggles buying food or paying bills; or
• Communicative or institutional barriers, such as being unable to speak with people who have authority to make or enforce policy or other decisions.

Another important set of barriers are psychological and sociological – the stereotypes, fear, blitheness, or other perceptions that colour how people think about people with disabilities. These are discussed in more detail in the next section.