I don't know if I could provide you with an exact percentage of the numbers who could work. The point was made that 75% are unemployed or out of the labour market. Many are out of the labour market because they've given up.
Across this country, we have a significant number of unemployed women and men of all ages with disabilities. When I talk about increasing the labour market participation of people with disabilities from 44% to 66%, one of the things I neglected to mention was that I would like to see this happen across the board. I'm a person who acquired a disability at 27. I was a teacher. When I acquired my disability, my ability to teach was denied me because of the environments into which I was going. For ten years I sat in a wheelchair, and for ten years my ability to work was barred by environment and attitude. So I am here before you as a perfect example of a success story, because I had my education before I acquired my disability, and I had work experience.
As for those 44% who are working, I would suggest that if you look at the statistics for employment equity, which I again cite as abysmal, the majority of those individuals are in administrative or clerical positions. We don't see many people rising to become managers, senior managers, CEOs. Any alphabetical designation you wish to have, we are not there. Until we have the disability-related supports and a society that welcomes us—and I mean welcomes us, not just motions us in because some government tells them to—until we have a society that understands that we have needs that can be accommodated, that we are not too costly, that we are not disposable, and that we are able and willing to participate and contribute to our economy, then we will remain where we are with our very low statistics.
Thank you.