Later this month, people in Ontario will vote in a provincial election and determine whether the current premier, Doug Ford, and his Progressive Conservative Party will continue to govern. In my riding, Hamilton Centre, the provincial seat is currently held by Sarah Jama, a disabled Black Muslim woman. Sarah, who was initially elected as a member of the provincial New Democratic Party, now sits in the chambers as an Independent because she was removed from the NDP caucus after she called for the provincial government to issue support for a ceasefire in the Middle East. The NDP recently voted to refuse Sarah’s return to its party for the next election.

The riding of Hamilton Centre predominantly comprises working-class constituents, with large homeless and disabled populations, all of which treasure Sarah’s commitment to tenants’ rights, workers’ rights, and justice for disabled people. Invariably, nevertheless, the candidates for other parties will futilely canvass homes and businesses in this downtown area of the city. If I am home to answer the door when they do, I will ask them what their own parties intend to do with respect to social justice for the 3 million disabled people who live in Ontario, the AODA, and in particular with respect to disabled students. The injustice and exclusion that disabled people in Ontario and Canada more generally confront is remarkable and philosophers in Ontario/Canada consistently seem indifferent to it.

Last month, for example, Ford, whose party has repeatedly cut government services and spending in ways that detrimentally affect disabled people in Ontario (including the thousands who have died in nursing homes due to COVID-19), announced that $1.3 billion would be allocated for new school construction in the province. As David Lepofsky, who is a blind lawyer and expert on policy with respect to disability, reported, however, no requirements have been put in place to ensure that these future schools will be made accessible to disabled students (https://www.aodaalliance.org/).

Social justice requires that voters in Ontario and Canada more widely demand that candidates in the upcoming provincial election this month and the upcoming federal election this Spring outline what their respective parties will do for disabled people in Ontario/Canada.

Likewise, (disabled and nondisabled) students and faculty in Canada (and elsewhere) must demand answers to questions about what their university administrations, departments, and professors do and intend to do in the coming years to increase social justice at their respective institutions, including their plans to mitigate the exclusion of disabled people from academia.

Are you going on campus visits to philosophy departments soon? Are you applying to grad school in philosophy at a Canadian university or a university elsewhere?

If so, you should know that Canadian philosophy departments and philosophy departments throughout the United States and elsewhere continue to exclude philosophy of disability and other critical work on disability, as well as disabled faculty. Hence, if you are disabled/motivated by concerns for social justice/concerned about the quality of your education, you should compel the philosophers in departments to which you might apply to be accountable for the dearth of disabled philosophers on their faculty and the exclusion of philosophical analyses of disability (consider Mich’s post in this regard).

Here, for example, are thirteen questions that address anti-ableist curricula and general departmental environment that you could ask admissions officers and other members of the departments to which you might apply:

Are there faculty members in this department who are qualified and willing to advise and mentor disabled students?

Why should a disabled student be especially keen to apply to and become a member of this department?

How is this department in general supporting its disabled students and faculty?

Is this department committed to developing and sustaining an anti-ableist environment in which I and other disabled students can flourish?

What courses of your department curricula include sections on philosophy of disability?

When will this department introduce entire courses that I could take in philosophy of disability?

Who is available in this department to supervise dissertations and theses in philosophy of disability?

Does this department include in its annual Speaker Series disabled philosophers and disabled philosophers of disability in particular that I could learn from and network with?

How does this department make its retreats and colloquia accessible to a range of philosophers?

Is this department committed to helping disabled students and faculty secure grants and other funding?

What, if any, initiatives has this department introduced to improve the status of disabled philosophers across the university and across the profession so that I have opportunities to get a job when I’m done my degree?

Does this department collaborate with other departments whose members engage in research on disability and ableism?

On a scale from zero to ten–where zero is very dismal and ten is superb–how would you rate the level of political analysis and understanding about ableism in this department, e.g., in department meetings, in content of the department website, interdepartmental communications, etc.? On what basis would you rate it this way? Where’s the proof?

If you are a disabled student and you want to study my work or the work of other disabled philosophers of disability, you need to know in advance if the curricula and general environment of prospective departments will enable you to do so. Be vigilant and prepared. Let them know what you expect from them.