Not All Disability Is Created Equal: A Comparative Historiography Of Workers' Compensation And Disability Benefits In Ontario, Canada

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dc.contributor.advisorRaphael, Dennis
dc.contributor.authorHeath, Bonita Lee
dc.date.accessioned2024-11-07T11:03:42Z
dc.date.available2024-11-07T11:03:42Z
dc.date.copyright2024-06-11
dc.date.issued2024-11-07
dc.date.updated2024-11-07T11:03:41Z
dc.degree.disciplineCritical Disability Studies
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation establishes that work injury and injured workers are relatively neglected in Critical Disability Studies (CDS). A further observation is that CDS tends to avoid a class analysis of disability politics in favour of identitarian approaches. This research focuses on income security. Through a Marxist critical policy historiography, I compare workers’ compensation benefits and state-sponsored benefits for disabled people whose disabilities originated outside of the workplace in Ontario. I argue that the workers’ compensation program is superior to the state-sponsored program because of the class location and politics of the respective groups of people with disabilities seeking income security. The discussion also highlights some of the reasons for the missing injured worker in CDS. Specifically, injured workers experience disability as a loss worthy of compensation rather than a positive identity. Further, rather than viewing prevention measures as the erasure of disabled people, injured workers support the prevention of disability through occupational health and safety laws and workplace practices. By focusing on the political economy of each program, the historical narrative suggests that disability benefit programs in Ontario were developed less by moral suasion and more because of their role in capital accumulation. Although the argument holds for the early history of the two programs in their early history. the negative impact of neoliberalism on both workers’ compensation and the current benefits program in Ontario (the Ontario Disability Support Program) has created a convergence of interests between permanently impaired injured workers and other disabled people, underscoring the importance of including injured workers’ perspectives in CDS.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10315/42412
dc.languageen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectCanadian history
dc.subject.keywordsDisability
dc.subject.keywordsWorkers' compensation
dc.subject.keywordsDisability benefits
dc.subject.keywordsCanadian disability social policy
dc.subject.keywordsCritical disability studies
dc.titleNot All Disability Is Created Equal: A Comparative Historiography Of Workers' Compensation And Disability Benefits In Ontario, Canada
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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