Unworthy of Space - An Investigation of Hegemonic Ideologies Within the Treatment of People with Physical Disabilities and Poverty-Stricken Individuals

This paper will engage in an investigation of the socio-spatial oppression experienced by people with physical disabilities (PWPD), and the poverty-stricken populace in Ontario. We will begin by exploring the histories of both aforementioned groups with the intention of ascertaining when, and for what reasons societal exclusion and oppression commenced. We will continue on to an examination of the manner in which disability and poverty have been perceived and accounted for within Canadian, and more specifically, Ontario law. Then an investigation of the capitalist ideologies that are evidently present in the enactment of both the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), and the Ontario Safe Streets Act (OSSA), that function to socially, politically, and economically oppress both groups to the benefit of the hegemonic will take place. We will then examine the socio-spatial neglect experienced by PWPD, and individuals living in poverty, and the manner in which the AODA and the OSSA have been complicit in the marginality experienced by both groups. In comparing the societal exclusion of both, while simultaneously examining the ideologies used to justify such treatment, this paper intends to make apparent the numerous similarities in the hegemonic oppression experienced by the aforesaid groups, and posit that engaging in activism as a collective may assist in obtaining equality.