Reframing Disability, Defining Access: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Accessible Canada Act

Abstract

This project conducts a Critical Discourse Analysis of An Act to ensure a barrier-free Canada, Bill C-81. The corpus of data examined for this project are all drafts of the Accessible Canada Act, transcripts of meetings in the House of Commons, Senate, and Committees, and the written submissions by members of the disability community and their allies throughout the legislative process to Royal Assent. The analysis demonstrates the tension and dynamics of power, control, ability and disability within the scope of creating new legislation that, arguably, does not dream disability justice. The conclusions drawn from this work are based on Bacchi’s ‘What is the Problem Represented to be’ (WPR) Approach, and the application of insights from biopolitics, critical disability theory, Human rights, disability justice and critical policy theory.