Increased accessibility a long-term goal for Disability Screen Office

Winnie Luk has spent her whole career getting ready for her current role. As the first executive director of the Disability Screen Office, she lobbies to find more opportunities for disabled creatives in the film and broadcasting industries. Luk began her work with the City of North York, Ont. working on disability programming, 30 years ago. When the suburbs amalgamated to form the City of Toronto, she transferred there. She then spent six years at the Inside Out film festival. For the four years prior to joining the Disability Screen Office (DSO), she worked at Rainbow Railroad, a group that helps persecuted LGBTQ+ people get to safety worldwide. “When this role came, I said, 'I can’t believe this role is literally the culmination of the last 30 years of my career,'” Luk tells The Wire Report about her job with the DSO. The DSO came into being in September 2022 when Accessible Media Inc., which offers programming for people with disabilities, saw a need for greater advocacy for that sector of the population. Founding executive director Andrew Morris launched the body with a consultation of the disabled community. The DSO sought to discover what barriers exist for the community. When Morris decided he didn’t want to be leading the organization full-time, Luk was hired in June 2023. She soon realized she had her work cut out for her in determining accessibility. “In preparation, in interviewing for this role, I was casually Googling and researching what was out there, what resources, what toolkits, what programs —there was almost none,” she states. “Very few. A small handful of things kind of popped up.” “It was pretty surprising and mind-boggling to understand how little this industry has moved the needle in work regarding accessibility.” Luk did not have time to ease into her new job. Within hours of starting, she was taking part in a workshop jointly hosted by CBC/Radio-Canada and the Canadian Media Producers Association. Days later, she was at the Banff World Media Festival in Alberta. The DSO is currently in phase two of its mission by surveying people with disabilities and others in the Canadian screen sector on their participation rate and barriers they face in the labour market. The survey is open to anyone with a visible or hidden disability working in the industry, disabled people interested in getting into the sector, anyone who does not identify as disabled but still faces challenges, and those without disabilities who can share experiences of working with disabled people. The survey will be open until June. “We want everyone in the sector to take this survey because we’re going to base our findings and our best practices guide on the data and research we collect,” Luk remarks. Next on DSO’s plate is a three-year project on accessibility that will result in a report to Accessibility Standards Canada. The executive director worries that the screen industry does not put people first. For example, daily overtime often might not kick in until a production has gone on for 14 hours, Luk says. Luk also notes the disparity faced by people with disabilities when it comes to industry conferences. At many of them, American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation has to be requested. That means deaf Canadians must plan ahead to attend sessions while the rest of the population can make last minute decisions. There have been problems with the locations of conferences. Some facilities will boast wheelchair accessible washrooms but will not have automatic doors to get into them, Luk says. All of this hinders participation in such parleys by people with disabilities. Many creative people with disabilities shun conferences because of accessibility issues, Luk states. She and the DSO are working to educate larger conferences and film festivals about where services are lacking. According to Statistics Canada, as recently as 2022, 27 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older had at least one disability. But Luk says she has run into many people who say although they are disabled, they do not check the appropriate box on the census form. “But I explain to them if you’re not checking that box, that means we’re not getting a true understanding and data collection in count of the landscape,” she says, adding that she believes the 27 per cent number is an undercount. Luk laments the lack of resources, training, and information available for those with disabilities. Canada lags behind other nations including Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States when it comes to helping the community, she states. There is also too much pressure put on people with disabilities to inform others about their needs, she opines. “What we’ve also seen in the past is if you’re a disabled trade or talent, by default you become the educator or disability expert,” Luk avers. Advocacy work done by the DSO should take that labour off the shoulders of disabled people themselves, she hopes. Luk severed a nerve in her right ankle years ago and is neurodivergent. Six of the seven members of its board of directors identify as disabled. Being only two years into the job, the executive director is not in any rush to move on to other fields. “I’m very happy right now in my role,” she says. “We’ve been able to make so much progress in such a small amount of time. I don’t have an end date in sight now.” ppark@thewirereport.ca

Increased accessibility a long-term goal for Disability Screen Office

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By Paul Park
| April 24, 2025

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