Disabled students continue to face barriers constructed and enforced by our schools. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization estimates that, globally, children with disabilities are twice as likely to be denied access to education.

Students and their support networks, families, advocates and experts can no longer accept school systems that uphold inequality for the disabled community. Ableist barriers continue to impede the human rights of disabled students in Canada.

The Manitoba Human Rights Commission released the first phase of its report exploring the right to access evidence-based reading interventions in Manitoba’s public education system on Oct. 30, 2025.

The inquiry was initiated in 2022 after the commission continued to hear that students with reading disabilities were experiencing barriers to accessing timely reading interventions in their local public schools.

Related to this, the Manitoba government has passed Bill 225 to require universal early reading screenings for all kindergarten to Grade 4 students.

In a landmark 2012 case, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that human rights laws in Canada protect every student’s right to an equal opportunity to learn to read.

The court’s Moore v. British Columbia (Education) decision affirmed that learning to read is not a privilege or luxury, but a basic and essential human right in Canada. The court said:

“Adequate special education … is not a dispensable luxury. For those with severe learning disabilities, it is the ramp that provides access to the statutory commitment to education made to all children.”

While this........

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