What is Red Shirt Day?
This May sees the fifth annual Red Shirt Day celebration.
Red Shirt Day by Easter Seals Canada is a day to show support for persons with disabilities, promote accessibility and highlight the importance of inclusion.
Every Wednesday of ‘National AccessAbility Week’, people from all across Canada come together to wear red and make pledges to make our country more accessible and inclusive. Here at Stiltz Home Elevators, the team looks at what is involved.
Join the Conversation
Canada has taken a stance in terms of supporting people living with disabilities. The Accessibility Canada Act, adopted in 2019, is a federal law that aims to identify, remove, and prevent barriers facing people with disabilities.
National Accessibility Week, which runs from May 25 to June 1, 2024, celebrates and highlights some of the important initiatives aimed at creating an Accessible Canada.
The awareness campaign invites Canadians to join the conversation and share experiences. Being seen and being heard are a main driver for the change you want to see. This is a movement for accessibility, inclusion, and equity!
Red Shirt Day
As part of National Disability Week, Wednesday is allocated to Red Shirt Day. This is a day when people across Canada come together and unite by wearing red to create a visible display of solidarity whether they have a disability or not.
People join in to show their support for disabled people, their families, and carers, to celebrate the achievements and contributions of disabled Canadians, and to pledge their commitment to help create a fully accessible and inclusive society.
Take the Pledge
Red Shirt Day is about more than just visibility. Wearing red is a bold statement to get attention to the core issues. Behind the red t-shirts is a commitment to remove physical, attitudinal, and systemic barriers to accessibility and inclusion in schools, workplaces, and in the community.
This is not just a one-day event, a pledge is needed to commit to constant, year-round effort to put the changes into practice and to advocate and take action to increase accessibility and inclusion.
Who can take part?
Diversity and inclusion are important to everyone, to create a society that works for all and honors and values the contributions of people of all abilities in all aspects of life in Canada.
As such, anyone can take part in Red Shirt Day. All you have to do is put on your favourite red shirt, take some photos and make a pledge to help improve accessibility and inclusion in your community.