Human rights

The Conversation: Dyslexic students have the right to read — and Manitoba has joined other provinces to address this

Manitoba legislature building Winnipeg
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Education systems must confront ableist processes, attitudes and practices if all children, including those with dyslexia, are able to realize the right to read. The exterior of the Manitoba legislature in Winnipeg in November 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods
Education systems must confront ableist processes, attitudes and practices if all children, including those with dyslexia, are able to realize the right to read. The exterior of the Manitoba legislature in Winnipeg in November 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods
Estimated Read Time:
1 minute

As written in The Conversation Canada by Michael Baker, Instructor, Faculty of Education. 

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.

Read the full article in The Conversation.