Date of issue: May 29, 1980
Printer: Ashton-Potter Limited
Design: Rolf P. Harder
Rehabilitation
Rehabilitation International (RI Global) is a nongovernmental organization formed in 1922 in the United States. Two individuals were particularly influential in its early development: Bell Greve, a social worker who began rehabilitation services to disabled WWI soldiers, and Dr. Henry Kessler, an orthopedic surgeon who established the first United States rehabilitation hospital. The organization has evolved to provide care and advocacy for a variety of disabilities, such as spinal cord injury, via approximately 1000 agencies in over 100 countries. It was instrumental in advocating for and developing the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The organization hosts a quadrennial International Congress to promote and discuss issues related to disability. Canada Post issued the stamp to commemorate the fourteenth such Congress, held in Winnipeg in 1980.
The Stamp
The image on the stamp depicts two hands, symbolizing people helping people. Overlapping circles on one first day cover may represent a stylized wheelchair (the International Symbol of Accessibility developed in the 1960s by RI). A second first-day cover has a photograph of a child in a wheelchair being helped by an adult. A third one shows a graphic version of the same theme, with an individual in a wheelchair being assisted/invited to follow a path to doors that open into an uncertain but potentially better place.
