St. FX University graduate Steven Estey, a leading international disability rights advocate died

Steven Estey

this week. Estey, a resident of Dartmouth was a driving force in disability laws in Canada and around the globe, including the Nova Scotia Accessiblity Act and the Accessible Canada Act.

He was part of Canada’s delegation to the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and worked on the ground with grassroots Disabled People’s Organizations in more than 30 countries. He has also worked as a consultant to Governments, UN Agencies and regional organizations.

At St. FX, he coordinated multiple knowledge sharing engagements with the Coady Institute to raise the profile of people with disabilities in educational and leadership programming at the university. As an undergraduate student at St. FX in the 1980’s, Estey was part of a group that launched X-Project, a student-led society that works with African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaw communties to offer youth educational, recreational and leadership programs.

In 2021, Estey’s extensive advocacy work was recognized as a recipient of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Award