CAN Successes:
The following are highlights of some of the successes of Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods. If you would like more information about our successes, or if you are interested in our services, please contact us by email at info@canbc.org or by phone at 604.437.7331.
Disability Awareness Training and Education
CAN delivers Disability Awareness Seminars throughout the Lower Mainland and we have delivered a couple up north as well. We teach Disability Awareness Seminars for municipalities, groups, businesses, organizations and even individuals. Here are a few examples of some of our Disability Awareness Training and Education projects:
CAN Creates “Living with Disability and Chronic Pain Blog”
Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods has created the Living with Disability and Chronic Pain blog. The blog is available through our website at www.canbc.org/blog/
The blog is also available in audio on the Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods YouTube channel.
There are four goals for this blog:
1) To educate about life with disability and/or chronic pain and to change misperceptions that are all too common:
In my many years as Executive Director of Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods I have come to realize that the public perception of disability and chronic pain is not a true reflection of the people who live with it on a daily basis. I have also realized that health issues, disability and chronic pain are not openly discussed and as such it is hard for those without disability and/or chronic pain to understand the issues we deal with on a daily basis. I hope that this blog, written by someone who lives with disability and chronic pain will offer insight and help to educate those without disabilities who may have preconceived notions and/or misperceptions about people with disabilities and/or chronic pain.
2) To support those living with disability and/or chronic pain:
I had my life turned upside down when, at the age of seventeen, I started dealing with my physical disability and chronic pain. Within a six month time span I had to leave school, quit a job I loved, stop driving, stop all sports, and pretty much see everything I had worked so hard for be taken from me because of health issues. I felt alone and isolated and so I founded a chronic pain support group that I ran for six years. Through this support group I realized that there is a great need for those with disability and chronic pain to share their experiences as those experiences can often be isolating, scary, and overwhelming. I also know that there is a great deal of knowledge and support within the disability community and I hope to tap into that through this blog. I am also very aware that people with disabilities and chronic pain are represented in the media in only two capacities: victim or hero. I hope to write about the middle ground and reflect a truer picture of people with disabilities and chronic pain, one that is not often shown to the community or through the media. I also hope that this blog offers support and hope to people living with disabilities and chronic pain.
3) To educate about accessibility:
If you are someone who does not require accessibility then most likely you will not notice or understand the hundreds of accessibility obstacles one runs into as they go about their daily lives. For those who require accessibility we are all too aware of the many accessibility issues and obstacles that we face on a daily basis. I hope to use this blog to create awareness about what accessibility is and how it can be utilized to create more inclusive communities. I also hope to educate about how all people, those with and without disabilities, can benefit from accessibility.
4) To teach about the proper etiquette when interacting with a person with a disability:
There are people who have had no or little experience with people with disabilities and are unaware about how to interact with a person with a disability as well as cautious to create interaction because of this lack of knowledge. I hope to use this blog to educate people about the appropriate etiquette when interacting with people with a diverse range of disabilities. I hope that this takes some of the stigma away from “disability” so that people see the person as a person first and feel more comfortable in creating and sustaining interaction.
CAN Delivers Disability Awareness Presentation for Front Line Staff with the City of Burnaby
Citizens for Accessibility has been delivering Disability Awareness Seminars for front line staff at the City of Burnaby for several years. Our seminar focuses on customer service for people with disabilities as well as educating people about what "disability" means. The seminar incorporates interactive activities that allow participants to get up and move about and to learn more about the perspective of a person with a disability. The response to the seminars have been overwhelmingly positive. We are very pleased to hear from staff at the City of Burnaby that they would like us to continue to deliver the Disability Awareness Seminar. We look forward our continued relationship with the City of Burnaby and to helping to educate staff about customer service for people with disabilities.
CAN Delivers a Disability Awareness Seminar for The Arbutus Club
The Arbutus Club requested that CAN deliver a Disability Awareness Seminar for their front line staff. We delivered the seminar to staff members from multiple departments. We had been asked to provide information on how best to interact with people with disabilities in general as well as how to interact with people with ten disabilities in particular (Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Alzheimer’s Disease, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cerebral Palsy (CP) , Deaf or Hard of Hearing, Developmental Disabilities, Down Syndrome , Epilepsy, Spina Bifida). The seminar went very well and the feedback was positive.
CAN Creates a Guidebook for the Front Line Staff of The Arbutus Club
In addition to delivering a Disability Awareness Seminar at The Arbutus Club we prepared a guide book for front line staff explaining the proper terminology as well as information on how to interact with people of various disabilities. The information is available for all staff and follows along the lines of our Disability Awareness Videos. The information that we supply to business, organizations, or individuals interested in Disability Awareness touches on the information found in our videos but is fit to specifically meet the needs of the each individual client.
CAN Representative Assists SuperHost in Reviewing the Existing Customer with Disabilities Workshop
Due to CAN’s stellar reputation regarding disability awareness training we were contacted by SuperHost in the hopes that we would help them review their current Customer with Disabilities Workshop and offer feedback. We were happy to do so.
CAN Delivers Presentation at LOVE (Leave Out Violence) Media Arts Program Session
CAN was invited to attend a session of LOVE's Media Arts Program to discuss issues regarding accessibility and ableism. The Media Arts Program is for teenagers between the age of 13-17 who have lived with any kind of violence. MAP is "designed for youth who are interested in a supportive space where you can learn digital and photography, darkroom skills, video production, journalism, creative writing and other media arts to speak up and join other youth ending violence." CAN was excited to get to talk with teenagers which is not a demographic with which we have had a lot of contact. The presentation was interactive and we used photographs and physical activities to demonstrate some of the experiences of people with disabilities. We were very impressed with the program, the staff from LOVE, and the participants. The teenagers asked some very insightful questions and really understood what it was for people to make assumptions based on ability or looks.
CAN Assisted TransLink in Creating Activities at the Head Office for Access Awareness Day
The Access Transit Secretariat held TransLink’s first ever Access Awareness Day. Heather McCain, the executive Director of CAN, was asked to contribute to the event. Heather created a Disability Awareness Quiz on Attitudinal and Physical Accessibility. The quiz was distributed to employees and was done by more employees than originally expected due to the positive feedback from staff. CAN was proud to have consulted on this event.
CAN Speaks at SPARC’s Access Awareness Day Dialogue Regarding Employing People with Disabilities in the Tourism Sector
CAN ED's, Heather McCain, spoke of her personal experiences as well as that of the members of CAN in finding employment while being a person with a disability.
SPARC’s dialogue brought together employers, employment agencies, people with disabilities, and disability advocates. The dialogue asked “ Is there a shortage of opportunities in tourism, or a shortage of applicants with disabilities?” and "What does it mean to have an accessible tourist destination that is welcoming and inclusive?" The dialogue was well attended and the discussion challenged people to consider the perspectives of people with disabilities who are trying to find employment amidst well-entrenched, but untrue, myths about people with disabilities as employees.
CAN ED Teaches Disability Awareness Training for the Various Directorates of the 2009 Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows BC Disability Games
Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods Executive Director created a Disability Awareness Quiz for the Directors and Chairs of the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows BC Disability Games. In addition to the quiz, Heather attended volunteer meetings and taught 10 Tips on Interacting with People with Disabilities and Proper/Improper Terms.The disability awareness sessions were well attended and very effective. Many of the volunteers spoke of experiences during the games, with the athletes, in which what was taught was used. Those who applied the training to the games experience came away with a more comfortable, at ease, experience and passed on the lessons to other people within their life.
Disability Awareness Video
Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods created two Disability Awareness Training Videos for the BC Disability Games. The first video includes tips for interacting with people with disabilities and the second explains the proper terminology regarding people with disabilities. Both videos are available on our website. Here are some examples of how our videos are a success:
CAN’s Disability Awareness Training Videos To Be Used at Future Games
BC Disability Games Society received positive feedback regarding the Disability Awareness Training that was given to the Directors, Chairs, and volunteers at the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows BC Disability Games by the Executive Director of Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods. CAN was then asked to help create creating two short videos that could be used at future Games under the BC Games Society; these include the BC Seniors’ Games, the BC Northern Games, the BC Summer Games, and the BC Winter Games. CAN was thrilled to participate in this project to ensure that volunteers receive this Disability Awareness Training as well as to have this information, by way of videos, readily available on our website.
CAN Disability Awareness Videos Being Used by Organizations for Their Volunteers’ Training
Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods has been contacted by dozens of organizations who wanted to thank us for our Disability Awareness Videos as they use them to train new volunteers. CAN is proud to have our videos used in this capacity. We work hard to improve access to information and it is truly humbling to hear that organizations across BC see the value in our videos and share them with their volunteers.
CAN’s Disability Awareness Videos Connect Volunteers to Sport and Recreation Organizations
CAN’s disability awareness videos have acted as a conduit for connecting volunteers with adaptive sport and recreation organizations. We have been contacted by several individuals who said that they wanted to volunteer for sport and recreation organizations that worked with people with disabilities but they were nervous about the terminology and so they put off contacting the organizations because they didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot by saying the wrong thing. They then discovered CAN’s website and watched our disability awareness videos which made them more confident in contacting an organization. As we say in the video “intention rules” so be aware that it is understandable if a person who does not have a disability is unaware of the current terminology but as long as their intention is good (and volunteering is definitely a sign of good intentions) then words are not usually an issue.
CAN’s Disability Awareness Video Mentioned in the Enablelinker
CAN is very proud to have been mentioned in the Enablelinker. The EnableLinker is a Canada wide monthly newsletter circulated by the Canadian Abilities Foundation to thousands of people interested in disability issues. The newsletters contains disability-related announcements, upcoming events and chats, and humour and classifieds. The following was said about our videos: "In two video segments, Heather McCain of Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods provides tips on terminology and interacting with athletes with disabilities. Terminology Video: http://vimeo.com/5967348 Interacting Video: http://vimeo.com/5965318"
We have had a great response regarding this posting. People have contacted us to say that “when a country wide newsletter picks up on of our projects it is an indicator that our grassroots organization is doing a great job”.
CAN’s Disability Awareness Video Twittered by BC Disability Games Society
BC Disability Games Society posted CAN’s Disability Awareness videos on their twitter page and in the first thirteen days two hundred and eleven people watched our two videos.
Inclusive Playgrounds
CAN is often contacted by individuals, staff at schools or municipalities, and/or people from Parent Advisory Committees who have questions about inclusive playgrounds. We are commonly asked what “inclusive” means, where the playgrounds are located and how to get funding. As there was an obvious need for more information about inclusive playgrounds we decided to follow the success of our Adaptive Sport and Recreation Page by creating an Inclusive Playground Database that would list the playgrounds and answer the commonly asked questions and more. The database will include photographs and comments from the project team to help educate others hoping to create playgrounds in their communities. Here are some of our successes with our newest project on Inclusive Playgrounds:
CAN Launches Inclusive Playground Database for BC
Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods is routinely contacted by people interested in more information about inclusive playgrounds and with each new email or phone call we thought that we should look at ways to improve access to information about these great play spaces. As our Adaptive Sport and Recreation Database has been such a success we decided to create a database for inclusive playgrounds. Our Adaptive Sport and Recreation Database is about connecting people to the sport and recreation organizations, but as our Inclusive Playground Database came about from people wanting to know information about every aspect of inclusive playgrounds our new database will be more information rich with details about each playground as well as photographs so the user doesn’t have to try to imagine the playground and equipment. For each inclusive playground we will have information about: the funding source, equipment provider, designer(s), length of project, people involved with the project, lessons learned, challenges, suggestions for future projects, successes, and more.
The goal of the new Inclusive Playground Database is threefold: 1) to educate people about inclusive play by offering information and photographic examples of the components that join together to create inclusive playgrounds; 2) to educate people about inclusive playgrounds available in their community, and; 3) to celebrate the hard work of community members and community staff in creating these much needed spaces.
We would like to thank the staff at the Cities of Burnaby and Kamloops for helping us launch this database by offering information about one of their inclusive playgrounds. This database is a work in progress and we welcome questions and feedback. To offer suggestions or to post information about an inclusive playground contact us by email info@canbc.org or by phone at 604.437.7331.
CAN’s Letter of Support for Tire Stewardship Grant a Success
In addition to being known as a source of information on inclusive playgrounds we have become known as an organization that will write a letter of support for funding/grant applications which we have happily done on numerous occasions and, we are happy to say, all projects received funding. One such example was when Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods was contacted by a Landscape Design Technician from the City of Surrey. We were asked to write a letter of support for the City of Surrey for the Tire Stewardship’s Community Grant Program. This program funds inclusive surfaces for playgrounds, in this case Holly Park in Surrey. Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods fully supports any group that is working to make a playground inclusive. Over the years we have written a dozen letters of support and we are happy to continue writing such letters. We were very pleased to hear that the City of Surrey was successful in their bid to get funding. We are happy to know that we had a small part to play in that success.
CAN Attends Grand Opening of New Inclusive Playground at Kits Beach
Several representatives from CAN were invited by staff at The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation to attend the opening, and celebration, of the city’s largest accessible playground at representatives BEach Park. We were happy to be asked and we enjoyed watching the children of all abilities play together.
The inclusive playground, is a 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games legacy which enables children of all abilities to play side-by-side with their siblings, friends, families and caregivers. Features include wheelchair accessible surfaces, rotation climber and saucer swings.
CAN Participates in A Higher Level of Inclusive Play Seminar
CAN was invited to participate in A Higher Level of Inclusive Play Seminar by Habitat Systems Inc., a distributor of commercial grade park, playground and landscape solutions. As CAN often gets e-mails from organizations, parent advisory committees, and individuals asking about inclusive playgrounds we were glad to have this opportunity to network with others interested in ensuring accessibility for children at playgrounds and to learn more about one of the distributors. The seminar included tips and strategies on how to make changes in play spaces, and how to make playgrounds engaging, challenging and therapeutic for children of all abilities. The keynote speaker was John McConkey who has more than 15 years of experience in the healthcare field and offers a unique perspective on heath, fitness, and children's play.
Participation
CAN is often asked to have members participate in various forums, meetings, and events. We are also contacted regularly to suggest members for committees. Here are a few examples of events and groups with which CAN is represented:
Examples of Events, Conferences, and Forums in which CAN participates:
Governor General's Canadian Leadership Conference
Canadian Urban Transit Association Accessible Transit Sub-Committee
Exhibitor at the Annual Canadian Therapeutic Recreation Association's Conference
Exhibitor at Multiple Abilities Expo
Workshop for People with Print Disabilities
PlanTalk Workshop on Transportation Funding Solutions
Metro Vancouver’s Regional Growth Strategy Forum
ConnecTra Workshops
Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadow’s Life After School Transition Fair
Sports Expo in Pitt Meadows
Juror for City of Vancouver Access and Inclusion Awards
Yearly Access Awareness Week Event at Port Coquitlam Transit Centre
Transportation Unconference
Ridge-Meadows Transit Riders' Advisory Committee
Focus Group on the Maple Ridge Town Centre Area Parking Strategy
2040 Planning for People Transportation 2040 Dialogue
Examples of Organizations in Which CAN, and CAN’s ED, Have Been Involved:
Member at Large of TransLink’s Access Transit Users Advisory Group
Board Member of the Social Planning and Research Council of BC (SPARC BC)
Board Member of the Active Living Alliance of BC (ALABC)
Board Member of BC Disability Games Society
Member of TransLink’s Roundtable Stakeholder Group
Member at Large of ConnecTra Society
Presentations and Speaking Engagements
Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods has developed a stellar reputation for our ability to create and deliver insightful, interactive, and entertaining presentations specific to the needs of each audience. CAN has spoken on a variety of subjects including, but not limited to: inclusive transportation, universal access, streetscape design, disability awareness education and/or training, inclusionary practices, adaptive sport and recreation, and inclusive playgrounds.
Here are some examples of presentations that CAN has, and continues to, deliver:
“Creating Inclusive Work Environments” at Sources Professional Development Event
“Embracing Ability: Redefining a Diverse Workforce” for Abilities in Mind Conference
“Public Transportation: Our Key Towards a Sustainable Livable Region” CAN’s ED Keynote Speaker at TransLink’s Annual Access Awareness Day Lunch & Learn
“Understanding Disability and Universal Design” at Cities Fit for Children Conference in Kamloops
“Inclusionary Practices for Active Living” presented in Kamloops
“Inclusionary Practices for Streetscape Design” to Coquitlam Access Committee
"The Evolution of the Pedestrian" & “Examples in Universal Design Walking Tour” for Walk 21 “Accessible Transportation System, Connecting People to Their Community” for Connecting Communities Youth Summit Conference on Transit, People and Places: Designing for Transit
“Life with a Disability” at Picture This Film Festival “Employing People with Disabilities” at SPARC’s Access Awareness Day Dialogue (also interviewed on CBC regarding presentation)
"Accessible Urban Space: A Facilitated Discussion on Inclusive Communities" UN World Urban Forum (also interviewed on CBC regarding forum)
Reports
Shifting the Culture at the Ministry of Social Development & Poverty Reduction
Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods worked with other organizations from the Poverty Reduction Coalition to write the paper: Shifting the Culture at the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction
The paper is a brief overview of key concerns brought to the Poverty Reduction Coalition from our members. Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods represented the experiences and concerns of our members and brought them forth to be included in the report. We believe the examples we provided are achievable measures which would better reflect the support and assistance the system is supposed to be providing for people with disabilities and on welfare.
CAN’s Executive Director participated in a phone call with Deputy Ministers regarding the paper and the steps they are taking to address the issues laid out in the report. We are optimistic that our current government is taking steps to correct changes made to the system by our previous government. We will maintain contact with the Minister, Shane Simpson, and his Deputy Ministers and continue to advocate on behalf of our members.
Shifting the Culture at the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, co-written by the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition, Raise the Rates, Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods, the Richmond Poverty Response Committee, Together Against Poverty Society, West Coast LEAF and UFCW 1518, shared our vision for the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction: "A Ministry that is dedicated to poverty reduction should be designed to meet the needs of people currently living in poverty and help to lift them out of poverty. We envision a culture of care, instead of a culture of suspicion, with better training and supports for staff, and a serious commitment to accessibility for clients; an accessible system should not require the help of an advocate to apply, make a call, and/or address an issue.
Such a Ministry would be a respectful and supportive environment, where somebody needing support can walk into an office and meet face to face with a worker who treats them with dignity and respect. Work with us to come up with tangible, time-sensitive changes to the culture and accessibility of the Ministry. Commit to an ethical, dignified assistance system that works to actively lift people out of poverty and end poverty altogether."
Sharing Our Reality: Life on Disability Assistance in British Columbia Report
The effects of provincial government policy are demoralizing for both people with disabilities and those who work within the income assistance system, says a new report released today for which people with disabilities and income assistance workers were surveyed. Looking beyond the numbers to focus on real-life stories, Sharing Our Realities: Life on Disability Assistance in British Columbia finds a remarkable consensus between people with disabilities, income assistance workers, and even the findings of the government’s own disability consultation about what ails the system and what is needed to improve the lives of people with disabilities. The report, which surveyed people with disabilities and income assistance workers across the province, includes recommendations to increase income and disability assistance rates, simplify applications for income and disability assistance, and return to a system with individualized caseworkers.
“The message is that we don’t have enough for basics like food and shelter,” said Frank, who receives disability assistance, “and this makes our disabilities worse. We are losing our health. We are losing our homes. We are losing our lives. This is a crisis.”
Throughout 2016, Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods (CAN) was routinely contacted by people with disabilities who felt they had no voice or power in this province. “People had participated in the 2014 government consultation, but felt that their comments and suggestions were ignored, written into papers, and then filed away,” said Heather McCain, Executive Director of Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods and the co-author of the report. In response, CAN developed a survey for people on disability assistance and ministry workers, and the resulting report, Sharing Our Realities, aims to provide that voice, which is loud and clear.
Income assistance workers agree, but the report reveals that many feel like they did not have avenues in which they could share their thoughts and concerns about their ability to do their job. “Income Assistance workers tell me all the time how powerless they now feel to actually make a difference in people’s lives within the current service delivery model,” says Doug Kinna, a British Columbia Government and Service Employees’ Union elected representative for Ministry social workers. “Things used to be different.”
The stories in the report demonstrate the inadequacy of the increases in disability assistance over the last two years and participants appeal to the government to provide a system based in dignity for people with disabilities. Omar Chu, with the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition and co-author of the report, agrees, adding that “basic welfare, which many people with disabilities have to survive on before they access disability assistance, has now been frozen for a decade at $610 per month. Sharing these stories of hardship caused by lack of government action is part of our commitment to make poverty public. We need to significantly raise income assistance rates as part of a comprehensive poverty reduction plan for BC.”
Website
Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhood’s website has been a cornerstone of our growth, development, success and reputation. Our organization was started on the basis of people with disabilities frustrated by the time and energy it took to get information about accessibility, products, services, and sport and recreation for people with disabilities. We are proud that our website has become known as a one-stop site for people with disabilities. We are proud that we are saving people with disabilities and/or those in their support systems time and energy as we know that when one has a disability, especially a newly acquired disability, both are in short supply. Our website has grown over the years to include our Disability Awareness Videos, now used by dozens of organizations for training purposes, our Adaptive Sport and Recreation Database for BC, and our most recent project the Inclusive Playground Database for BC. Over the years we have gladly utilized the suggestions and comments of users and applied them to the site, including the development of the buttons on our home page which people felt were much easier to navigate. Here are some of our other website successes:
CAN Creates “Living with Disability and Chronic Pain Blog”
Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods has created the Living with Disability and Chronic Pain blog. The blog is available through our website at www.canbc.org/blog/
The blog is also available in audio on the Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods YouTube channel.
There are four goals for this blog:
1) To educate about life with disability and/or chronic pain and to change misperceptions that are all too common:
In my many years as Executive Director of Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods I have come to realize that the public perception of disability and chronic pain is not a true reflection of the people who live with it on a daily basis. I have also realized that health issues, disability and chronic pain are not openly discussed and as such it is hard for those without disability and/or chronic pain to understand the issues we deal with on a daily basis. I hope that this blog, written by someone who lives with disability and chronic pain will offer insight and help to educate those without disabilities who may have preconceived notions and/or misperceptions about people with disabilities and/or chronic pain.
2) To support those living with disability and/or chronic pain:
I had my life turned upside down when, at the age of seventeen, I started dealing with my physical disability and chronic pain. Within a six month time span I had to leave school, quit a job I loved, stop driving, stop all sports, and pretty much see everything I had worked so hard for be taken from me because of health issues. I felt alone and isolated and so I founded a chronic pain support group that I ran for six years. Through this support group I realized that there is a great need for those with disability and chronic pain to share their experiences as those experiences can often be isolating, scary, and overwhelming. I also know that there is a great deal of knowledge and support within the disability community and I hope to tap into that through this blog. I am also very aware that people with disabilities and chronic pain are represented in the media in only two capacities: victim or hero. I hope to write about the middle ground and reflect a truer picture of people with disabilities and chronic pain, one that is not often shown to the community or through the media. I also hope that this blog offers support and hope to people living with disabilities and chronic pain.
3) To educate about accessibility:
If you are someone who does not require accessibility then most likely you will not notice or understand the hundreds of accessibility obstacles one runs into as they go about their daily lives. For those who require accessibility we are all too aware of the many accessibility issues and obstacles that we face on a daily basis. I hope to use this blog to create awareness about what accessibility is and how it can be utilized to create more inclusive communities. I also hope to educate about how all people, those with and without disabilities, can benefit from accessibility.
4) To teach about the proper etiquette when interacting with a person with a disability:
There are people who have had no or little experience with people with disabilities and are unaware about how to interact with a person with a disability as well as cautious to create interaction because of this lack of knowledge. I hope to use this blog to educate people about the appropriate etiquette when interacting with people with a diverse range of disabilities. I hope that this takes some of the stigma away from “disability” so that people see the person as a person first and feel more comfortable in creating and sustaining interaction.
CAN Launches Facebook Page
Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods is always looking for new ways to spread the information we have on our website. To help get our message to more people we launched a Facebook page. The Facebook page has two posts per week with information that is useful to people with disabilities, chronic pain, and health issues, as well as for those within their support systems.
We have received great feedback regarding our Facebook page. We are pleased to have so many people following our posts, as well as liking, and sharing our posts with their friends.
CAN Continues Efforts to Improve Our Website to Make Access to Information Easier and More Accessible
Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods owes a lot of our growth to our website. Doug Cook from DigiCom WebDesign has been with CAN from day one and his collaborative work has led to a website that is respected and admired across BC. At CAN our board and members work to ensure that our website is as clean and accessible as possible.
We have appreciated the comments regarding the format of our website from visitors and members. We continue to listen to your suggestions and comments in an effort to improve our website and we make changes as needed. Based on feedback we altered our original format and created a more user-friendly site.
We strive to ensure that people across BC have access to information that will enrich and enhance their lives. The website is one of CAN’s main ongoing projects and if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions please contact us at info@canbc.org or by phone at 604.437.7331.
Services Page Explains CAN’s Three Core Services, Includes Endorsements
Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods is funded through membership dues and our three core services: Disability Awareness Seminars, Accessibility Audits (creating and delivering) and Presentations. We felt it was important to provide information about our services and so we created a Services Page on our website. The page includes information about our services as well as a listing of people/organizations that have previously used our services. We also included endorsements from clients and partners.
CAN’s Transportation Page a Great Resource
Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods has come to be known, sought after, and respected for our commitment and work towards improving accessible transportation. CAN is contacted on a weekly basis regarding questions about transportation so we dedicated a page on our web site to the information regarding accessible transit. Here is some of the information the Transportation Page covers: Bus Passes, Taxi Savers, BC Ferries, Fuel Tax Refund Programs, and Auto Insurance Discounts, and more.
Resources Page Takes the Work Out of Searching for Resources for PWDs
One of the main reasons CAN was started was because there were many people with disabilities who were not sure about what resources, products, and activities were available to them or how to access that information. From the start CAN has had a Word of Mouth Page that is based on suggestions of information from people with disabilities. The Word of Mouth Page continues to expand with your help.
CAN’s Disability Awareness Videos an Educational Tool Available to All
CAN has two Disability Awareness Videos on our site, the first includes tips for interacting with people with disabilities and the second is on the proper terminology regarding people with disabilities. CAN believes it is important to educate people about how to interact with people with disabilities and to take the mystery out of these interactions. Our videos are a very successful tool that have allowed people to become more comfortable and confident about the possibility of interacting with a person with a disability. These videos are currently being used by organizations across BC to help train volunteers. We encourage anyone interested to use them.
CAN’s Adaptive Sport and Recreation Database Increases Access to Information About Activities Throughout Province
CAN’s Adaptive Sport and Recreation Page for BC is a one stop site for people interested in learning about adaptive sport and recreation programs and the organizations that run the programs. The listings are organized by three categories: Name, Location, and Type of Sport or Recreation. We also have a category for Other Relevant Organizations such as Tetra which can help to create adaptive sport equipment. We currently have over 100 listings for more than 60 sports across 73 communities in BC. We continue our effort to make this as complete a list as possible; if you know of any sport or recreation program not currently on our site please let us know so that we can add it to the list by contacting us at info@canbc.or or 604.437.7331
CAN’s New Inclusive Playground Database Aims to Educate About and Promote Inclusive Play
Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods is routinely contacted by people interested in more information about inclusive playgrounds and with each new email or phone call we thought that we should look at ways to improve access to information about these great play spaces. As our Adaptive Sport and Recreation Database has been such a success we decided to create a database for Inclusive Playgrounds. Our Adaptive Sport and Recreation Database is about connecting people to the sport and recreation organizations, but as our Inclusive Playground Database came about from people wanting to know information about every aspect of inclusive playgrounds our new database will be more information rich with details about each playground as well as photographs so the user doesn’t have to try to imagine the playground and equipment. For each inclusive playground we will have information about: the funding source, equipment provider, designer(s), length of project, people involved with the project, lessons learned, challenges, suggestions for future projects, successes, and more.
The goal of the new Inclusive Playground Database is threefold: 1) to educate people about inclusive play by offering information and photographic examples of the components that join together to create inclusive playgrounds; 2) to educate people about inclusive playgrounds available in their community, and; 3) to celebrate the hard work of community members and community staff in creating these much needed spaces.
We would like to thank the staff at the Cities of Burnaby and Kamloops for helping us launch this database by offering information about one of their inclusive playgrounds.
This database is a work in progress and we welcome questions and feedback. To offer suggestions or to post information about an inclusive playground contact us by email info@canbc.org or by phone at 604.437.7331.
CAN Continues to Offer Outreach to Those Who Contact Us Through Our Website
Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods’s website is routinely visited by people around the world. We are proud that our organization has such a web presence. We have been able to help people from the Sunshine Coast, the Interior, Vancouver Island, Ontario, Calgary, Oregon, Seattle, and Japan, to name a few.
We have enjoyed educating people about issues relating to people with disabilities and those within their support system and we are excited by the level of interest our web site, our organization, and our work receive.
Here are some examples of requests from people:
• A contractor from Grand Prairie, Alberta who was doing a project in Dawson Creek and needed to know about universal design, specifically for a footbridge. He was having troubles finding information about pathway accessibility when he came across our web site and phoned us. We had the proper document and e-mailed him immediately. He thanked us for the help. We appreciate contractors like Mr. Anderson who continued to dig to get the answers to make sure that his finished project is accessible for all.
• A researcher who was hired by the City of Abbotsford and Spirit BC to develop a tool that could be used to improve accessibility for residents of Abbotsford. She was working on two projects: an evaluation of the transportation services, and choosing a a central location in Abbotsford to evaluate for accessibility. The evaluation of the central location was done by physically walking the route and observing the side walks, traffic lights, bus stops, curb cuts, signage, etc., and reporting back with recommendations for improvements. CAN was able to supply her with a document that we created for Maple Ridge which lists important accessibility issues for the downtown core. She was very thankful and said that it gave them direction and helped them understand the issues. Ms. Urquhart also requested permission to reference the universal design information on CAN’s web site in her report. We, of course, gave her permission and were glad to do so.
• A student from SFU who was doing a report on SFU dorm housing. The student searched the internet for information on accessibility and came upon our web site. She was very pleased with the input we were able to provide her and we were glad to help promote education and understanding about accessibility.
• An organization located on the Sunshine Coast contacted us to ask about creating an accessible trail. They were looking for guidelines on the internet when they came upon our web site. We helped the Sunshine Coast organization by leading them to documents with guidelines. They appreciated our help and we were glad to help any organization that considers accessibility an important goal to achieve.
• A reporter in Ontario contacted us because she was wanting to do a story about Power Soccer. She saw the listing for Power Soccer on our site and interviewed one of the Maple Ridge players for Kids on Wheels, a magazine for children who use wheelchairs.
• A professor from Nagoya University contacted CAN to ask about what was being done in the Lower Mainland to prepare the Paralympics. We were able to meet with the professor when she visited Vancouver. We demonstrated what a person with a mobility impairment or disability deals with on a daily basis and why accessibility is so important. She has kept in touch and hopes to have another meeting with us when she returns in the future.
Continued Growth of CAN’s Website
CAN’s website started with a very small Word of Mouth Page and a page with a brief explanation about Universal Design. Over the years we have added a Transportation Page, a Success Page, an Adaptive Sport and Recreation Database, an Inclusive Playground Database, blog, and a page on CAN’s services. In addition to adding new pages, all pages, including the original two, have grown over the years. We continue to keep our ears open in anticipation of any other information that should be added to our site and we are always happy to receive feedback from users of our site.
