Those interested in accessibility and inclusion issues can meet with B.C. Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction Shane Simpson who is hosting a consultation session tonight.
Jessica Vliegenthart is a Personal Injury Lawyer who is a paraplegic and a local champion of accessibility issues. She says there is a lot of work to do to make this province a more livable place for people with physical disabilities. “If the government tomorrow were suddenly to put a law in place that said ‘every public space needs to be physically accessible’ it’s going to take some time. That doesn’t happen overnight. Ontario has had their act in place since 2005 with a goal of making places physically accessible by 2025, so a 20 year window.”
Vliegenthart says people don’t realize how many barriers exist for people with physical disabilities until you are placed in that situation. “It’s a common problem and I think it’s a lot more common than people realize. I’ve used a wheel chair for 15 year now and when I first acquired my spinal chord injury I thought ‘okay, I got this, I’ll just rock life in a wheelchair.’ I had no idea how much inaccessibility was going to come into my life.” She recognizes that it’s not easy and there can be a lot of resistance. “Because often times people think about accessibility and they see the dollar signs that go with retro-fitting buildings. If there is any business owners out there paying attention, one thing you could do right now is simply put accessibility information on your website.”
Simpson was on the NL Morning News and was asked how the proposed legislation would affect building codes. “We’re working closely with the Rick Hanson Foundation, who have a certification process around accessibility for built environments so they’re giving some help and they’re very expert in this field.” Simpson says the plan is to introduce the new acceptability legislation in the fall of 2020 and have it passed and in place by this time next year. “We’ve got the Union of BC Municipalities, local government is involved in the advisory committee. The BC Chamber of Commerce is involved directly in this. We’ve brought business in, we’ve brought local government in, and we’ll be having some very targeted discussions with the building and design community.”
The public can attend Tuesday night’s meeting at Lii Michif Otipemisiwak Family and Community Services. It is located at 707 Tranquille Road. The session runs from 6:00 to 8:30.
