The Hawgs Breath Saloon in Kincardine uses a stopgap to make their business more accessible to patrons with physical disabilities (Image via the Kincardine Accessibility Advisory Committee)
The Kincardine Accessibility Committee provided an update to council at the June 19th meeting.
Chair of the committee Sharon Woods was able to share recent successes that the municipality was able to do to make local facilities and businesses more accessible to anyone with physical disabilities.
“We advocate for increased mobility transportation through SMART, and we prepared the Accessibility Survey, to hear from the public on their accessibility concerns.”
Woods explained that in 2005, the committee was given direction to improve accessibility by using the Facility Accessibility Design Standards (FADS) from the city of London.
She shared with the council that they had worked with the Kincardine and District Secondary School to complete additional StopGap ramps for local businesses.
They’ve also worked with their Strategic Initiatives group to promote the “Ring My Bell” initiative to provide doorbells to businesses in order to provide accessibility for those who needed assistance.
She says that they had advocated with the Kincardine BIA in order to increase accessibility and awareness for local businesses.
She adds that the committee “Is the voice of accessibility and continues to advocate for those that cannot. Our goal is to do whatever we can to make this municipality barrier-free, and inclusive for all to enjoy.”
Woods also shared a list of improvements that they would like to make:
– More accessible playgrounds
– Elevator at the Davidson Centre
– Office at the Davidson Centre not accessible
– The existing ramp at the Davidson Centre is too steep
– Accessible walkways at the beach
– Benches vs. Adirondack chairs in the downtown core (Current chairs are too hard
to get out of)
– Print on tax bills too small
– A request for a crosswalk at Durham Market North and Princes to the Church
The AAC is a Committee of Council and is required under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) for municipalities with populations over 10,000.