Northeast Accessibility aims to ensure equal access for all people with disabilities
National AccessAbility Week: May 25-31
Since the 1990s, various people in the community have been working to make Fort St. John more accessible for people with a wide range of disabilities.
Back then, sidewalks which were installed in the early 1970s were deteriorating to a point that they were dangerous for wheelchair-bound people to navigate. Many businesses and even City Hall were not accessible for these same people, without ramps or doors that could be opened and remain open with the push of a button to allow anyone with mobility challenges to gain access.
With the passage of the Accessible BC Act in 2021, communities throughout northeastern British Columbia, from Pouce Coupe and Tumbler Ridge, to the Northern Rockies Regional District came together to form the Northeast British Columbia Collaborative Accessibility Committee.
Known as Northeast Accessibility, the committee builds upon the efforts started in the 1990s by people such as Lori Slater, dedicated to addressing accessibility issues, barriers and finding solutions for residents and visitors with a wide variety of disabilities. Disabilities which can make accessing buildings, recreational opportunities or even walking down the sidewalk difficult, depending on what challenges one faces.
Local governments have worked together to develop a Collaborative Accessibility Plan, designed to support collaborative efforts to improve accessibility in northeastern BC. The plan envisions “a Northeastern British Columbia that offers accessibility for all people with disabilities living, working and exploring Northeastern BC.”
Edwina Nearhood, who is blind and a member of Northeast Accessibility, told council on May 26 that she thinks “for the most part, the city does fairly good, and I think Lori Slater does a great job of advocating for those areas with wheelchair access and mobility access, but there are other areas of accessibility that can be considered.”
Meeting monthly, the committee welcomes presentations and discussions from local governments about projects which may benefit from an accessibility lens, as well as collecting feedback from community members for discussion and to pass on to local governments. Northeast Accessibility also monitors the implementation of the Northeastern BC Collaborative Accessibility Plan.
Staff members are appointed from each local government to act as liaisons between the committee and local governments, and the committee at least 50 percent of committee members must be either persons with disabilities or supporting someone with disabilities. Everyone involved must live in northeastern BC.
Education is key to helping remove barriers to accessibility.
For example, Nearhood says that because her disability is mostly invisible, “people don’t know what to do with me, and sometimes their way is just to bypass me and pretend I’m not there. Other times they over-help, and all help is really appreciated.”
To her, accessibility means “to be able to fully participate in all levels of the community, whether that be recreation, arts and culture or just day to day activities in an inclusive and safe manner. Safety would be maybe just walking down the street without getting hit on the side of the head by a low-hanging sign, because I don’t see them coming.”
It’s not just people with no vision, she said. There are a lot of seniors in the community with low-vision, and which like no vision is an invisible disability.
“There’s lots of barriers, if we’re not educated,” Nearhood said, “and there’s lots of slips and trips and hazards that we don’t want our seniors to experience.”
Councillor Gord Klassen asked Nearhood how the city could change things going forward and incorporate accessibility as part of the city’s design.
“I think it’s a great opportunity, any time there’s any projects happening in the city is to have build right into policy, that accessibility,” Nearhood said. “Let’s not make it a check box, let’s not make it tokenism.”
Nearhood pointed out that June is recreation awareness month in the city and asked if the city has some accessibility programming involved in that calendar.
“Did we have accessibility incorporated into every part of our work? For upcoming capital projects, is that accessibility one of the check boxes that has to be done?”
Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, Darryl Blades noted that new capital projects are looked at through an accessibility lens and a lot of them go to the accessibility committee for feedback.
“When it comes to existing stuff, it’s really just a plan going forward as things are brought to our attention, we go back and look at them,” he said.
“Eventually, hopefully we will improve all across the city, balancing the needs from different groups that need different levels of accessibility."
Northeast Accessibility has a good mechanism to gather feedback and bring it to the city’s attention through their monthly meetings, which can help different departments identify areas where accessibility could be improved.
“Our committee is really great at being able to use that feedback mechanism.”
Feedback can be given through accessibility@fortstjohn.ca.