How do we take down barriers and make Ontario accessible?

Alf Spencer, Director, Accessibility Directorate of Ontario: The government has a vision of an accessible Ontario by 2025. There are examples already across this province of people moving to an accessible Ontario.

So what make a person’s life inclusive?

Jim Sanders, Past President, Canadian National Institute for the Blind: Well, I’ve always known that the greatest barrier that people who are blind or others that are labelled as disabled face is not the physical inability it’s the attitude and perception of individuals, others, and society; but perhaps equally as important the attitude and perception that we have of ourselves.

Guiddi Guron: My life changed in an instant. You know I was injured in a motor vehicle accident 17 years ago and I think all my family and friends just did not know how to approach me actually and how to sort of handle it. And I think that what I found is that I was the one that was able to make them feel comfortable around me by sort of talking about myself.

Alf Spencer, Director, Accessibility Directorate of Ontario: So to make an accessible world for people, we have to start looking at communication.

Guiddi Guron: I think it’s usually the first few seconds is what it will take for the two people to be comfortable with each other and then it’s great from there.

Wilma Davies, Retired, Small Business Owner, Collingwood: A lot of people feel that because I’m visually impaired that I can read Braille, and I don’t read Braille. I need somebody to read the menu for me, and I like to be — I would like them to ask me what I would like, I don’t want them to ask somebody sitting next to me because I know what I like and what I don’t like.

Maya Jones: A lot of people have this notion that since you can’t see, it really doesn’t matter if you have dark brown shoes or black shoes.

Alf Spencer, Director, Accessibility Directorate of Ontario: Often when we take down a barrier for one person, or help to take down a barrier for one person, we put up a barrier for another. Many times you’ll hear people say, well he’s blind, but he may not be blind, he may be a person with a visual impairment. He has different needs. People who are deaf have different needs than people who have hearing impairments.

Ben Shropshire: It’s kind of absurd how little we know about people with disabilities, in comparison to the rest of the cultures and the rest of the different groups of people that we live amongst.

Alf Spencer, Director, Accessibility Directorate of Ontario: The first thing you have to do is look at yourself. That’s where education starts. Government can tell you, other people can tell you, books can tell you, but until you sort of look at yourself and look at someone you know who has a disability, that’s how you educate yourself.

Catherine Sholtz, Accessibility Coordinator, Breaking Down Barriers: If a person doesn’t understand the disability, then they maybe don’t know how to socially interact with the person with the disability.

Alfred Spencer, Director, Accessibility Directorate of Ontario: All Ontarians believe in accessibility and they believe it’s the right thing to do.

Accessibility is about social inclusion, for the world to be accessible; everybody has to be able to participate.

Jim Sanders, Past President, Canadian National Institute for the Blind: A fully accessible society is important for everyone, it will allow many of us to enjoy a quality of life that most others take for granted.

Alfred Spencer, Director, Accessibility Directorate of Ontario: It is about you and I and people who have disabilities being able to do the same things.