Accessibility Advisory Board holds first meeting
Posted Mar 16, 2018 03:27:03 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Nova Scotia's newly appointed Accessibility Advisory Board is holding their first meeting on Friday.
The province has set a goal to be fully accessible by 2030 and the board has until fall to develop a plan to meet that deadline.
Chair Douglas Foster admits it's an ambitious target, but said there are several things that can be done immediately to start improving accessibility.
“There's aspects of this that go beyond physical design of space,” he explained. “How people interact, how you make people more comfortable, identifying disabilities…there's many aspects to it.”
He added the board will also need do to some research before coming up with their plan.
“We need to identify what we know now about the number of people who are disabled, where they are located,” said Foster. “Are there geographic differences in Nova Scotia? Are there concentrations of people with disabilities? I'm interested in those things as well as research on standards.”
Legislation required at least 50 per cent of the board to be persons with a disability.
“I'm very proud that Nova Scotia has made this move,” said Foster. “I think we're in the lead. We've got some catch up to do though in my opinion.”
