A Draft Accessibility Plan for the Municipality of the County of Inverness was presented at today’s committee of the whole meeting. “Our accessibility committee has done a significant amount of work over the last number of years to compile a very excellent draft of our accessibility plan, council will review it in more detail.” Says County CAO Keith MacDonald.
The presentation was conducted by project lead Maggie MacDonald. As part of their research, the committee launched a survey to determine the accessibility barriers that are faced by people with disabilities in the region. Some of these challenges include a lack of accessible parking spaces, inaccessible public buildings, uneven parking lots and sidewalks, and community trails and boardwalks not being accessible for people with disabilities.
Representatives from the province were present at the meeting to update council on the provincial requirements of the Accessibility Act and despite some of the accessibility barriers faced by community members, the County was praised for the projects that have been completed to make the region accessible. Some notable projects include the Inverness Beach Accessibility Project allowing people with physical challenges to access the beach and the installation of accessible fishing docks in Lake O Law and Grand E’ Tang.
Once the accessibility plan is approved, the committee will create and promote accessibility awareness campaigns and events, adopt accessibility and inclusion related training into the new employee training manuals, and invite the business community to take part in any accessibility related webinars and information sessions and promote funding 0ppurtunites that become available. These are some of the top priorities highlighted in the plan.
The goal is for Inverness County to be fully accessible by 2030 and the accessibility plan is a key component to ensuring they are in line with the provinces Accessibility Act.
The plan will soon be available for people review on invernesscounty.ca and it is set to be brought up at the next council meeting for final approval.
