Meeting Update for
March 20th, 2006
This newsletter/update is to keep members of CAN, or interested
parties, up to date on our monthly meeting, what we discussed, what our
plans are for the upcoming month, and any other pertinent information
covered during the meeting. We understand that not everyone is able to
attend a monthly meeting and hope that this will keep those interested
in CAN in the loop. Please let us know if you have any questions or
comments concerning our meetings and/or this update by e-mailing us at [email protected], or by phoning (604) 466-8771.
Thank you for you
interest. Your ideas, suggestions, and input will help to create
positive change in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. Together we CAN!
CAN’s April meeting was a field trip to the OCP Visioning Meeting that
was held at Thomas Haney Secondary School. This meeting is part of the
process to determine what the residents of Maple Ridge like currently,
and want and need in the future. It was interesting to hear all the
different views as to why people live in Maple Ridge, why they hope to
stay in Maple Ridge, or what they feel must be done to improve Maple
Ridge so that they will continue to stay here. The meeting was broken
up into twenty groups of ten people. Each group discussed a different
question, such as “What would you like to change or create in Maple
Ridge”, “How is Maple Ridge different from Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam,
or Pitt Meadows?”, and “What words do you hope your grandchildren will
use to describe Maple Ridge?”. Each table was given an hour to discuss
an overall theme and then the sub themes.
Accessibility was mentioned at several tables and we hope that the
municipality understands the importance of accessibility. If you would
like to have your say heard please go to www.mapleridge.org and fill out the questionnaire. There
will be a second meeting on Saturday, March 25th from 9:00 am – 12:00
pm. CAN hopes to continue to support the municipality in creating a
plan for the future, a plan that considers the needs of all residents
and which implements barrier-free designs.
CAN was invited to have a tour at Westview Secondary School earlier
this month as a member had brought concerns of accessibility to the
attention of those attending the January meeting. The tour was
conducted by a special needs teacher, and the principal introduced
herself and expressed her wish to help in anyway possible. After the
tour of the school was completed CAN was satisfied with the
accessibility of the school. The accessibility concerns previously
brought to CAN were more to do with miscommunication than physical
barriers. We, at CAN, are quite impressed with the accessibility of
Westview and with the various classroom equipment that they supply to
students with special needs. We were happy to see that this issue was
not an issue at all.
CAN continues to work on their project with getmenus.ca. CAN is
reworking the accessibility checklist for restaurants to streamline the
process of reviewing the restaurants. We hope to have the prototype of
our accessibility review (which will appear on getmenus.ca) finished
within the next two weeks. We will then work with the staff at
getmenus.ca to meld our vision with their web site. We are happy to be
given the opportunity to review the accessibility of interested
restaurants.
The review will be done by a CAN member, using a accessibility
checklist that was made with the help of staff at the Canadian National
Institute of the Blind, the Western Institute for the Deaf and Hard of
Hearing, and the BC Paraplegic Association. Can also conferred with
seniors, parents, and a stroke recovery group. After this checklist
has been completed we will condense the review into one or two
paragraphs for the web site. We hope to have graphics on the site to
indicate, at a glance, if the restaurant is accessible for various
mobility devices or user groups. In addition to having a review of the
restaurant on the web site we will condense the checklist into a list
for the restaurant owner and/or manager. We hope that by compiling
this list for the restaurant they can see where they are accessible,
and where they could use some improvement. Those at CAN believe that
one of the main reasons that barriers and inaccessibility continue to
occur is because those with mobility difficulties do not consider
accessibility because they do not experience the same obstacles that
others with mobility difficulties experience. We hope that by offering
the checklist to those at the restaurants they will look for ways to
make any barriers within their establishment less of an obstacle for
their patrons. Part of CAN’s mission is to educate those in the
communities who have no, or little, knowledge of what accessibility and
barrier-free designs are.
CAN is working to improve CAN’s web site. We have been receiving
positive feedback from people who visit our site and we hope to improve
upon their experience. The two sections that CAN has been focusing on
improving are: Support Groups, and CAN Successes.
We have been contacting various leaders of support groups within our
communities to ask their permission to include the information about
their groups on our web site. The response has been overwhelmingly
positive and we hope to double the listings by the end of the month.
We also hope to improve the ease of use for those who visit the support
group listings by separating the listings into three categories:
Health, Addictions, and Social. These categories would be at the top
of the screen and the user would be able to choose the type of support
group they are looking for. We will also improve the visibility of the
title of the support group. We will continue to contact any new or
existing support groups within Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows in the
hopes that we can create an easy-to-use, and definitive, listing of
support groups. The leaders of the support groups have been very
encouraging in our efforts as the support groups have very little, if
any, available funds to advertise. If you know of anyone who runs a
support group please let us know about them so that we can list them on
the site.
The other section that we have been working on, and hope to complete
by the end of the month, is the Success section. CAN is a relatively
new organization but with the help of our dedicated members we have
been able to create some positive change within our communities. We
hope to celebrate these successes by listing them on the site so we are
reminded that our hard work is creating awareness and improvements.
If you have any ideas or suggestions for projects that CAN should work
on please contact us by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at (604)
466-8771. We thank everyone for their suggestions, feedback, and
positive comments. We hope to continue working with members of the two
communities to improve the accessibility of Maple Ridge and Pitt
Meadows and to work towards creating all-inclusive communities.
We welcome any feedback concerning CAN’s goals, projects, and/or this
newsletter. If you know of anyone interested in joining CAN,
volunteering, or receiving the newsletter please let them know about
our web site www.canbc.org, and pass on our contact information: e-mail [email protected], phone number (604) 466-8771.
Thank you for you interest. Your ideas, suggestions, and input will
help to create positive change in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows.
Together we CAN!
We hope to see you at our next meeting on April 24th at the Fraser
Room in the Maple Ridge Library from 6:30 – 8:30 PM.
Our next meeting will be on the fourth Monday of the month as the
library is closed on the third Monday because it is Easter.
Remember together we CAN!