Access For Sight Impaired ConsumersAccess For Sight Impaired ConsumersJune 22, 2009
Report from the President/Chair:
Tonight, we reflect on the journey we have travelled this past year and ask you to assist the incoming Board in charting its course for the coming year. Our eleventh year of operation presented a number of new challenges, some new access concerns, continuation of the open and on-going initiatives and several matters being concluded with successful outcomes. We will summarize the activities of this past year and, with your permission, touch upon some very recent initiatives that have been completed in recent months.
In 2008, our 10-member board met on 5 occasions here at CNIB. Early in the year, we had an opportunity to welcome and embrace BC Guide Dog Services as our newest member organization. Even more recently, the Board approved an application from Blind Beginnings to join ASIC and we take this opportunity to welcome Shawn Marsolais and Blind Beginnings as one of our newest member organizations.
On February 13 2002, we wrote to Mr. Robert Patterson, Chief Electoral Officer for the Province of British Columbia. Within this correspondence, we laid out the numerous challenges that persons who were blind or sight-impaired encountered during the provincial general election held in May 2001. We ask that you make mental note of the date of our first letter to Mr. Patterson as it will contribute to a significant pattern throughout this year’s annual report. To Elections BC’s credit, they responded favorably and implemented some improvements for the general election in May 2005. Some, but clearly not enough to enable voters with vision loss to privately and independently mark their election ballot! In the fall of 2007, Elections BC contacted ASIC and extended an invitation for us to pick up where we had left off in 2005. They wanted to ensure the general provincial election of 2009 was fully accessible to blind voters in British Columbia. Amongst some our many recommendations were large-print materials, candidate lists in alternate formats and a training video that would create awareness and provide instruction for the near 30,000 election employees, on how best to assist voters with disabilities once they self-identified at the polling stations. We wish to thank CNIB for providing the facilities to shoot this video and for providing support staff to demonstrate proper human guide techniques. We also wish to thank the Western Institute for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing and the Garth Homer Foundation for their contribution to the successful production of this training video. Those who visited ASIC web site or Elections BC web site prior to the general election of May 12 would have seen a condensed version which was developed to advise persons with disabilities of what they could expect when they arrived at their polling station. Voters with disabilities can view the 6 minute summary from the training video to see what services were available. The video will soon offer descriptive narration and closed captioning for viewers with vision loss or hearing impairments. We would like to recognize and thank Nobel Endeavour’s for partnering with ASIC on this project. Specifically, we extend our appreciation to Betty Nobel, Joan Billesberger, Anna Langan, Karen Nobel, Don Nobel, Janice Hamre, Audrey King, Amit Ram, Shawn Marsolais and Arlene Berger for producing thousands of pages of Braille to ensure the candidate’s names, party affiliation and the referendum question was accessible to Braille readers. We could not have completed this accessibility initiative without their assistance. With a few exceptions, community reaction to the accessibility tools was overwhelmingly positive and we will continue to work collaboratively with Elections BC to ensure the general election scheduled for May 2013 is even more accessible to persons with disabilities.
To that end, we have begun discussions with the folks that oversee the municipal elections and we will work toward making the municipal elections equally accessible. Later this evening, our Nominations Chair – Sheila Rieger will facilitate our election process and provide you with the option of marking a large-print ballot on your own, using a voter’s template in conjunction with the Braille list of candidates or you may wish to use the template and have the candidates’ names read aloud. OR, of course, you are welcome to ask one of our volunteers to mark a ballot on your behalf as per your instructions. We hope you will take advantage of this fully accessible opportunity which Sheila will detail for you in just a few minutes time.
Wind your clock back and make note of October 13 2003. This is the date we first contacted Dr. David Strangway – a then Director on the Board of Terasen Gas. Our letter requested Terasen provide billing statements in alternate formats; specifically Braille, large print and through an accessible re-designed web site. After nearly six very long years, Terasen have met their social responsibility and agreed to provide each of the alternate formats that we originally requested. The Braille and web accessible options were introduced on June 16 2008 and the large-print format will be officially and publicly introduced later this week. A public media release is scheduled by Terasen’s Communication Office with additional notices being posted to their web site as well as additional notification included on their next two billing cycles.
Another historical date to remember is February 24 2003; the date we first contacted BC Hydro to provide their billing statements in alternate formats too. BC Hydro, oddly enough, provided large-print statements but failed to provide a Braille option. Again, after many long years of negotiation, we are pleased to report that BC Hydro has joined Telus Communications (and all other Canadian telecommunication providers), Terasen Gas, Shaw Communicationsand several of the major banks in offering billing statements in a Braille format. You can request any of these formats by calling the Customer Service Representatives at any of these utility companies. Medical verification of your sight-impairment may be required.
Since the introduction on January 31 2008 of the BC Ministry of Transportation’s Taxi Bill of Rights, the number of incidents that relate to guide dog users being refused access to a taxi cab in the Metro Vancouver area has virtually disappeared from our radar screen. Several disability organizations, including ASIC contributed to the various drafts while the Bill of Rights was being developed. As mentioned, taxi cab access for guide dog users appears to no longer be an issue. However, the pendulum appears to have swung over to eating establishments and places of accommodation. We have facilitated several complaints from guide dog users regarding denial of access by restaurants in the Metro Vancouver area and are currently assisting two other individuals who have been denied access to rental accommodation because of the presence of their guide dogs.
Along with the BC Coalition of People with Disabilities, the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians, BC Guide Dog Services, Pacific Assistance Dog Society, PAWS International and the CNIB - BC-Yukon Division, ASIC is participating in the preparation of a proposal for significant enhancements to the current BC Guide Animal Act. When the initial draft is complete (likely sometime in the fall of 2009), the draft will be circulated through various sources for public review and consultation. It will very likely be posted to the ASIC web site. In the interim, we would welcome written reports from BC-based guide dog users who have experienced difficulties and/or unresolved acts of discrimination where a service or facility was not provided because of the presence of their guide dog. We are also seeking incidence where your guide dog was harassed or attacked by a person or an uncontrolled pet as our proposed changes will address all of these issues. Your summaries can be sent to ASIC via e-mail.
Last year, we reported our efforts to have the Everlink software that was contracted by the Central1 Credit Union (formerly the BC Central Credit Union) upgraded to support audio functionality. This goal was achieved in mid-2008 and correspondence has been sent to all 48 credit unions in BC, requesting the installation of accessible ATM’s. We will continue to follow this critical service with all BC-based credit unions with a particular emphasis on VanCity, Interior Savings, Island Savings, North Shore and Coast Capital Savings Credit Unions.
We have abandoned our discussions with London Drugs to underwrite the cost of the Talking Rx and turned our attention toward an Ontario-based pharmaceutical distributor which is providing medical prescriptions accompanied with either Large-print, Braille or audible prescription information. The current primary challenge is to partner with a bc-based licensed pharmacy that is recognized by the BC Pharmacare Program and is capable of providing identical alternate format services. We anticipate this issue will be resolved over the next few months which will enable residence of BC to take advantage of medical prescriptions being delivered directly to your home with instructions enclosed in the format of your choice. Those who elect for the information in audio format will be required to have, or to purchase, Envision America's ScriptTalk Station, an RFID reader to access the audio information encoded on the RFID tag which will be affixed to the prescription bottle or any other consumable medicine container.
Residents of Surrey will be pleased to learn we are continuing to participate in the human rights complaint against the City of Surrey. This action was determined to be the only alternative following a Surrey residence's attempts to negotiate an environment that would enable persons with vision loss to execute a safe and independant street crossing at a proposed traffic roundabout. The City of Surrey acknowledges traffic circles are problematic for persons with disabilities yet they have made no effort to install pedestrian crossing infrastructures that will enable a pedestrian with sight-impairment to make an independent street crossing. The case is currently before the BC Human Rights Tribunal and is in the early settlement stage. We have assisted by engaging the services of the Community Legal Action Society to oversee the legal aspects of this case. All parties have agreed to the installation of an accessible “special crosswalk” and tactile rumble strips as a six month pilot project with an independent evaluation at the end of the testing period (approximately March 2010.) Of additional interest is the request for the City of Surrey to initiate, fund and manage an Advisory Committee on Disability Issues, similar to those currently operating in many Metro Vancouver municipalities. We will keep you well advised of the progress of this case and, in particular when the call goes out to populate the Advisory Committee.
We have also provided the City of Surrey with 31 potential installation sites for accessible pedestrian signals and we look forward to working with their staff to develop a long term strategy for the installation of each site. A similar request was submitted to the City of Chilliwack following a presentation to the local Canadian Council of the Blind White Cane Club wherein eight intersections were identified for potential APS installations.
On the subject of accessible pedestrian signals, our complaint against the City of Richmond has been filed and accepted by the BC Human Rights Tribunal. The Respondent has been notified and has requested early settlement negotiations which are now scheduled for August of this year. The key issue here is our request for an APS device to provide wayfinding information – specifically the name of the street to be crossed in Braille, tactile and audio formats. The Respondent has agreed to two of the three formats. But they are adamant they will not provide the street name in an audio format. We have also included our opposition to a rapid ticking tone as the WALK indication at special crosswalks. It can be argued that a verbal message as a more satisfactory indication of when it is legal to cross than the proposed rapid ticking tone that is used at controlled intersections in Hong Kong, Australia and in some parts of the United States. We have engaged the services of legal counsel to assist us with this complaint.
Now…we invite you to join us for a virtual taxi ride across Vancouver. Imagine as you step into the taxi, you hear an announcement confirming the meter is starting. As you continue on your journey, the meter announces the cumulative fare in five dollar increments. At some point, you ask the driver to pull over and wait as you run into the local grocery store. Just as you exit the taxi, the meter confirms it is now in Stand-by mode and announces the stand-by rate. A short time later, with groceries in hand, you re-enter the taxi to hear a confirmation message that the meter has started again. Upon reaching your destination, the meter confirms your total fare.
This sample audio demonstration is very close to reality. We are continuing to work with Pulsar Technologies and anticipate we will have a working proto-type before year’s end.
And finally, who is not familiar with these familiar announcements which are now available on all Coast Mountain Buses and Community Shuttles in the Metro Vancouver area. We continue to ask for your patience as CMBC Management fine tunes this new technology. With the assistance of Richard Marion and Bruce Gilmour, we are meeting with CMBC Management on a regular basis to ensure the system is providing clear, intelligible and audio responses under all traffic and environmental conditions. This is not a simple task given the many different bus models in use, push back from the transit operators and some technological challenges that are difficult to overcome. They key issues at present are:
Equipment issues – deteriorated speaker systems, speakers mounted in poor locations on the vehicles, rattling stanchions, etc.
System settings – Transit operators setting the volume level too low, failing to log into the system at the start of their run, etc.
Pronounciation – Unintelligible announcements
Erroneous Information – Inaccurate stop information (usually occurs at major intersections.)
To correct these issues, we will be posting a notice to our ECN requesting the assistance of all Metro Vancouver transit users, asking them to make note of date, time, route and coach number so that we can assist CMBC in tracing down the source of the problem – equipment or operator behavior. We recognize this will place an additional burden on those who wish to assist us with this project. However, we believe we will need to help ourselves in this regard if we want a reliable and dependable system. CMBC Management is very committed to ensuring this system works as it should and we can certainly assist them in this Endeavour.
In closing, we would like to extend our thanks and appreciation to Monica Nelson and Jennifer Jesso for their commitment and dedication while serving on the ASIC Board during this past year. Both these individuals leave our board with our sincerest thanks and appreciation. We would also like to thank all members of the ASIC Board who volunteer there time to improve accessibility and independence for persons who are blind or sight-impaired. Our thanks to CNIB for their continued support through the use of their facilities including the use of the auditorium this evening. Our thanks also go out to Peggy Casey and her organization, BASICS (Blind and Sight Impaired Consumers) which provide disability awareness seminars to the Coast Mountain transit operators. Peggy has very kindly sponsored tonight’s refreshments and we ask you to join us in thanking her for hergenerous support.
A final word about the dates mentioned in this report. By now, you have come to the conclusion that some of these initiatives take a very, very long time to reach a successful outcome. Persistence, determination and keeping focused does pay off and we will continue to hold such determination as we chart our course for the coming year.
Respectfully submitted,