We are constructing Access Guide Canada – the most comprehensive national listing of accessible services, resources and businesses ever compiled in this country!
How are we doing it? In effect, the information currently available through ABILITIES magazine, our EnableLink website, our Directory of Disability Organizations and a variety of our other initiatives is being reorganized so it can be offered to you through this brand-new online program.
What will it mean for you? Here’s the vision. Let’s say you need to go on a business trip, or want to take a holiday in a community you do not know much about. Before your visit, visit us! By logging on to Access Guide Canada on our website, you will be able to locate accessible hotels, restaurants, recreational facilities, places of worship, transportation services and a number of other resources. You’ll be able to learn about local attractions, festivals and events. Using Access Guide Canada, you will be able to put together an "accessibility forecast" for your business trip or vacation, before setting out from home.
We know this new resource will make a huge difference to many travellers with disabilities and their families. And Access Guide Canada will offer benefits to other sectors as well. This online resource provides free listings to those businesses, services and organizations demonstrating an inclusive philosophy by making everybody welcome.
That’s where you come in!
Let us know about places you’ve visited that have gone the distance in creating access. Where are they, and in what way are they accessible? Go to EnableLink (www.enablelink.org), click on Access Guide Canada and give us as much information as you can by completing the online form you’ll find there. We’ll take it from there.
It won’t be long before businesses are experiencing the added benefits that come from doing the right thing. And people with disabilities will be able to find, with very few mouse clicks, the events, services and resources they require in order to have a successful and pleasant time.
We are off to a great start. We already have information on thousands of resources across the country. But there is a long way to go. Help us make Access Guide Canada the best online travel resource for people with disabilities in the world!
Access Guide Canada builds on the Canadian Abilities Foundation’s experience in developing Ontario’s online Community Information Access Project (CIAP). This project, supported by Ontario’s Ministry of Citizenship, allowed us to collect and post accessibility and other information on 40 communities throughout Ontario.
As we expand to produce Access Guide Canada, not only will the information be about accessibility, but it will also be accessible – for visitors to our website who have disabilities. The Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (ATRC) of the University of Toronto is consulting with us to ensure that all of the information harvested by the Canadian Abilities Foundation over the last 15 years is offered to visitors to EnableLink in the most seamless and universally accessible manner possible.
And Industry Canada is supporting the collaboration. With its funding, ATRC and the Canadian Abilities Foundation are working together to provide EnableLink visitors with accessible forms which volunteers, staff and community-based businesses and services will be able to use to upload their information directly onto the Internet.
We are looking for other partners, too! Our door is open to communities, government departments, corporations and other organizations wanting to support our method of providing valuable and easily accessible information.
You’ll be able to learn more about EnableLink by visiting the website. You can also check out the articles on page 55 of this issue of ABILITIES. And, as of now, you can subscribe to our brand-new monthly e-zine, the EnableLinker. The EnableLinker, in addition to bringing you all sorts of information on disability from across this vast country of ours, will keep you up to date on the progress of Access Guide Canada as it steams towards its unveiling later this year. Send an e-mail to sub@enablelink.org to subscribe.
Just think about it! Access Guide Canada is destined to become a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week celebration of Canada’s move towards increased access. Join the celebration!