Accessibility News (AcNews) The Premier Online Magazine for Disability Accessibility

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Many issues of Disability and Accessibility are Universal throughout the World and AcNews will endeavour to bring them all together in this "Online Magazine" for easy referencing.

What's New This Week

Local Man Wants Law to Regulate Service Dogs

“The accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 doesn’t currently include legislation that defines proper training and accreditation for service animals’

Read more at
https://www.aoda.ca/local-man-wants-law-to-regulate-service-dogs/

Taxi Ruling a Black Mark for Justice

Silly me. All this time, I have believed that our justice system was based on proof.

At no time in the Graeme McCreath/Victoria Taxi case – I was present throughout both the human-rights tribunal and the
Supreme Court hearings – was any “proof” of driver allergy presented. At the original rights hearing, the driver in question
was absent (“unavailable”) and the Victoria Taxi manager neither produced nor was asked to produce medical documentation for his driver. The transcript doesn’t mention it, either.

Read more at
https://www.aoda.ca/taxi-ruling-a-black-mark-for-justice/

Making a Home Accessible Can Make All the Difference as We Age

Sandra and Dan Sexton are doing the kind of work on their North York home that usually comes much later in life.

Although they are only in their 40s, an ALS diagnosis for Dan means the home will have to become entirely accessible, as he transitions from using a walker to eventually an electric wheelchair. The Sextons are planning to offer housing to Dan’s 82-year-old father as well, which will feature a new lower-floor bath with wide doors, a roll-in shower and a widened side entrance to accommodate the wheelchair.

Read more at
https://www.aoda.ca/making-a-home-accessible-can-make-all-the-difference-as-we-age/

FDNY Violates ADA by Pre-judging Veteran Applicants as Unfit

New York Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), a national nonprofit legal center, filed a Charge of Discrimination for Julio Andrade, a former Marine, after the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) denied him a job as a Fire Fighter because of a diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) he received at the time of his honorable discharge from service in the Iraq war, approximately 8 years earlier.

Read more at
https://www.accessibilitynewsinternational.com/fdny-violates-ada-by-pre-judging-veteran-applicants-as-unfit/

Are Self-Driving Cars the Future of Mobility for Disabled People?

Self-driving cars could revolutionize how disabled people get around their communities and even travel far from home. People who can’t see well or with physical or mental difficulties that prevent them from driving safely often rely on others or local government or nonprofit agencies to help them get around.

Read more at
https://www.accessibilitynewsinternational.com/are-self-driving-cars-the-future-of-mobility-for-disabled-people/

Accessibility Advocates Looking to Expand the Scope of the StopGap Program in the City

‘If you have to ask then it is not accessible’

From left to right, Cindy Walker, Sean Beech and their children, Theodore and Hendrik; UPS employee Ron Musselman; and Roger Koert, chair of the city’s accessibility advisory committee. They are all supporters and beneficiaries of the StopGap initiative and would like to see it expand, so participating businesses leave the ramps outside during business hours.

Read more at
https://www.aoda.ca/accessibility-advocates-looking-to-expand-the-scope-of-the-stopgap-program-in-the-city/

How an Ottawa Cancer Patient is Trying to Make CHEO More Accessible for Everyone

Just before the elevator doors opened at CHEO, Sarah Telford playfully, but pointedly, picked up a nearby yellow caution cone the kind that warn of wet floors, spills and whatnot and placed it in front of the elevator. When the doors opened, the elevator’s lone occupant, hospital CEO Alex Munter, was compelled to negotiate his way around the obstacle as he exited, no small feat considering that he was in a wheelchair.

Read more at
https://www.aoda.ca/how-an-ottawa-cancer-patient-is-trying-to-make-cheo-more-accessible-for-everyone/