HomeMy WebLinkAboutGRAAC - 2018-06-28
Grand River Accessibility Advisory Committee
Date: Thursday, June 28, 2018
Location: Conestoga Room, City of Kitchener
Present: Sharon Giles (Co-Chair), Rob Bender, Greg Moore (Co-Chair), Ben Benninger,
Brenda Robinson, Paula Saunders, Andrew Tutty, Keri Cameron, Donna Hartzler, Gail
Brundson, Mike Shipley, Jolene MacDonald, Councillor Sue Foxton (Region of Waterloo),
Councillor Yvonne Fernandes (City of Kitchener), Sanjay Govindaraj (Region of Waterloo),
Lolita Paroski (City of Kitchener, City of Waterloo), Janis McKenzie (City of Kitchener)
Regrets: Councillor Bob Mavin (City of Waterloo), Rhonda-Marie Parke, Dawn Clelland, Jeff
Smith (Township of Woolwich), Ashley Sage (Township of North Dumfries)
Absent: Amy Black (Township of Wellesley), Dawn Mittelholtz (Township of Wilmot)
Guests: Darren Kropf (City of Kitchener), Barry Cronkite (City of Kitchener), Angelo Apfelbaum
(Region of Waterloo), Sarah Brown (Region of Waterloo), Bethany Rowland (Region of
Waterloo)
1.0 Welcome and Introductions
Sharon called the meeting to order at 1:30 p.m.
Round table introductions
2.0 Approval of May Minutes and June Agenda
Motion to accept the May minutes – moved by Greg and seconded by Paula, carried and
June Agenda – moved by Andrew, and seconded by Mike, carried.
3.0 Declarations of Pecuniary Interests
none
4.0 Accessible Taxi
Angelo Apfelbaum from the Region of Waterloo shared with the committee that taxi
service operators in the KW area do not have enough information/data to make the
business case to have x number of accessible taxis that would be utilized but also with
the time that the accessible taxis are requesting to be available.
Region of Waterloo currently only uses meter and auxiliary taxis. Meter taxis include
regular and accessible taxis.
There are currently 21 accessible taxicabs in the Region of Waterloo.
Cooperative broker’s drivers own the taxis making them the owner operator of the
vehicle and they run like a small business.
There is a breakdown in utilization as all 21 taxis are running in the morning due to a
contract with mobility plus from 7- 3pm. In order to utilize for the nighttime it would mean
running one less taxi in the daytime and that would make it then hard to provide service
as per the contract. As well, accessible taxis are an expensive vehicle and can cost
upwards of $35000-$40000 more to upgrade. Due to this expense, some
owner/operators will not allow any others but themselves to drive the accessible vehicle.
There is also no mandate that can force the accessible taxi owners to operate their
vehicles between 12am – 6am.
On average 2% of requests for taxi services is for on demand accessible vehicles, which
works out to 23000 out of 2.3 million rides.
Various discussions with taxi services have been held to discuss such ideas as unified
dispatch or centralized accessible taxi dispatch, however, they are a private entity and
they cannot be forced to do anything. There is going to be more dialogue with them next
week. If the committee have, any comments or concerns to bring forward please share
so that he might bring back to the meeting.
Talking points from the committee:
1. Calls are low because there is no availability and the service is unreliable.
2. One company to take on all the accessibility taxis.
3. Unified dispatch allows for centralized service.
4. United made the statement that they would make accessible taxis more available.
5. Accessible Taxis can be used for regular riders as well which leads to non-availability.
6. Right utilization of vehicle and are they utilized properly?
7. Is this discrimination?
8. Is their fleet make up enough?
5.0 Web Accessibility Strategy
Bethany Rowlands from Corporate Communications with the Region of Waterloo discussed the
Web accessibility strategy implementation taking place within the Region.
Accessible communication is a large part of the website. The Region is looking into clarification
of the legislation around AODA.
Steps implemented immediately:
Arial font used by staff
Coordinated training and resources for staff.
Monitor compliance as staff not always aware of complying with accessible documents
due to no knowledge.
Word and PDF documents online module training.
Challenges:
Resources, Tech support, PDFS, Video, Applications, and Legislation.
Twenty four hundred plus PDFs on the website not accessible.
Forms, web based applications. Job applications etc. not accessible, working with
vendors to come up with a better option.
Struggling with live web casts. Technology not there yet.
Next steps in a five year plan:
Compliance monitoring
Working with vendors
Live Captioning technology
Internal Staff Portal
Comments from the Committee:
!00% accessible is not achievable.
Accessible communications now offered in universities.
Students might be an idea to utilize as volunteers to help with the website.
Hearing society might be an excellent option to utilize.
6.0 Councillor Reports – All Councillors
(City of Kitchener)
Love My Hood’s Neighbours day was held on June 9, 2018. The event was successful
and growing.
Council approved Doon Pioneer Park Community Centre’s tender. There will now be one
main entrance for both library and community centre, as well as, the height of the roof
will be changed.
Council has also approved the partnership with the Waterloo District school board to
build a new school and a community centre together.
Leisure Facility Master Plan engagement starting. Looking for priorities from the
community regarding the plan. Victoria Hills Community Centre will be holding public
meetings or comments can be made on the City of Kitchener website.
Snow removal pilot project although there was strong support for the pilot at committee it
was not approved at council.
7.0 Update on Accessible Employment Workshop - Gail Brunsdon
Gail attended this workshop
Various organizations and agencies in attendance
The audience mostly being employees
Asked questions like how do you work with people
Lots of question and answer from people
Getting different kind of suggestions
Very interesting and positive
BREAK
8.0 Crosswalks Accessibility - Darren Kropf, Project Manager, Barry Cronkite Interim
Manager Transportation
Staff shared stories with the committee from the Love My Hood projects with residents
taking the lead on Traffic Calming. Love My Hood is an initiative where residents take
the lead and the City supports them along the way.
Here today to talk about crosswalk accessibility
Residents would have to design, create, and implement a crosswalk that needs to work
within the context of the everyday use of the roadway.
Design guidelines:
Inclusive and fully accessible for all users.
To give drivers the heightened sense of pedestrian traffic in the area
Bright white line used by persons with visual disabilities black line in between the white
line and the design.
Wilson Avenue public school and Eastwood Collegiate partnered and came up with a
Nature theme design. Students painted and already starting to fade.
Lancaster Street walking on sunshine used a thermoplastic application and it will last
eight to ten years.
At the corner of Joseph and Gaukel, a Rainbow Crosswalk design.
Looking for feedback from the committee:
Low vision who depend on the white line, will this confuse? Lolita to reach out to CNIB,
Rhonda and Carrie Speers to meet onsite to get more feedback. Lolita will set up an
onsite meeting and invite Barry and Darren to attend.
9.0 Community-scale Climate Adaptations Strategy (Sarah Brown) Region of Waterloo
Preparing for Climate Change and Extreme Weather in Waterloo Region
The Region of Waterloo is working with a variety of community partners to raise awareness and
capacity on how to respond to local climate-related impacts. The outcome will be a Community
Climate Adaptation Plan completed in spring of 2019. Regional staff in Community Planning
with support are leading this work from Sustainable Societies Consulting Group.
The climate in Waterloo Region expects to change to have warmer overall temperatures,
periods of extreme heat and summer drought; more rain, freezing rain, ice and snow; and more
windstorms.
Situations or risks that could happen because of these changes include:
• Extreme heat days/waves (and related health concerns such as difficulty breathing, heat
stroke, dehydration)
• Dangerous conditions for transportation (for example: from freezing rain, snow, road
washouts)
• Water damage and mold issues from leaks and/or flooding in housing
• People needing to relocate if their homes/shelters are flooded
• Accidents/emergencies caused by extreme weather
• New diseases or illnesses coming to our area (for example: Lyme disease, malaria)
• Damage to trees and buildings from storms
• Long power outages from storms
• People stuck at home without help or social interaction
GRAAC members asked to fill out survey and to sign up to answer follow up questions if willing.
Looking for feedback and buy in from the Tri-Cities led by the Region working closely with the
cities and the Townships. Good collaboration happening. Sustaining people in a crisis. How
can we help you? Feedback may trigger building codes to change things such as backup
generators in high-rise apartments. GRAAC members would like to have Sarah come back with
an update.
10.0 Built Environment Update
Paula is trying to meet up with Brendan to finish the ION station site visits. Paula will let
committee know when a schedule is together so that they might join if they wish. Conestoga
Mall station update is that the handrails going down were broken but now replaced. Paula to
send Councillor Sue Foxton a report on the first nine stops when it is prepared.
11.0 Co-chair/Staff Reports
Sharon passed on Greg’s comments regarding the Compass All Committees meeting.
The format was better; however, accessibility awareness still needs work.
GRAAC Committee frustrated the snow removal pilot project had strong support from
Council members at committee but not voted in at Council.
Sharon reminded committee, GRAAC is an advisory committee not an advocacy
committee.
Motion to Adjourn by Andrew, seconded by Rob and carried.
Next meeting will be on Thursday September 27, 2018
City of Kitchener, 200 King St W – Conestoga Room
Please send regrets to:
Janis McKenzie at janis.mckenzie@kitchener.ca
or call 519-741-2200 Ext. 7225