U of M students in front of the Administration Building.
Accessibility Audit Workshop offered
Need more information about accessibility?
You may know students, faculty or staff who can’t take the stairs or who use assistive technologies on their computers. You may have know the terms “accessibility” or “barriers to accessibility,” or you’ve heard about the accessibility audit currently taking place at the U of M.
However, you may have questions about what’s encompassed by the audit or about accessibility. If so, register for the Accessibility Audit Workshop, which takes place every week over the summer and into the fall until Sept. 27, alternating between the Fort Garry and Bannatyne campuses.
The workshop is being offered by the change management and project services office in partnership with the human rights and conflict management office, in preparation for the first standard (customer service) of the Accessibility for Manitobans Act (AMA), passed as legislation in December 2013. Though targeted to appointed accessibility audit unit members, the workshop is open to all.
Kystyl Bergen leads the Accessibility Audit Workshop. // Supplied photo
Accessibility Audit Workshop: ‘Interactive, engaging’
The Accessibility Audit Workshop includes group discussion and activities, and participant feedback has been very positive, says Krystyl Bergen, who is the U of M’s accessibility coordinator and workshop leader.
“It’s just so cool to see how people engage with each other in the sessions because they actually care about this,” she adds. “The most common feedback is that participants really enjoy how interactive and engaging the session is, and that they learn a lot through the discussions.”
The University of Manitoba is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible community for all faculty, students and staff. According to the CNIB, “accessibility means access. It refers to the ability for everyone, regardless of disability or special needs, to access, use and benefit from everything within their environment.”
Barriers to accessibility, including attitudinal, systemic, technological, physical and architectural, information and communication barriers, exist all over U of M campuses. These barriers can limit participation in campus life; the U of M is dedicated to removing or reducing these barriers in order to make our campuses more accessible for all.
The 90-minute workshop session covers the following:
- What is accessibility?
- What is the Accessibility for Manitobans Act (AMA)?
- How to identify barriers to accessibility.
- How to complete the unit accessibility audit.
The session also provides an overview of accessibility principles, enabling participants to further the discussion about accessibility and the AMA within their units.
Discussions and audits will aid in collecting the information needed to complete the accessibility audit, and will inform the University of Manitoba’s first accessibility plan, required by law to be completed in December 2016. Unit audits need to be done by Oct. 14 in order to be incorporated into the accessibility plan.
Additional resources will also be provided during the session to facilitate the process following the workshop.
Register for the Accessibility Audit Workshop. If you have any questions about the workshop, contact Krystyl Bergen at: Krystyl.bergen@umanitoba.ca
For additional information, see the letter from President Barnard introducing the accessibility survey. Also see more on the Accessibility for Manitobans Act (AMA).
Read more here: news.umanitoba.ca/planning-for-accessibility-beyond-the-law/
and here: news.umanitoba.ca/planning-for-accessibility-resources/