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ODA Committee Update
dated Sept. 18, 2003

ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT COMMITTEE UPDATE

Download And Listen To ODA Committee's 2.5 Hour Presentation At The September 11, 2003 Sault Ste. Marie Conference On Implementing The ODA

September 18, 2003

SUMMARY

You can now go to the ODA Committee's website to download a large audio file of the entire two and a half hour presentation by ODA Committee Chair David Lepofsky, to the Sault Ste. Marie's recent conference on implementing the ODA. This is very timely because municipalities, school boards, provincial ministries, colleges, universities, hospitals and public transit providers must make their first accessibility plans public by September 30, 2003.

MORE DETAILS

You can listen to this speech on your home computer, or copy it to a portable MP3 player. You can copy it and give it to others to listen to, e.g. by burning it onto a CD. Spread it far and wide.

This MP3 audio file is about 73 megabytes in size. It takes about two and a half hours to listen to from beginning to end after you download it. You will likely need a high-speed Internet connection to be able to conveniently download it. After you download it to your computer, you can click on this file and listen to it. Unfortunately, we are not able to set things up so you can just click on the ODA Committee website and listen to this presentation directly, without first downloading the whole file.

This speech will be of interest to ODA supporters who want ideas on how to get whatever we can from the current ODA, to members of municipal accessibility advisory committees, to employees working on implementing the ODA in municipalities, provincial ministries, hospitals, colleges, universities, public transit providers and school boards, and to anyone else interested in this topic. Because most of the audience was involved with municipalities' efforts, the discussion focuses on municipalities.
However other organizations can get good ideas from this talk.

In this speech you can hear:

* A brief history of the ODA movement, and what it has tried to achieve over the past 9 years;

* what the ODA movement wanted in the ODA, and why;

* Specific tips on how to get as much as we can from the current Conservative Government's weak ODA including:

- the role of municipal accessibility committees, and how they can try to have an impact.

- the role of municipal government staff and how they can best support municipal accessibility advisory committees.

- steps for developing an annual accessibility plan under the ODA.

- what we recommend that the accessibility plan include.

- the need for provincial standards so that everyone doesn't have to re-invent the wheel, and why these standards would help.

- making use of the ODA's provisions regarding approval of new building plans and new municipal licenses for local businesses.

* How the ODA Committee has tried to constructively help with the implementation of the ODA despite its many deficiencies.

* Steps you can take to help raise disability issues including the ODA in the current provincial election.

Send us your feedback on this speech at:

oda@odacommittee.net

Isn't this technology cool?

Find this file to download at:

http://www.odacommittee.net/download/sault.mp3

 

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