Whenever and wherever I travel to, I am always proud to wear a small Canadian pin, not only to honour (yes – spelled with a ‘u’ is our Canadian way) Canada but also to let others know of my heritage. I’ve found if I don’t wear this identifier then I am mistaken for an American. Now, don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with that, but just to set the record straight we do have our differences and I simply prefer to be recognized as the Canadian that I am. After all, I have been well taken care of, particularly where my health needs are concerned because of the services Canada avails to its citizens (to be discussed in another article).
For the purposes of this article, I am pleased to report that government offices in Canada do present a good example of accessibility for the private sector. Post offices, libraries, citizenship, and social service offices, hospitals, banks etc., all have adequate environmental designs to enable Canadians of all abilities to have the right of entry. Which by the way is the actual definition of access, to have a right of entry.
Seemingly all departments have invested in infrastructures that meet with universal design standards. Check out the page on Universal Design to get a clear picture of what that actually entails. For now, I would like to say, “thanks” to the Canadian government offices for utilizing some of my tax dollars (we all pay them after all) to make sure that I can attend, participate, complain, benefit, and partake it whatever form within our government.
Now, if we can just get the private sector to follow suit 16% of the population would be happy campers and shoppers …whatever.
