National Accessibility Week Observance
Motion 17 · Standing Committee of Council on Policy and Strategic Priorities, June 3, 2026
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25 segments
We'll see how we proceed here with our motion. We only have I think we have one more motion left which is motion six I'm correct, and then we'll be moving into council and I anticipate even with the Unfinished business that we may be able to conclude Before dinner time around dinner time, so I'm just flagging that I don't think we'll But if that changes, I'll check in. But I think we'll be good. So motion six, recognizing National Accessibility Week as an official city of Vancouver observance to be moved and introduced by Councillor Maloney. Are there any conflicts of interest?
Hearing none, Councillor Maloney, you have two minutes to introduce your motion.
Thank you. This week is National Accessibility Week. National Accessibility Week takes place every year starting on the last Sunday in May. It celebrates and promotes the valuable contributions and leadership of persons with disabilities in Canada, the work of allies, organisations and communities that are removing barriers, ongoing efforts to become a more accessible and disability inclusive Canada. This motion is a motion to direct staff to recognise National Accessibility Week as an official celebration and observance of the City of Vancouver starting this year and to acknowledge this day with a proclamation, illumination and internal and external communications as is customary for the City's official observances. Making National Accessibility Week an official city celebration is important to recognise and improve public awareness of the rights, needs and contributions of disabled people in our city. On May 14th, 2026, the Persons with Disabilities Advisory Committee, whose mandate is to advise council and staff on advancing access and inclusion for persons with disabilities in the city, services and civic life, passed a motion recommending that Vancouver City Council formally recognise National Accessibility Week. as one of the City of Vancouver's official observances. It aligns with the City's accessibility strategy and action plan and the motion passed by the Persons with Disabilities Advisory Committee and encourages government and community efforts towards a more accessible and inclusive Vancouver for all residents. I really hope that Council votes unanimously in support of this motion because... The City of Vancouver is committed to advancing equity, accessibility, inclusion and belonging for all residents.
It celebrates the leadership, achievements and contributions of persons with disabilities in our communities, workplaces and public life. Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor Maloney. And this is seconded by Councillor Orr as a co-sponsored motion.
We'll now hear from speakers. And our first speaker to this motion is John Irwin.
Welcome back, John.
Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Councillors and Mayor online, good to see everybody. Yes, I'm speaking in full support of this motion. I had the honour to work with Margaret Burrell, who was the Executive Director of the Persons with Disabilities Society in BC. And I was reflecting back on when I first came to Vancouver and how... Our buses, remember our buses had those steps up, you know, and women with strollers had to fold their strollers and struggle up there. And one of my history, a part of my history in Edmonton was I was the liaison to the People with Disabilities Committee there under a city councillor that we worked with at Edmonton City Hall. we were talking to them about the idea of low-floor buses, and they had just come in in Edmonton, and they were so thrilled because they said, now we can move around the city like we never could before. They'd have to wait for a handy-dark type system like we have here, and then they didn't. So I think we've made a lot of strides, but having said that, on my bicycle commute to Burnaby to work at a college I work at out there... I noticed that in Shaughnessy, there's still curb cuts that aren't there. And I know there's a lot of work to do. I know the city's hard to manage, but they're not there. And that's in a city that used to have two people in wheelchairs where you folks are sitting, right? Sam Sullivan and Tim Lewis. So we do have work to do still. Another thing I found out doing research for people with disabilities regarding transit is some systems in North America actually have symbols for routes. not just numbers. And the interesting thing about this is just like the low floor buses, which were great for me when I had my two twin boys in a stroller and I was getting them onto the bus, I could do that because it was a low floor bus and it was fully accessible. Just as with that, the symbol on the buses, and I know we had a whole go around about TransLink and who's got the authority and I fully understand that, but I'm just underlying the idea of how... Helping people who have cognitive and physical disabilities helps us all, is really what I'm saying. Because these symbol buses, people can look at them, they see the symbol. I think they do this in San Francisco. And you can tell, oh yeah, that's the one that goes to the mission. Because you don't need to see the number, you see the symbol, and your mind goes, I know where I'm going. So yeah, I fully support the motion. I think it's time that we did this. And clearly the committee thinks it should happen as well. Thanks for your time. Take care.
Our next speaker is Iona Bonamy by phone. Iona Bonamy by phone.
I am of this motion. I want to thank the city's Persons with Disabilities Advisory Committee for making the recommendation for the city to observe the National Accessibility Week and Councillor Maloney for bringing it forward to council. I've been an urban and transportation planner for nearly 20 years. Over this time, I've had the opportunity to engage with many accessibility advisory and advocacy groups, including the city's Persons with Disabilities Advisory Committee, to get their input on various projects. Through these meetings and discussions, I've gained a deeper understanding of the structural, physical, and attitudinal barriers people with accessibility needs that prevent them from being able to fully participate in their community.
That's why it's important for us to formally observe the National Accessibility Week, to raise public awareness and to encourage people to learn about different accessibility needs, including those that are visible and those that are invisible. Of course, it's also important to provide adequate resources to implement the Accessibility Strategy and Action Plan, So I hope Council will also place that higher on their priority list moving forward. As I understand it, due to the budget cuts, there have been fewer resources available. I'll end my remarks with something that an instructor of an accessibility course that I took years ago said and has remained with me to this day. While many of us may not have a disability today, that will not necessarily be the case over the course of our lives. due to age or other factors, all of us have the potential to have accessibility challenges in the future. We're simply, as they said, temporarily able-bodied. With that, thank you for your time, and I hope you will approve this motion.
Thank you very much for calling in today. Our last speaker for this item is speaker number three, Sherry Brashears.
Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. Hi, Sherry. Go ahead. Hi. Yeah.
Thank you. So my name is Sherry Rashears. I'm a resident of Vancouver and active member of the Inclusive Education Working Group with Vancouver DPAC. and a volunteer with Dyslexia BC and today I'm speaking as an individual in support of this motion. This motion is an important step towards raising awareness about the barriers that people with disabilities face and also taking action to remove them. I want to acknowledge the important work already being done by the accessibility committee at the city and this motion builds on that work. The Accessible BC Act defines disability as, quote, the inability to participate fully and equally in society as a result of the interaction of an impairment and a barrier. So what matters is not so much the diagnosis itself, but the barriers that people encounter. So, like, in other words, people are not excluded because of their impairments alone, but they're excluded because systems fail to consider their needs. When many people think of a disability, they usually picture something physical. But actually, 70% to 80% of disabilities are invisible, and this includes such things as anxiety and other mental health challenges, autism, and dyslexia. So here's a couple of examples from members of the dyslexia BC community of systemic barriers that they have faced in the past. In one case, a person with severe dyslexia was at a busy border crossing and became overwhelmed by the number of signs. and they accidentally entered the wrong line. And they realized their mistake, but the border agent was not sympathetic and proceeded to process them and ask questions about procedures that did not apply to them. And this left the person, like, really confused and distressed. So this wasn't a failure on their part. It was a failure of design. In another case, a teen with dyslexia applied for a summer job. They asked if they could bring their parents to the interview and take notes for them. But the employer said, quote, you're an adult. You need to act like an adult. This person ended up being hired, but they didn't receive a single shift all summer. So experiences like this happen every day, and these barriers are frequently rooted in assumptions about what people should be able to do, particularly when disabilities are invisible. so this is why this motion matters raising awareness is not just symbolic it's essential for change to happen recognizing national accessibility week as an official observance signals that the city is committed to both awareness and action and so it needs to be followed by meaningful steps to remove barriers for people with both visible and invisible disabilities so i encourage council to support this motion thank you
Thanks for calling in today, Sherry. Okay, Council, that concludes our speakers for this motion. We'll move to debate and decision. Please put yourselves in the queue if you would like to offer your comments. Sorry, I lost Councillor Fry there. We'll add you back on. And we'll add, sorry, Councillor Kirby Young and Councillor back on. Go ahead, Councillor Fry.
Okay, Councillor Kirby-Young. Yeah, thank you. I'll be brief, but I'll say excellent motion, and I'm really grateful to the PDAC, the Persons with Disability Advisory Committee, for their ongoing work. They've been a really fantastic voice for the segment and for continuing to raise awareness. It fits beautifully with our commitment to being a very accessible city, and I'm delighted to support it. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Kirby-Young. Councillor Orr.
Yeah, likewise, happy to be co-sponsoring this with Councillor Maloney. And the timing is right, seeing as it's National Accessibility Week. And, yeah, very thankful to the Persons with Disabilities Advisory Committee for passing this motion on May 14th. And I will say that official observances matter. They're not merely symbolic. And I'm glad we're doing this, and I ask my colleagues to support. Thanks.
Thank you, Councillor Orr. Councillor Maloney. Thanks. And I'm really pleased to be a council liaison along with Councillor Orr on PDAC. And we really should be investing more in making our cities accessible because it benefits disabled people and helps them participate in our city as much as they want to and conveniently. But also because it benefits everyone, including parents with strollers, people with shopping carts, et cetera. I know what it's like to live in a city that's less accessible than our own city. I remember being the parent of very young children in Singapore and having a lot of trouble getting around with a stroller. And also it was a real shame to see so few wheelchair users out and about a lot of the subway stations. had escalators rather than lifts and other issues like that that were being resolved but really did create a barrier to disabled people participating in the city. It sounds as though we're going to get a unanimous vote on this. So I'm really very grateful and thrilled about that. And I'll leave it there. Thanks.
Thank you, Councillor Maloney. Council, we'll move to a vote. Please vote online. Those of you online, please put your videos on. I will take a vote assist in favour, please.
Chair, it's Councillor Lawson. Can I get a vote assist in favour, please?
Hi, Chair. Thanks. Councillor Meiszner, vote assist in favour, please.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council. That passes.
Thank you, Councillor Maloney. Okay. With that, that completes motion six. The standing committee portion of this meeting is...
now complete. We will now convene and Council with Mayor, no, I'll be chairing this portion. Okay, so Council, we're going to take a two-minute recess.
Can I adjourn this portion still? So, Council, just noting that we will convene in Council. I'll be chairing that portion with the recommendations from today and a couple of other items on finished business from yesterday's public hearing. No, we need to take a two-minute recess.
Statement Watch
Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Councillors and Mayor online, good to see everybody. Yes, I'm speaking in full support of this motion. I had the honour to work with Margaret Burrell, who was the Executive Director of the Persons with Disabilities Society in BC. And I was reflecting back on when I first came to Vancouver and how... Our buses, remember our buses had those steps up, you know, and women with strollers had to fold their strollers and struggle up there. And one of my history, a part of my history in Edmonton was I was the liaison to the People with Disabilities Committee there under a city councillor that we worked with at Edmonton City Hall. we were talking to them about the idea of low-floor buses, and they had just come in in Edmonton, and they were so thrilled because they said, now we can move around the city like we never could before. They'd have to wait for a handy-dark type system like we have here, and then they didn't. So I think we've made a lot of strides, but having said that, on my bicycle commute to Burnaby to work at a college I work at out there... I noticed that in Shaughnessy, there's still curb cuts that aren't there. And I know there's a lot of work to do. I know the city's hard to manage, but they're not there. And that's in a city that used to have two people in wheelchairs where you folks are sitting, right? Sam Sullivan and Tim Lewis. So we do have work to do still. Another thing I found out doing research for people with disabilities regarding transit is some systems in North America actually have symbols for routes. not just numbers. And the interesting thing about this is just like the low floor buses, which were great for me when I had my two twin boys in a stroller and I was getting them onto the bus, I could do that because it was a low floor bus and it was fully accessible. Just as with that, the symbol on the buses, and I know we had a whole go around about TransLink and who's got the authority and I fully understand that, but I'm just underlying the idea of how... Helping people who have cognitive and physical disabilities helps us all, is really what I'm saying. Because these symbol buses, people can look at them, they see the symbol. I think they do this in San Francisco. And you can tell, oh yeah, that's the one that goes to the mission. Because you don't need to see the number, you see the symbol, and your mind goes, I know where I'm going. So yeah, I fully support the motion. I think it's time that we did this. And clearly the committee thinks it should happen as well. Thanks for your time. Take care.
Statement Watch
I am of this motion. I want to thank the city's Persons with Disabilities Advisory Committee for making the recommendation for the city to observe the National Accessibility Week and Councillor Maloney for bringing it forward to council. I've been an urban and transportation planner for nearly 20 years. Over this time, I've had the opportunity to engage with many accessibility advisory and advocacy groups, including the city's Persons with Disabilities Advisory Committee, to get their input on various projects. Through these meetings and discussions, I've gained a deeper understanding of the structural, physical, and attitudinal barriers people with accessibility needs that prevent them from being able to fully participate in their community. That's why it's important for us to formally observe the National Accessibility Week, to raise public awareness and to encourage people to learn about different accessibility needs, including those that are visible and those that are invisible. Of course, it's also important to provide adequate resources to implement the Accessibility Strategy and Action Plan, So I hope Council will also place that higher on their priority list moving forward. As I understand it, due to the budget cuts, there have been fewer resources available. I'll end my remarks with something that an instructor of an accessibility course that I took years ago said and has remained with me to this day. While many of us may not have a disability today, that will not necessarily be the case over the course of our lives. due to age or other factors, all of us have the potential to have accessibility challenges in the future. We're simply, as they said, temporarily able-bodied. With that, thank you for your time, and I hope you will approve this motion.
Statement Watch
Thank you. So my name is Sherry Rashears. I'm a resident of Vancouver and active member of the Inclusive Education Working Group with Vancouver DPAC. and a volunteer with Dyslexia BC and today I'm speaking as an individual in support of this motion. This motion is an important step towards raising awareness about the barriers that people with disabilities face and also taking action to remove them. I want to acknowledge the important work already being done by the accessibility committee at the city and this motion builds on that work. The Accessible BC Act defines disability as, quote, the inability to participate fully and equally in society as a result of the interaction of an impairment and a barrier. So what matters is not so much the diagnosis itself, but the barriers that people encounter. So, like, in other words, people are not excluded because of their impairments alone, but they're excluded because systems fail to consider their needs. When many people think of a disability, they usually picture something physical. But actually, 70% to 80% of disabilities are invisible, and this includes such things as anxiety and other mental health challenges, autism, and dyslexia. So here's a couple of examples from members of the dyslexia BC community of systemic barriers that they have faced in the past. In one case, a person with severe dyslexia was at a busy border crossing and became overwhelmed by the number of signs. and they accidentally entered the wrong line. And they realized their mistake, but the border agent was not sympathetic and proceeded to process them and ask questions about procedures that did not apply to them. And this left the person, like, really confused and distressed. So this wasn't a failure on their part. It was a failure of design. In another case, a teen with dyslexia applied for a summer job. They asked if they could bring their parents to the interview and take notes for them. But the employer said, quote, you're an adult. You need to act like an adult. This person ended up being hired, but they didn't receive a single shift all summer. So experiences like this happen every day, and these barriers are frequently rooted in assumptions about what people should be able to do, particularly when disabilities are invisible. so this is why this motion matters raising awareness is not just symbolic it's essential for change to happen recognizing national accessibility week as an official observance signals that the city is committed to both awareness and action and so it needs to be followed by meaningful steps to remove barriers for people with both visible and invisible disabilities so i encourage council to support this motion thank you