My record

This is what I have actually done, not what I hope to do. Six years on the City's Advisory Committee on Accessibility and Inclusiveness, and a longer stretch before that. Where a claim below is something a committee did together with staff, I have said so, because that is what happened.

Things you can go and use today

  • Talking crosswalks and tactile paving

    The audible crossings downtown and the textured warning surfaces at intersections including Dufferin and Bowen came through the accessibility committee's work with city staff and engineering.

  • The LEAP recreation pass, online

    The low-income recreation pass application used to be filled out at a recreation centre counter, in front of staff and whoever was in line behind you. I pushed to move it online. Use went from 300 people in 2020 to 3,326 last year. Access to recreation on a low income should not cost you your dignity.

  • The inclusive playground at Maffeo Sutton

    The inclusive playground at Maffeo Sutton Park is open today, and the committee was part of its design. The new accessible washrooms there are in design now, with the committee in from the start.

  • City forms you can actually fill out

    Forms digitized and rewritten at a reading level people can get through, so a person can apply for something without going to a counter. A document nobody can read is not public information.

  • Buses that announce every stop

    As a director of the Nanaimo Disability Resource Centre I advised the Regional District on transit accessibility. Every bus in the system now announces stops automatically.

  • The Accessible Icon

    I pushed Nanaimo's adoption of the modern accessibility icon in 2016. It spread to other municipalities.

The test of committee work is whether anything changed. These did.

Two people standing indoors around a decorated rectangular cake on a table, with one person in a dark suit cutting the cake.

Already at the table

Anybody can promise something new. The harder test is finishing what is already underway, and that is the part I can show you now.

I work directly with the City's engineering department, and with the people running transportation and parks. Not as a critic sending letters in. As the person they bring to the drawing stage. I have been struck twice in the Country Club corridor. Engineering brought the utility and mobility upgrades there to our committee in May, then took me through the Norwell Drive corridor on the ground in July, and the design changed because of what came out of that visit. That is what six years of a working relationship buys.

My fingerprints are already on projects that have not opened yet. The Maffeo Sutton washroom replacement, where the committee was in the design from the start. Loudon Park, the $11.4 million boathouse and community building at Long Lake, which broke ground this summer with accessible washrooms, an inclusive playground and accessible paths in the design.

This is the difference between saying a policy should work and knowing that it will. I already know the staff who have to deliver it, and they already know me.

On the record at committee

Committee work is public. These are motions and recommendations with dates on them.

2026

  • Rick Hansen Foundation benchmark goals adopted by council in March, after Frank Crane Arena, the Nanaimo Aquatic Centre and Bowen Park earned accessibility certification.
  • The OV Arts Centre accessible parking review, and a policy reimbursing dependent and attendant care costs for committee volunteers, both adopted in May.
  • A recommendation that the City join the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower network, at the request of the Clay Tree Society and the Nanaimo Association for Community Living.
  • Detailed written accessibility feedback on the Loudon Park designs at committee in July, from dock access into the water to washroom counts sized for real events.
  • The Disability Pride flag flying during Disability Pride Month.

2024

  • Backed the $24,052 SPARC BC grant application putting assistive hearing devices at the front counters of all five recreation centres.
  • Pushed for an additional accessible washroom at Westwood Lake beyond the original design.
  • Set the priority list for Rick Hansen accessibility audits across city facilities, parks and trails.
  • Called for a joint plan with School District 68 and RDN Transit to fix the inaccessible route from the Nanaimo District Secondary bus stop to the aquatic centre.
  • Put tenant protections for mobile home and renovation-affected tenants on the record as a rising concern.

Ongoing

  • Raised the screen reader failures in council agenda packages. Legislative Services now reformats documents and routes accessibility feedback to staff the same day.
  • Our committee's recommendation for gender-inclusive language across city communications was adopted by council.
  • Pushed until the City adopted a formal Safe Work Procedure for open manhole guarding, covering worker safety and public safety in one motion.
A man kneels on asphalt in front of a blue car, holding a white and red mobility golf club. He is positioned over a blue and white handicap symbol painted on the ground, with other parked cars and trees in the background.

On our streets

  • Worked on Complete Streets standards from the accessibility side of the table.
  • Worked with city staff on the Country Club exchange, Metral Drive, Uplands, Departure Bay Road, Hammond Bay, Norwell Drive, Bowen Road, Front Street and Commercial Street.
  • This year, Departure Bay Road: a 13 year old struck in a marked crosswalk, then two teenagers, then a senior hit and killed. Residents had been asking since 2019.
  • I took what they had gathered, the collision dates and the years of requests, and put it in front of reporters and council where it could not be set aside.

Before city hall

  • In workplaces

    • Old Navy's first blind cashier in Canada. I trained the second, and showed managers across BC that the job was accessible.
    • First blind employee at Cineplex in BC.
    • First blind tech support hire at Shopify. Joined the Accessibility Guild, helped make the SHOP app usable with screen readers for the first time, and fixed barriers in the hiring process itself.
    • As a job developer in employment services, matched Nanaimo employers with workers the labour market had written off.

  • At VIU

    • Student senator and member of the Board of Governors. Fought for closed captioning on classroom equipment, elevators in older buildings and better wheelchair routes.
    • Director of external relations on the students' union board. Led the campaign that ended bottled water sales on campus, and the one that made VIU sweatshop-free.
    • Supported Nanaimo Foodshare through the students' union.
    • Organized VIU's International Day of Persons with Disabilities fair.

  • In the province and the community

    • CNIB Ambassador since 2017 and current CNIB BC-Yukon divisional board member.
    • Led the Guide Dogs Welcome sticker campaign with Nanaimo businesses after guide dog handlers were refused service.
    • Built a peer support program for seniors losing their vision.
    • In party politics before this campaign: founding co-chair of a provincial party's disability caucus, where we created a fund so Deaf members could hire ASL interpreters for political events, and accessibility director of its youth wing.

Written down by somebody else

A record is easier to trust when you do not have to take my word for it.

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