Changing Attitudes One Street at a Time

The City of Vancouver is making strides with its Accessibility Strategy. DDA chats with the city's Accessibility Planner, Karen Lai who offers perspectives from her lived experiences.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Changing Attitudes One Street at a Time

 

00:06

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Developmental Disabilities Association's Encouraging Abilities podcast. I am your host, DDA Communications Manager, Evan Kelly. Joining me today is the City of Vancouver's Accessibility Planner, Karen Lye. Karen has worked in accessibility and inclusion consultation for over 20 years.

 

00:25

Now as someone with cerebral palsy, Karen brings a lived experience to her work and an understanding of the limitations that society places on people with disabilities. She has previously done work which helped some people with disabilities integrate into workplaces. She runs her own consulting firm where she ran workshops and developed budgets for inclusion initiatives and worked with many non-profits to improve their accessibility. She holds a master's degree in human kinetics from UBC

 

00:55

2020 award by the YWCA of Metro Vancouver. So thanks for joining me today, Karen. Thank you for the invitation. Now, we'll get to inclusion and accessibility in a moment, but tell us a little bit about yourself. Yeah. Thank you. I was born and raised in Vancouver and I

 

01:21

have been doing much work in improving accessibility. That's what I do for work. But at the same time, I am very...

 

01:41

hanging out in the outdoors with my friends and going the long bike ride with my bike. But yeah, I've been in the field of inclusion and accessibility for well over 20 years, and I'm continually learning about this area.

 

02:11

So in sort of in a nutshell, Karen, what does accessibility mean to you? Well, accessibility means to me, it's more than the built environment. It's that once you get in the door, are you able to feel like your decisions matter? Like do you have a role in the decision making?

 

02:39

Do you have a role in the workplace? Is it more than just physically getting in the door? It's...

 

02:52

It's getting you what role to play in the larger game of community. Yeah, that's just it. I mean, it's it's, you know, that whole thing. Nothing about us without us, you know, making sure that that anything that is created accessible is created from those with disabilities, their point of view.

 

03:21

Right, right. And it's also about do you feel valued? Do you feel belong? And it's not just about your own physical space. It's also do you have an opportunity to go in other people's houses, but closer and closer. So, um, it's also

 

03:51

and accessibility from a community perspective, not just at the places where you move around, but do you have the ability to go over to a friend's place or whatever, because those need to be accessible as well.

 

04:18

Yeah, like everything. And you know, I've been talking a lot about accessibility with with other people on this podcast and how even businesses need to be more accessible because if you can't get people into your store, you're not selling as much as you can. There's a huge motivation for businesses just by themselves to be accessible to everyone. Totally. Yeah.

 

04:47

I agree. Now, I took a little line from your LinkedIn page. You say inclusion is a two way street. Can you expand on that a little bit? Yeah, I think we all have a role to play in advocating. The one individual that knows me the best.

 

05:16

is myself. Though I have a role to play in telling others what kind of needs I have, what support I need, how do you work with me, though that's my role. And if the other people's role is to create a culture of

 

05:43

welcomeness. You allow me to tell you what I need. There is a two-way street in that we both need to work together to create an environment where we all can work well together, though we both have a role to play.

 

06:09

And how do you think that conversation is going over the, you know, when you look back on your life and what you've managed to accomplish, to accomplish in spite of a disability, do you think that conversation, you know, with people like me who don't identify with a disability, do you think that conversation is getting better? Do you think the messages are getting out there? Do you think the support is improving?

 

06:35

I think as a body, physical activity, physical sensibility, it's relatively well. It's not perfect. But I think we have a long way to go in terms of attitude, in terms of accepting the culture. It is.

 

07:04

about shifting the culture, slo