Transforming the World One Building at a Time With Karin Pasqua

Accessibility should not be an afterthought. Buildings and spaces should not be designed for people with no disabilities only. Because, as Karin Pasqua of Meaningful Access Consultants says, we are all going to be affected at some point in our lives by accessibility issues. With that in mind, we need to look at design as universal before shovels hit the dirt.

 

TRANSCRIPT

 

Transforming the World One Building at a Time with Karin Pasqua

 

00:05 Thanks again. It's time for DDA's encouraging abilities podcast. I'm your host, Evan Kelly, the communications manager here at Developmental Disabilities Association. Today we're talking about universal design and accessibility.

00:18 find this topic quite interesting as a person who does not identify with having a disability, I find that after working at DDA for a few years that the way I look at things, at least from a physical point of view, is shifting. Noticing things that need changing or wondering how someone with limited mobility can navigate something to how a door handle is designed that can be very limiting. It's been eye opening for me to say the least. Joining me today is Karen Pasqua, Universal to Design and Accessibility Consultant with Meaningful

00:48 access consultants based here in the Lower Mainland. Now Karen is an RHFAC professional and accessibility and universal design consultant with a passion for beautiful functional design. She's got a deep understanding that spaces and events in our communities should be enjoyed by everyone of all abilities. And she has expertise in working with municipalities and community spaces. She likes to say that she's part engineer, part occupational therapist. She has a natural affinity for adapting

01:18 environment and turning what some see as complex access problems into thoughtful barrier-free solutions. So thanks for joining us today, Karen. Thank you. Thank you for welcoming me onto your show today. My pleasure. So what got you into this line of work? It seems really quite interesting. That's that's quite the question. My background is very diverse. I will say that as from the

01:48 that I wanted to help people with disabilities. And back then, as a child, you perceived the world in a more limited way, perhaps. And in my mind, I thought I wanted to be a pediatrician. But organic chemistry is not my friend. So that led me down a little bit of a different path. And I'm so glad that that's the case. So my background is a smattering of working in

02:16 In university, I used to work at a camp for adults and children with disabilities. And it just became such an incredible love. And I love to like figure out the environment and how could we make the camp even more inclusive for everybody. And I went on to take courses in communication disabilities. And I worked as a speech and language assistant at a Center for Child Development for quite some time.

02:45 organizations to raise money for people with disabilities. I've worked at all sorts of different organizations and then eventually I ended up at the city of Surrey as the accessibility and universal design specialist. And from that, that just really reinforced where my passion lied and I took more and more courses and eventually decided to go out on my own because my passion is really to make

03:13 more and more of the world more inclusive for all of us. So I guess that's the cold note of how I got here. I think we need a lot more people like you. So I guess in terms of the city of Surrey, just to you know.

03:26 talking about that, it's one of the fastest growing cities in Canada. That must have been a lot of opportunity in terms of being involved in the growth and the change in accessibility in that town. Oh absolutely and I'm so proud of the work that we did and I still get to