The City of Steinbach is complying with a provincial requirement that it develop an Accessibility Plan by the end of this year. Mayor Chris Goertzen says the plan goes beyond physical disabilities and also involves making sure that people with barriers like hearing loss or visual impairment have full access to city services. He adds the city is fully on side with the province on this.

"Accessibility is really important for us as a city and we pride ourselves on having very good infrastructure that has a lot of accessibility features that make sure that people can be included in society. At the same time, the province has required us to look at an Accessibility Plan, not only for physical barriers but other barriers as well, and so administration has been putting a plan together and will start the implementation process in the coming months."

Goertzen says the city council was initially concerned that this plan could lead to significant additional costs for the city. But he adds, as staff have worked through the process, they have realized it is more about training employees in how to better serve people with various disabilities.

"At this time, it looks like it's really about making sure our staff are well trained so that they can understand how to deal with people with disabilities which, I think, is appropriate. It doesn't look as much on the physical side of barriers as it does on the service aspect. We look forward to making sure that we are an accessible city for all."

In a report to city council, Rhona Dundas, Manager of Corporate Services for the city noted the Accessibility Plan will address five barriers. They are:

1) Attitudinal barriers such as taking actions based on false assumptions.

2) Informational and communication barriers that prevent some people from getting information due to things like print that is too small for some to read.

3) Technological barriers such as websites that are not accessible to blind people who use screen reader software

4) Systematic barriers that exclude people based on their disability such as requiring a job applicant to have a driver's licence when there are ways to reorganize the job to use another form of transportation.

5) Physical and architectural barriers such a door knob that is a challenge for a person with limited mobility.