Americas

CANADA: The Honourable Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, today issued the following statement: “On June 21, 2019, the Accessible Canada Act received Royal Assent. On this one-year anniversary, we celebrate the passage of this law as one of the most significant achievements for disability rights in Canada. Reaching this milestone demonstrates our commitment to creating… Continue Reading »

CANADA: More than a quarter of first-year students at Carleton self-identify as having a disability, and about 11 per cent have registered with the Paul Menton Centre for Students with Disabilities. An additional six per cent of university staff report having some type of disability. Ensuring that all of our students, staff, and faculty fully… Continue Reading »

British Columbia kicks off its third annual AccessAbility Week with $500,000 in grants to not-for-profit organizations for local accessibility projects. The grants, which range from $10,000 to $40,000 depending on a project’s size and scope, will be distributed by Disability Alliance BC (DABC).“AccessAbility Week is an opportunity for everyone to celebrate diversity and inclusion, and… Continue Reading »

Regina Cohen, Brazil – In 2019, a Brazilian architect, Regina Cohen has represented G3ict and its Smart Cities for All initiative (SC4A)  in the Smart City Expo Curitiba in Mexico and also participated in the Smart Cities and Disability Conference (SUDI) 2019. In 2020, Regina attended the 27th World Congress of Architects UIA 2020 and presented the… Continue Reading »

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted long-standing barriers preventing Canadians with communication disabilities from fully accessing the health-care system, according to advocates across the country who are calling for governments to address the issue. Organizations and individuals point to recent cases in which disabled patients were denied access to crucial communication supports while in hospital, leaving… Continue Reading »

When Molly Mollica, a third-year bioengineering Ph.D. student, realized that there was no community for adaptive toys in Washington state, she and a group of students decided to establish a multidisciplinary design group that strives to develop inclusive toys for children with disabilities. As a result, HuskyADAPT was founded in 2017 and the organization has… Continue Reading »

The Inclusive Design Challenge is seeking automated vehicle (AV) solutions that are designed to be more accessible to people with disabilities. The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has opened Stage I of the Inclusive Design Challenge, a national prize competition seeking design solutions to make future automated vehicles (AVs) more accessible to people with disabilities. Stage… Continue Reading »

USA: On Friday, President Trump announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends people in the United States wear face coverings in public to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. The additional public health measure is not a substitute for social distancing but is mainly to prevent those who have the virus… Continue Reading »

The COVID-19 pandemic takes a particularly heavy toll on Canadians with disabilities and more efforts are needed to ensure they’re included in national efforts to respond to the crisis, the minister overseeing accessibility issues said Friday as she appointed an advisory group to take on the task. Disability Inclusion Minister Carla Qualtrough said disabled residents have been… Continue Reading »

Originally built only for people with disabilities, ABILITY Job Fair launches new accessible online platform to accommodate distance recruitment for all. The first face to face video-based platform, accessible for people with deafness, hard of hearing, blindness and more, now expands to a virtual career fair recruitment tool to fill the need for person to person… Continue Reading »