Province releases accessibility plan for N.B., some advocates cautiously optimistic

Advocates for people with disabilities reacted to New Brunswick's five-year strategic plan on accessibility this week with a mixture of hope, optimism and wariness.

At the announcement of the strategy, Jean-Claude D’Amours, minister of post-secondary education, training and labour, said it lays out how government will work with New Brunswickers who experience barriers and with “all sectors” to achieve the goal of a “more accessible New Brunswick by 2040.”

Marisa Hersey-Misner, the chair of the Saint John Ability Advisory Committee, said she’s happy the province is in the process of meeting with people and doing the work.

“That being said … when the minister had stated 2040, I just cringed,” said Hersey-Misner, who is legally blind and uses a guide dog.

She said there are so many systemic accessibility barriers, such as built-environment barriers and communications, that it’s hard to imagine waiting nearly 20 years for action.

“I think we're going in the right direction, but it's moving very, very slowly,” Hersey-Misner said.

The plan has three main goals: Work with all sectors to identify and remove barriers, create a strong culture of accessibility, and develop and enforce accessibility standards.

One of the guiding principles in the plan says people with disabilities must be involved in the decisions that affect them. 

Hersey-Misner said this is important because people with disabilities know what the barriers are. At the same time, she said, she has participated in a lot of advisory opportunities but it hasn't always brought results as quickly as she'd like.

“You get involved in these things, thinking, ‘Oh, they're going to do that tomorrow’ … and then it doesn't happen for like, 20 years or whatever,” she said. “And this is the reason why the 2040 date is really concerning to me.”

She hopes that while consultation and planning continue to happen for the 2040 deadline, there will be real work at making life more accessible and building the culture of accessibility. 

Randy Dickinson, the chair of the Premier's Council on Disabilities, is a member of the Accessibility Advisory Board, which provides advice to the government on the implementation of the Accessibility Act. 

He said he has already encouraged shortening the 2040 deadline in his role with the advisory board, but he also recognizes that there are a lot of complex issues to be addressed that will "require very specific standards and regulations to be developed.”

“The good news is some of the other provinces have already had their accessibility legislation in place a bit longer, and they developed standards and regulations,” he said.