My Activities

Accessibility legislative reviews, committees and councils for Ontario

I served as an Appointee, 2013-2016, on the Ontario Accessibility Standards Advisory Council (ASAC), and in 2017-2022 was Appointed to be a member of the Information and Communications Accessibility Standards Development Committee (ICASDC), for the Accessibility Directorate of Ontario (ADO). Under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) the Minister is responsible to establish standards development committees to develop proposed accessibility standards to be considered for adoption by regulation. Recognizing the history of discrimination against persons with disabilities in Ontario, the purpose of the AODA is to benefit all Ontarians by developing, implementing an enforcing accessibility standards, and providing for the involvement of persons with disabilities, in the development of the accessibility standards. Within the time period specified by the Committee’s mandate letter, each Committee shall prepare a proposed accessibility standard and submit it to the Minister for the purpose of posting the standard for public review. To learn more see:
ONTARIO REGULATION 191/11, INTEGRATED ACCESSIBILITY STANDARDS
Standards Development Committee Meeting Minutes
Expenditure Estimates for the Accessibility Directorate of Ontario (2017-18)
Ontario Public Appointments Secretariat Upcoming Vacancies

Windsor Hackforge National Accessibility Week 2024

This month Windsor Hackforge is hosting a series of free events focused on accessibility. The programming aims to increase connections between people with disabilities, businesses, technologists, advocacy groups, and the community at large. The full schedule of events has been released on Hackforge's website and features topics such as accessible website design, AODA compliance, and the role technology plays in an inclusive society. Presented as interactive workshops, tutorials, and discussions, sessions will be delivered by various community voices including David Best, Saamer Mansour, and Evelina Baczewska. These events will be hosted in community partner spaces including The University of Windsor’s Advanced Computing Hub and Assisted Living Southwestern Ontario (ALSO).

The AccessStudio NextGen Program

I will be serving as a mentor for the NextGen Leadership Program, taking place in May and June 2024.
AccessNow is a connected platform to empower people to discover a world of accessible opportunities and remove barriers. NextGen is a 6-week personal leadership program to empower disabled youth. Through transformative learning, the program fosters employability and innovation by nurturing disability advocacy and inclusion.

WEtech Alliance: Breaking Barriers – Unlocking Business Potential Through Accessibility

Join
WEtech Alliance and
EPICentre on
Global Accessibility Awareness Day
for a virtual session featuring accessibility. In this session, we will explore the benefits of improving accessibility for your company and your workplace and how it can unlock business potential. Helps celebrate the 12th Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)! The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access and inclusion, and the more than One Billion people with disabilities/impairments. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to make your company and organization more inclusive and accessible to all.
YouTube: Video webinar presentation

A Life Worth Living Accessible Online Resource Centre launch

Changing the Disability Narrative One Story at a Time through real life stories and inclusion best practices.
The Business Accessibility Toolkit (BAT) is a business training course offering employers who do not have an onsite HR or Accessibility Trainer another option to meet their annual training requirements outlined in the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) for employees, volunteers and board members. To facilitate documentation, the course will also include tracking and progress reports for government submissions. This training will focus on A Life Worth Living’s commitment to promote greater social inclusion by expanding the knowledge and market opportunities of local businesses.

University of Guelph Open Education 13th Annual Accessibility Conference 2022

Session: What Businesses Should Learn from a Life Worth Living’s Accessible Website Journey
A business’s decision to hire a website developer to meet AODA standards is complicated by the lack of knowledge and understanding of digital accessibility on the part of both parties. Through A Life Worth Living’s three-year journey, Judy Robinet and David Best will highlight their real-world challenges and provide best practice solutions to avoid expensive and non-compliant sites. After this session, you will be able to:

• Identify the meaning of digital accessibility in terms of your business goals to measure your business accessibility requirements to maximize efficiency.
• Determine how digital accessibility can augment your business goals, values and target expectations through implementing a digital accessibility strategy.
• Examine your business culture to assess premeditated actions, the anticipation of others’ behaviour, and the purposeful design of coordinated actions.
• Develop best practice digital communication strategies to market products/services and build a unique brand to reach a diverse population with satisfied customers.
• Evaluate the vendor’s ability to deliver an accessible and useable website to maximize your business investment.

Text Transcript (PDF)

Join me at the AlphaKOR AODA Communications Standards Workshop, May 7, 2020

AlphaKOR helps businesses Increase Profits, Decrease Expenses, and Stay Secure using cutting edge technology and digital marketing solutions. At this workshop I will present practical methods to achieve AODA compliance for online communications. Learn about Stakeholder roles and project processes in designing for inclusion to bridge the digital disability divide. In partnership with
A Life Worth Living you will gain the knowledge to expand your market reach by developing inclusive business values and winning satisfied customers. Mainstreaming accessibility is more about productivity than disability in developing smart business strategies.

More Activities and Events

• Activities and Events 2017-2019
• Activities and Events 2015-2016