Caption: Photo collage of participants (Penny Christie)
On Saturday 30th January 2021, the One Accessibility Team successfully held its first “Accessibility Uncovered Webinar Series.” The theme for the January webinar focused on Accessibility Goals for 2021.
Emeka Ulor being the host, asked each of the team members questions about accessibility in their cities, Local Guide journey, 2021 goals and more.
Penny Christie (Australia):
@PennyChristie told us how impressively accessible her city - Sydney was designed. She identified a shopping mall with silent moments as one of her amazing encounters dedicated to accessibility. Penny promised to add a Koala bear photo on Google Maps. Her goal for 2021 is to learn more about accessibility and to add more shops with ramps on Google Maps.
Isha (India)
@Globe_trotter_Ish drew a clear comparison between accessibility in UK and India. She underlined the need for more awareness to help close the gap. She is focused on hosting more meet-ups to make the world more accessible.
Chinonso (Nigeria):
@ChinonsoOnukwugha based in Nigeria’s capital Abuja, Chinonso loves maps as it helps her to navigate. She works with children and is interested in invisible accessibility too. Her 2021 goal is to help create awareness on Nigeria’s disability law to enable compliance and improving accessibility in the city.
Caption: Screen image showing Erna and other participants.
Erna (USA):
@Erna_LaBeau is based in Michigan but originally from Indonesia. She confirmed that accessibility law in her city is very strict compared to her home country. She would like to see more gas stations become accessible while ready to add them to Google Maps. Erna said one thing that would surprise her about accessibility in Michigan would be the non availability of ramps or other features in a public building.
Kashif (Pakistan):
@KashifMisidia narrated his Local Guides journey and accessibility advocacy in his city. He pledged to continue sharing information about disability and accessibility issues
Special Contributions:
Two Local Guides passionately shared insight about accessibility in their cities and asked questions on the way forward.
@indahnuria (Indonesia): held our attention as she narrated the importance of accessibility in urban centres. Indah informed us that Indonesia passed its disability law in 2013 and would continue to help create awareness among fellow citizens.
Caption: Photo showing Dr Alwy Paul will making her contribution.
@Dr_AlwyPaul (India), highlighted common barrier challenges facing persons with disabilities in India including in hospitals. She is helping to solve these issues by speaking with shop owners to make their entrances accessible.
Take Aways
- We all agreed that more awareness is required to make our cities more accessible especially in developing Countries.
- Each one of us pledged to help create awareness virtually or physically.
- While it would be a surprise to see more accessible features, for some an absent of accessibility features would be a surprise too.
Twenty-two Local Guides participated in the virtual meeting. You can join us for the next meetup by previewing our subsequent schedule in this catalog.
