Recap: Accessibility Uncovered Webinar 7.0

[EmekaUlor]

Caption: A screenshot showing participants listening to Farid at the webinar. (Shafiul)

In July 2021, Local Guides Community celebrated the fifth birthday of Connect. To join in the commemoration, One Accessibility Team dedicated the monthly webinar series to highlight the contributions of five Local Guides to the community.

On the 31st of July, Accessibility Uncovered Webinar 7.0 featured some of Local Guides top accessibility advocates:

@ErmesT @Tejal @FaridTDF

@AnshukMitra and @ShafiulB

Each of the guests answered a few questions about their Local Guides activities, contributions on Connect and accessibility situation in their cities.

You can read Farid and Ermes answers to all the questions in this post.

How they Started…

We asked the guests how the got inspiration to start accessibility advocacy.

Ermes: In 2017, when we discovered an accessible path on the sibillini mountains.

Shafiul: I got inspired when I attend Worldwide Accessibility Walk (WAW) in 2018.

Tejal: I started as a child because my parents took care of children with disabilities. She joined her friends to distribute chocolates to schools then added the school on Google Maps.

Anshuk: So many places in India do not have ramps. I started adding photos of places with ramps. I saw that one photo made impact, so I continue adding more.

Has they World Made Significant Progress in Closing Accessibility Gaps?

Sadly all the guests said “No” but progress is being made and should be intensified by creating more awareness.

Favourite Connect Board

Shafiul: Local Stories because I learn a lot of new things. For example I never knew about Tactile Pavement until I read it on Connect

Ermes: Food, Travel and nature posts especially from Farid.

Farid: Local Stories but all the boards are differently exciting to read.

Caption: A screenshot showing attendees while Ermes was interpreting for Farid at the meetup (Shrut)

Impact of Connect

We asked Local Guides if Connect has made significant impact on their lives.

Everyone answered “Yes!”

Farid: Connect has opened my mind…

Shafiul: I used to be a shy and introverted but Connect helped me develop interpersonal and team work skills. I have made new friends and lead my community now.

Anshuk: It has changed my life!

Parting Words!

Tejal: If we can stay united, work together, it would make more impact in our communities. Continuous awareness would help make the world more accessible.

Ermes: We need to work collectively. It is not a competition among advocates; rather it is a competition to make accessibility better.

Shafiul: There are more work to be done. I will continue to host meet-ups in my community to improve accessibility awareness in Bangladesh.

Special thanks to Ermes who took an extra job of interpreting from Spanish to English during the webinar.

Over twenty five Local Guides attended this webinar. We cannot tag you all but we sincerely appreciate everyone. Thumbs up to the One Accessibility team and my co-host @Zuhralc for their usual cooperation. See Photo album

Join us in our subsequent meet-ups to learn and interact about accessibility topics.

[KamalHossenR]

It was really awesome to meet five Accessibility Champions together.

I really like the speech of @ErmesT

“We need to work collectively. It is not a competition among advocates; rather it is a competition to make accessibility better”

Dear @EmekaUlor Thank you so much for sharing with us an excellent RECAP

[ShafiulB]

@EmekaUlor Thanks for organizing such a great accessibility Meet-Up with the accessibility champions.

It had a great experience with you all.

Keep sharing and caring accessibility!

Happy Guiding!

[FaridTDF]

Gracias por la invitación @EmekaUlor , fue muy lindo participar y charlar con otros Local Guides que son tan apasionados de la accesibilidad ‍:manual_wheelchair:.

Todo lo que realicemos es poco, por todo lo que falta para que las ciudades del mundo sean más inclusivas y accesibles ‍:probing_cane: ‍:manual_wheelchair: a todos y todas.

Por supuesto, acciones como las que hacen, son pequeños granos de arena que de a poco van haciendo que tomemos conciencia y que no sea solo una moda pasajera de la comunicación social

Saludos Farid

[doc_dells]

@EmekaUlor thanks for the recap! It was great meet up with great co host too @Zuhralc

I learned a lot from all invited speakers.They all awesome accessibility champions! @ErmesT @Tejal

@FaridTDF @ShafiulB @AnshukMitra

[Zuhralc]

It was indeed a special experience being amidst of the Accessibility champions, Kudos to the Five of you @FaridTDF Sir, @ShafiulB sir, @ErmesT Sir , @Tejal Ma’am and @AnshukMitra sir, for sharing your journeys as Advocates. Grateful for all who came and make the webinar successful. Much gracias to @EmekaUlor sir for the opportunity again for being your Co-host. Cheers and happy Guiding Folks .

[Globe_trotter_Ish]

Amazing meet-up @EmekaUlor ! It was lovely to hear from all our fellow Accessibiliy Champion friends about how they contribute in making their neighbourhood accessible friendly !

[Tejal]

@EmekaUlor

Thank you for giving me this opportunity I hope we will be working on this project all together so we can help more our community. I am always there for initiative for good cause.

Regards Tejal

[ErmesT]

Thanks for this Recap, @EmekaUlor , and sorry for being late.

It has been a pleasure to be part of this webinar, I am always a bit nervous when I have to speak in public even if i am self training myself for doing better.

It was amazing to listen what the accessibility champions wanted to share with us, it is always an opportunity to learn more and to get inspired to do better. Congratulations to @ShafiulB , @FaridTDF , @Tejal , @AnshukMitra for sharing your experience.

Don’t worry about translating from Spanish, in most of my conversations with Farid we use three languages (Spanish, English, Italian) so I am used to switch from a language to another.

Well, everything we do seems to be not enough, as the changes are implemented very slowly in many parts of the world, but we should not give up.

The sea is filled of drops, and our small drops are important for increasing the Global Awareness about Accessibility and Inclusion.

There is a lot to do, and I believe that our status of (thanks Connect) accessibility champions can help us to have more traction in involving more people.

Special Thanks to @Zuhralc for conducting the webinar in a so professional way

[Mukund_hirapara]

Im also in this meeting

Its great great chance to know new thing’s about local guide community

And we celebrated the fifth birthday of Connect. To join in the commemoration,

[FaridTDF]

Un gran encuentro @ErmesT

[Zuhralc]

Grazie Mille per i complimenti Signore @ErmesT

[Leonsomrat6392]

Thanks for organizing such a great accessibility Meet-Up with the accessibility champions.

It had a great experience with you all.

Keep sharing and caring accessibility!

Happy Guiding!

[AdrianLunsong]

Well done @EmekaUlor @Zuhralc for hosting this webinar!! And also huge thanks to your guests: @ermest @Tejal @FaridTDF @AnshukMitra and @ShafiulB! You all do such amazing work with accessibility !!