My Word!

By Raymond D. Cohen

Many of our readers are familiar with Access Place, the organization which, for the last two years, has been the home of ABILITIES magazine and has served as a branch office to the Foundation on Independent Living and the Neil Squire Foundation.

Sadly, due to today’s fiscal realities, Access Place officially closed its doors as of March 31, 1996. While it served the needs of many individuals and organizations during its tenure, Access Place received much less public and private support than was necessary to
keep it going. The organization simply could no longer shoulder the financial strain it was under. On the brighter side, however, the groups which resided within Access Place WILL carry on.

The Canadian Abilities Foundation has found a new home. The Foundation on Independent Living and the Neil Squire Foundation will be consolidated at their respective head-office locations. It is also important to note that some of the most valued components of Access Place, such as the Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) Job Bank and the information holdings on barrier-free design, will be relocated at new sites and will continue to serve the needs of people with disabilities.

Similarly, other useful attributes of Access Place, namely the accessible furniture donated by Herman Miller Canada and the computer technology provided through the support of IBM, will continue to serve the needs of people with disabilities within other organizations. The board of directors of Access Place would also like to thank all of our other sponsors, contributors and collaborators. We think it important for you to know that your generosity directly impacted the lives of about 5,000 people with disabilities throughout the course of Access Place’s activities.

Once more, National Access Awareness Week is just around the corner. This year, NAAW extends from May 2 to June 2. And, even though available resources are somewhat diminished from previous years, many communities across Canada are still rising to the occasion. With the overall message of "Access the Future" applied to the six major issue areas of Transportation, Housing, Employment, Recreation, Education and Communication, there is plenty of room for people and organizations to get involved and do what must be done to ensure progress within each of these vital categories.

This year, the Status of Persons with Disabilities Secretariat (SDPS) is joining the ranks of the other corporate sponsors (Air Canada, Canadian National, Canada Post, CTV and the Royal Bank) and is providing continuing support to ensure that value-packed programs such as the Student Awards Program and Face to Face carry on. The Student Awards Program, through the generosity of NAAW’s corporate partners, provides financial support to students with disabilities seeking higher education across Canada. Face to Face continues to be a successful mentoring program. It is a partnership of SDPS, local Human Resource Centres, community employment agencies, and both large corporations and small businesses, and is also supported by the NAAW corporate partners. More about NAAW on page 25 of this issue. National Coordinator Launel Scott may be reached at 1-888-808- NAAW (6229).

In addition to NAAW ’96, there are some other wonderful opportunities coming right up. Don’t miss this year’s People in Motion Exhibition in Toronto, May 31 and June 1. Those of you who have experienced People in Motion in previous years need no convincing -- you’ll be there to check out the widest array of products, services and opportunities outside of ABILITIES magazine :-) But, for those of you who have yet to make the sojourn to this remarkable event -- this is the year to do it!

While at People in Motion, be sure to drop by and say hello at the Canadian Abilities Foundation booth. We’ll introduce you to our neighbours, the good folks from the Status of Disabled Persons Secretariat’s National Clearinghouse on Disability Issues -- and, with them, the Integrated Network of Disability Information and Education (Indie)! Make sure you drop by and check out a live, on-line demonstration of Indie. Indie has completed its beta-testing stage and is exploding into cyberspace in earnest. With 1,700 disability links already in place, and a host of other information and communication opportunities standing by, Indie has already become the most exciting disability resource on the Internet. Check it out at http://indie.ca.

We at the Canadian Abilities Foundation are proud of our affinity with Indie. If you are a business, you need a web site developed and/or you want to join the most amazing disability resource in cyberspace, get in touch with us at Abilities and we’ll show you how to do it.

Lastly, you may wish to make a note of our new contact information for your rolodex. Have a good summer!

Canadian Abilities Foundation
489 College Street, Suite 501, Toronto, ON M6G 1A5
Tel.: (416) 923-1885, Fax: (416) 923-9829
E-mail: able@interlog.com
Web Site: http://indie.ca/abilities

(This issue is dedicated to the memory of Kim Miller -- friend, frequent contributor and "voice" of Abilities on audio cassette. Kim will be missed by many people within and outside of the community of people with disabilities.)