In addition to other issues and projects that may arise during the coming term, members of the Access for Sight Impaired Consumers board will be concentrating on the following initiatives:
- While our primary objective will be to finalize our two outstanding human rights complaints against national pharmacy outlets, we will continue to encourage more regional and national pharmacy outlets to provide accessible prescription and OTC medication information in formats that are accessible to consumers with sight loss. Access for Sight-Impaired Consumers will also be addressing the unacceptable period of time that it is currently taking for pharmacies operating within stores owned and managed by the Overwaitea Food Group and London Drugs. For more details regarding Accessible Prescription Information, see the text under the header of the same name on our Current Initiatives page.
- Encourage the taxi industry in Metro Vancouver and throughout British Columbia to equip their fleets with a greater percentage of taxi meters with optional audio output. The Vancouver Taxi Association proudly introduced Canada’s first “talking meter” on December 5, 2014. Continued follow up of the Vancouver Taxi Association, the BC Taxi Association and directly with taxi companies themselves will be required if we are to achieve our goal.
- Promote the installation of universally accessible bus stops within the TransLink service arena. Bus stops which meet universally accessible guidelines provide the landmarks and tools for people who are blind, deafblind or sight impaired to independently and confidently identify the precise location to board public transit buses at a bus stop. Features to enhance accessibility for people with vision loss include color-contrasted tactile walking surface indicators (TWSI’s) embedded into the sidewalk at the base of the bus stop ID pole, accessible signage offering both tactile and braille formats and, in some cases, benches and/or bus shelters.
- Enhancing the municipal and provincial election process to be truly accessible such that voters with sight loss can mark their ballot without sighted assistance and verify their selection before depositing their ballot into the ballot box. Internet or telephone voting is our primary goal but other advanced technologies are available until such time as the former becomes a reality. For more information on this issue, visit the “Accessible Elections” header on our Current Initiatives page.