January 15^th, 2005

Education Articles

Access Place Information Centre

Brings You The Facts!

by Judith Lytle

- "We have an employee in our workplace who has M.S. He is having trouble reaching the phone. Any ideas about a product out there that will help him now and as his needs change in the future?"
- "My physiotherapist has suggested that I install a hot tub or spa at home so I can enjoy the benefits of hydrotherapy. Is there anything out there that can be used in a home, is economical to heat, has a lid which is easily removed and is accessible? I really don�t want anything that requires an institutional-looking lift to get in and out."
- "My mother is recovering from a stroke and she will be coming home from the hospital soon. We want to renovate her home so that she can be safe and comfortable. Where do we start?"

These are just a few of the questions received at the Access Place Information Centre since it opened for business early in February of this year.

Located in the heart of downtown Toronto, Access Place Canada was developed through the combined efforts of the Barrier-Free Design Centre, the Neil Squire Foundation, the Canadian Abilities Foundation and the Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres. These four organizations have come together under one roof to provide their individual and combined services to persons interested in disability issues.

The Information Centre is a key component of Access Place. Using the existing library collection of technical information from the Barrier-Free Design Centre, the Information Centre has expanded this scope to meet the information needs of the other organizations in Access Place. Some of the growing areas of the library collection are technology, transportation, workplace accessibility and aids to daily living.

As the Manager of Information with the Barrier-Free Design Centre for four years, I had the opportunity to talk with many people and to provide answers to numerous technical -- and often not-so-technical --questions. With the opening of Access Place, the range of the queries has quickly broadened. We have had the good fortune of plenty of media coverage across the country. Calls and letters flood in every day.

It is our hope to provide answers to your questions easily. In the past, I have talked with many people who have become frustrated trying to find the right person or organization to help them. This should not be the case at Access Place. In the event that your questions cannot be answered by us, we will do our very best to put you in touch with the people who can help.

In these lean economic times we cannot afford to duplicate the collections of materials held in other information centres, nor do we want to. We can however, provide you with a link to the organizations that specialize in the fields which we do not.

COME ON IN!
The Information Centre is open for public use Monday through Friday, without appointment. Its downtown location makes it convenient for people to use the resources.

We are close to major college and university campuses so students can use the Information Centre to research upcoming projects. Educators can drop by to see the resources that are here for their students to use. Professionals in the design industry find it easy to drop in for an hour or two to research a tricky design problem. Government employees are finding the materials in the Information Centre very useful to augment what they have on hand and to discover new avenues to examine in accessibility issues. People in the health care profession can explore the realm of available new aids to daily living and where they can be obtained.

Even people from outside Toronto are finding the downtown location convenient to use: Go to the Eaton Centre for a little shopping, then pop up to Access Place for a lot of information.

We have a public access catalogue so you can easily browse through the materials in our library collection. Many of our materials are technical in nature, but we do have a variety of resources that will simply help you get ideas about where to start when planning to build or renovate a building, be it commercial or residential. We collect materials from across Canada as well as internationally, so if you need material on the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Accessibility Code for the City of Hong Kong, this is the place to start looking.

Our vertical file material is a very important addition to our main book collection. The material in the vertical file is gathered from magazines, periodicals, brochures and other documents. Much of the information is not available from other sources. We have gathered it together so that it will be available to you immediately, without your having to do a lot of research. We also collect information brochures from other organizations, locally and around the world, that focus on access issues.

The product information collection is growing every day. We stay abreast of new products that are suitable for use in an accessible environment. If you are looking for new choices in automatic door openers, roll-in showers or slip-proof flooring, your search can start here.

Our information is available for in-library use only, which means that you cannot borrow material to take home. However, what this also means is that the one book you require to complete your research will be available for you at the library when you need it, not out on loan to someone else. We have a photocopier on site with enlargement capabilities so you can copy important information to use at your home or office.

The newest collection of material available at the Information Centre is composed of videos. The videos are available to view in-library only at this time, but we hope to be able to provide our videos on a rental basis soon. We are in the process of creating a catalogue of our videos for you to explore. We also intend to provide back issues of periodicals such as ABILITIES in alternative format.

CAN�T COME IN?
...Contact us by phone, fax or mail! The Information Centre offers a variety of services for individuals who cannot make it into the centre to do research themselves. We have developed a number of inexpensive information packages answer some of your more popular questions. These are just a few of the packages available:
- General Residential Information
- Bathroom Design
- Kitchen Design
- Ramps
- Workplace Accessibility
- Retail Spaces
- Lifts and Elevators
- Hotel/Motels
- Restaurants
- Church and Synagogue Renovation
- Counters and Reception Desks
Most of these packages have been designed to provide you with general subject information. For people who need more specific information -- for example, workplace accessibility information for an employee who is blind -- the packages can be easily adjusted to your individual request.

Many times, our users are just beginning their research into accessible design or other issues. They have little idea of the scope of materials available to them. Often they need general information to start their research. This is the aim of our information packages. Our users can ask more specific questions as they become better informed.

OUR EQUIPMENT
We are aware that much of the valuable material on accessibility issues is available in print format only. This creates a barrier for people who have print disabilities. We have had the good fortune of donated equipment that makes printed material accessible to a larger number of people. Currently, the Information Centre is demonstrating the following technologies which make print and other visual materials more accessible:

Our public access catalogue is equipped with Zoom Text software so that the characters on the computer screen can be enlarged up to 800 per cent to aid people with low vision.

Also available is the Kurzweil Reading Edge. Using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, the Reading Edge scans print, recognizes text, converts texts to synthetic speech by means of a voice synthesizer called DecTalk, and reads it aloud. The Reading Edge gives people who are unable to read print access to materials not available in an alternate format.

Like the Reading Edge, the Reading Advantage utilizes the power of a PC and a scanner to scan text and convert it through a voice synthesizer.

We are equipped with an IBM Screen Reader 2 which allows a user to �navigate� the computer screen by having the different areas of the screen read back through a voice synthesizer.

Our closed-circuit television system enlarges print material and also enables the user to switch from dark text on a light screen to light text on a dark screen, whichever best suits their needs.

Our video collection contains many closed-captioned video cassettes for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. These video cassettes have subtitles which you can see with the help of a television decoder. We have a decoder available for you to use when you are viewing videos at the Information Centre. We also try to purchase open-captioned videos to add to our collection whenever possible.

YOU CAN HELP US!
There are many things you can do to help us provide information to others who are looking for material on accessibility issues. If you come across a particularly useful document in your research, let us know about it. If we don�t already have it in our collection, it might be something we want or need to add. I am always interested in receiving bibliographies from other individuals or organizations, particularly if they have been to a conference I was not able to attend. Recently, an individual who attended the 1993 National Symposium on Healthcare Design in Atlanta, Georgia provided me with bibliographies and resource lists which she picked up at the conference.

Have you found "just the right product" for your home or workplace? Let us know about it! Other people might benefit from your experience.

Have you seen a great video lately? If you have, let us know about it. It might be a title we need to add to our video collection.

Do you have back issues of journals that focus on accessibility issues and are destined to the nearest landfill site? Talk to us first! While we have numerous journals dating back many years, sometimes we are missing an issue. That magazine sitting in your basement right now might provide someone else with valuable information.

Mail us a copy of your organization�s brochure so that we can include it in our file of associations.

Most of all, use us! We are here to help you find the information you need to make smart decisions. Call us with your request at (416) 977-5157.

(Judith Lytle is Associate Manager of the Information Centre at Access Place Canada.)