The City of Winkler has updated its Accessibility Plan to take it through the next two years.
A public survey last fall helped identify some of the areas of need in the community, shares assistant city manager and Winkler accessibility coordinator Wendy Klassen.
“A lot of the things [identified] were things that we continuously try to improve, like facility accessibility—there’s some buildings that lack ramps, elevators, automatic doors … as well as things like sidewalks and streets—uneven sidewalks provide a barrier for people that have mobility issues.
“Those are the kinds of things that we continue to work on,” Klassen said,” that we continue to improve, but it is good to re-hear them.”
The survey garnered results from 155 people who, in many cases, either live with mobility challenges themselves or are friends or family of someone who does.
And while some of the issues that came up are ones the city is well aware of and working on addressing, a few new things were brought up as well. For example, the lack of adult-sized changing stations in public restrooms, making it difficult for families with older children or adults requiring assistance to make full use of the facilities.
“It was something we’d never thought of,” Klassen said, noting it came up in multiple survey responses. “That reminded us of the importance of doing surveys and asking the community for their input, because we wouldn’t necessarily think of that.”
Forty per cent of respondents noted that they or someone they knew had found themselves unable to participate in a municipal program or activity due to the venue or surroundings being inaccessible.
“It’s certainly not what you want to hear,” Klassen acknowledged. “Definitely we would like to see that number come down, because we do try hard to make sure that our facilities and our programs and everything are something that everyone can participate in.”
The new action plan for 2025-2026 includes several initiatives designed to address a broad scope of barriers.
“We do continue to try to improve in all of those areas [of accessibility],” Klassen said, noting some projects are easier to tackle than others, given available funding and the age of some of the buildings in question.
“There’s things that are easier—like addressing our alarm systems for accessibility needs,” she said, explaining those upgrades will ensure people who are deaf or hard of hearing will be alerted with flashing lights in public spaces during an emergency when an audible alarm is sounding. “Something like that is a little more affordable, so that’s something we will be doing sooner, or have already started doing.”
Similarly, increasing the amount of Braille signage for the visually impaired also continues to be a priority in city-owned buildings.
Other action plan items include ensuring the City of Winkler website is as accessible as possible for those using alternate ways of accessing it (using auditory readers, for example), the ongoing assessment of the accessibility of park washrooms (a wheelchair-accessible port-a-potty was installed in Winkler Park last year and more are being considered elsewhere), ensuring new city management staff have accessibility training to better identify the barriers that may exist in their respective departments, and the continued addressing of uneven sidewalks and road surfaces throughout the city.
“We’ll continue to work on these things to try and make sure that we’re improving things,” Klassen said.
